Week 2: Understanding The User Needs

 Starting your university life is thrilling, but for many freshmen and other students, it quickly becomes overwhelming. They encounter countless questions about enrollment, schedules, and scholarships, often struggling to find clear and timely answers.

After conducting interviews with multiple university students, we found that Ingrid Karoline, Mauree, and Gutierrez provided particularly insightful perspectives on the challenges students face. Their experiences highlight key issues that many students encounter when navigating university life.


University Students

In our first week of techno-entrepreneurship research, we identified key pain points for 3rd-year computer science students at USTP. They struggle to balance intensive coursework, programming projects, and internship preparation while dealing with inefficient university administrative processes. Long wait times for simple queries, difficulty navigating the university website for critical information, and inconsistent responses about thesis registration and lab access add to their frustration. Limited office hours further disrupt their schedules, making it harder to manage academic and technical commitments.



Ingrid Karoline – The Freshman Perspective

Ingrid Karoline, a first-year university student, shared her struggles with getting the right information at the right time. One of her biggest concerns was accessibility. University offices operate during limited hours, making it difficult to get answers without disrupting her class schedule. She expressed frustration at waiting in long lines only to be redirected to another department or told to check a website that often didn’t have the clarity she needed.

She also mentioned that, as a newcomer, she felt lost when trying to navigate the school’s different platforms for academic concerns. The lack of centralized, student-friendly resources meant she had to rely on upperclassmen or social media groups, where the information wasn’t always reliable.


Gutierrez – A Call for Better Information Systems

Gutierrez, another university student, highlighted the inefficiencies in how information is disseminated. She noted that universities tend to rely on outdated communication methods, such as bulletin boards and email announcements that many students overlook.

She also observed that while staff members try to be helpful, they often have different interpretations of policies, which results in mixed messages. She wished for a system where all student concerns—whether about enrollment, schedules, or scholarships—could be answered in one reliable place, eliminating the frustration of misinformation.


Key Takeaways

From these interviews, we identified three major problem areas:

  1. Accessibility Issues – Students struggle to reach university offices due to limited operating hours and long wait times.
  2. Lack of Clarity – University websites and resources are often filled with jargon, making it hard to find simple answers.
  3. Inconsistency in Information – Different sources provide conflicting details, causing confusion and mistrust in official university channels.





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