The University of Florida is unable to provide enough parking spaces for the number of parking passes they sell each year.
The who: University of Florida
The what: There are not enough spaces for people who purchased parking spots
The why: The University sold too many parking passes
Testing the who: Students and faculty of the university have this problem.
Testing the what: Boundaries for the challenge include space and funding. Where will the extra parking be located? Where will it fit on the campus? Is there enough funding from the University?
Testing the why: The range of why for this issue could be that they do not regulate the number of parking passes sold. Some people who buy the passes early enough should be able to park always. What about the others who also have a pass too? For the most part, the why identifies for everyone.
For this exercise, I interviewed 5 people: Meaghan Norus, Isabella Dohse, DJ Kerwin, Caroline Cash and Ben Latinberg. All five students believe that parking is a huge issue on UF's campus. 4 out of 5 of these students had to purchase scooters to combat the parking problem, but say they still face issues with scooter parking as well. Isabella and Caroline both live in their Sorority house and said in the area parking and especially hard. People are always circling the Red One spots for almost 30 minutes to an hour on any given day. Ben and Meghan live off campus and don't ever bring their cars onto campus. That is the reason they bought scooters because they live too far from their classes to walk. The closer to campus, the more expensive, so students are left not having many options. DJ is the only one out of the five that used to take the bus before he got his scooter. He said the bus isn't that bad but takes a very long time. He said you may as well walk if you are contemplating it because of all of the stops the bus has to make.
Overall, all five different interviews made me realize even more that parking is an issue on this campus. Students should not have to buy a scooter to get around our campus. People should be able to get in their car and park if they have paid for it. I believe that there is an opportunity to make more students and people effected happier. I think that with the growing size of this campus, more parking is a necessity.
Remi,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job articulating the parking problem from the perspective of the people that suffers the problem the most: students of the University of Florida. My first recommendation would be to narrow your “who.” I would think “the students” is too narrow, though. Think of who else might suffer from limited parking: visitors? Professors? Which brings me to my second suggestion: you focused only on students, but the opportunity might be broader. I would recommend you try to capture other stakeholder’s point of view in future interviews to construct a more complete picture of the problem that might help you design a better product. You of course can decide to focus only on students, but even if you do so, I would recommend to understand other market segment as well, before deciding that you will only target the students segment.
Hey Remi,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did an excellent job choosing a topic that relates that most college students and more specifically, students in this course. Parking is very limited on campus, and interviewing students to see their views may spark ideas as to how to fix this issue. I think if you interviewed a member of UF faculty instead of interviewing just five students, this would have given you even more perspective on the issue of parking on campus. Overall, great job!
Hey Remi! I have never understood why the University insists on selling more parking passes than spots in the parking lots. It seems that people you interviewed shared the same thoughts. Students have to find other means of transportation because there is not enough parking, even after they have spent the money on a parking decal.
ReplyDeleteRemi,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the parking situation here at the University of Florida is not as adequate as you would expect from a Top 10 University in this day and age. It definitely seems like you gathered a lot of diverse opinions about this topic. I found it surprising how this issue has effected such a wide variety of people. That aspect of your post adds a lot of validity that this issue is more of a problem than one might anticipate. Good post, can't wait to see where you go with this opportunity