Week 4

Our lecture this week was on need analysis: requirement gathering.

What is need analysis and why do we need it?
Need analysis includes all the activities used to collect information about peoples learning needs and wants. A needs analysis can be very formal, extensive and time consuming, or it can be informal, narrowly focused and quick. Some of the resources that are used to collect information include; surveys, questionnaires and interviews. The information collected for the need analysis can be used to help define the goals of these people.
We need to identify the needs of our target group so we can than produce requirements.

So what are requirements?
Requirements are something that a person needs or wants. It helps propose the product that specifies its goals and tasks so we can accomplish them. A question which will help understand this is "How can a user interact with the product to achieve their goal?"

The next step is needs vs wants.
A need are things that are necessary for survival.
A want are things that are not necessary for survival (Raghu, 2015).
When we talk about needs and wants, we need to observe and record what our target audience needs and wants are.

So in order to find out their needs and wants you need to undergo data gathering. Data gathering is a systematic approach to gather information from a variety of sources to get a complete and accurate picture of the problem.
You can use multiple methods, but it is best to stick with qualitative methods. Qualitative methods include observations, interviews and focus groups to name a few.

The steps to follow when you are wanting to gather information.
Preparation is the first step. Preparation involves observing and interviewing your target group. You need to have a clear idea on what you intend to investigate.

Preparation: approach. These are a few methods for data gathering and analysis

• Observe
• What users say is important
• Contextual enquiry
• Interviews
• Focus groups 
• Analyse

Observe: Observing your target group is important, this is when you find out the problems they are facing without having to acknowledge them. 

Contextual enquiry: Thinking out loud. this is where you sit down with a user and encourage them to verbalise what they are thinking. There is no right or wrong way of doing this. 

Interviews: Have a plan and be specific. Make sure you keep the interview open to different directions. At the end always ask them if they have anything else they feel is important to say. Always record interviews. 

Focus groups: These groups need to have at least 3 people and it is important to use a mix of target users. Always starts with specific questions than slowly move to more open ended questions.

Analyse: Compile collected data in numerical, textual and AV databases. Prepare a report and present findings.

The lecture was finished with our homework for the week. Our homework this week, we had to refine our selected idea for an app. Review how it addresses identified problem of the target users. Making sure we investigate if the target users find a need for proposed idea. Than based on the data list requirements of my proposed solution prepare a short write up listing; methods and methodology used, how my idea conformed to users needs.

So when I observed 1st year university students, I found that they have a problem in time management between studies and socialising. When observing I noticed that they would always choose to party, or get togethers with friends and leave their work to the last minute. My app idea is to encourage these students to study before party, in a cool, fun type of way. My app will have a spot where you can add your timetable and dates for assignments into like a calendar, and you will be reminded when you have class and assignments due. Added to the app will be a points system, so if you go to class you will receive points depending on how long your class is. You will also receive points when submitting an assignment, and more points if you submit it with plenty of time in advance. These points will add up and when you get to 20 points you are allowed to attend a socialising event, or a night out. If you miss classes and don't hand in assignments, your points will deduct. The app also keeps the points you have earned and when 50 points is up you get a food voucher.
This app encourages students to do their studies before their socialising and when doing a good enough job you will receive food vouchers, as we all know everybody loves food.
I interviewed my roommates as they are all first year university students and they gave me positive feedback on my app idea and said they would definitely use it.

In class we were each given time with the teacher to talk about our ideas, and he gave us feedback on what direction to go in and how we could fix up any problems we were facing.

Bibliography
Gudue, Raghavendra. (2015). 9291 User interface and experience. Lecture 3, week 4: Need analysis: requirement gathering [Powerpoint slides]

Casper, A. (2003). Need analysis. Retrieved from

http://linguistics.byu.edu/resources/volunteers/TESOLBYU_NeedsAnalysis.htm