Micro Sprint 2 - Moviles-G23-20262/General-Wiki GitHub Wiki

Micro Sprint 2: Problem Identification & Insights

Course: ISIS-3510 - Mobile Application Development
Submission Date: 15 August, 2026

<- Back to Home

1. Selected Problems

Following our collaborative brainstorming dynamic and team consensus, we selected four main problem statements from the course board to explore:

  1. Marketplace: (Assigned to: Andrés & Carla)

    "In the university communities there is usually a waste of resources, (i.e.) the academic materials required for the courses. Since frequently, these are bought for a class and once the course is over, they are never used again and instead they are kept and forgotten or thrown away. Additionally, it is sometimes hard to find these resources and buying them brand-new can be very expensive and many students are willing to use second-hand materials provided by their peers. The existing marketplaces do not provide the required alternatives to find the specific elements for the courses, at least not to the extent at which a university community itself can. Currently used alternatives, such as groups in social networks are not organized nor trustworthy enough."

  2. Second Hand: (Assigned to: Sabrina)

    "The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, most of the clothes people use end up in landfills which can be really contaminating. Many times, the disposed items are still in good conditions, and can be used more times. Giving them to the right people or institutions to be reused can help reduce the contamination problem. This issue could be solved by connecting people who want to get rid of clothes with charities who can reuse or repurpose them. By knowing the right places and information more people can participate in helping alleviate the problem."

  3. Parking Lots: (Assigned to: Daniel)

    "It's well known that Los Andes University's parking lots are limited, all potential users (specially students), have to make long lines and wait tens of minutes for being able to park inside the only parking lot that this institution has. One of the biggest problems is not knowing when a parking lot is free, if are they full or what's the approximate time in line for getting a place to park. Knowing the actual situation, if the potential users of the parking lot could get real time information about the parking lot state, statistics about it or even make a reservation, lots of problems related with it could be solved."

  4. City Recycling Points: (Assigned to: Angie & Santiago)

    "There are a lot of different residues that can be recycled when properly disposed. In Bogota there are several points for recycling from cables and technology wastes, to tetrapack®, or even light bulbs, yet people rarely know about them. An application that shows these locations and finds the closest one to the current location could be interesting for addressing this issue. Bonus points if you get some tips on how to properly recycle and dispose different residues."

2. Interviews & Insights (What, How, Why, Who)

Below are the key insights gathered from individual user interviews conducted to validate our problem hypotheses:

Interview: City Recycling Points

# Question Purpose
1 "What is your name, how old are you, and what is your current occupation?" Get to know the interviewee. Break the ice and gather basic demographic and background data.
2 "Have you ever tried to recycle or properly dispose of any of these special items? Could you walk me through the last time you did so?" Understand real behavior. Anchor the research in concrete, recent past actions rather than theoretical intentions.
3 "What motivated you to find a proper disposal method instead of simply throwing it in the regular trash?" Identify motivations. Uncover intrinsic drivers, environmental values, and triggers behind sustainable habits.
4 "How did you go about finding the recycling point or facility to drop off these materials?" Map existing alternatives. Identify the current channels, tools, and workarounds the user relies on to locate drop-off bins.
5 "Did you encounter any frustrations, friction, or obstacles during the process of locating a drop-off point or delivering the materials?" Identify pain points. Discover frictions, barriers, and negative experiences in the current journey.
6 "When you are unsure of where to go, what do you typically do to resolve that uncertainty?" Understand fallback strategies. Discover how the user solves lack of information or if they abandon the task.
7 "If you could change just one thing about how citizens find recycling drop-off points in Bogotá today, what would it be?" Prioritize unmet needs. Pinpoint the user's primary friction and most critical area for improvement.
8 "We are exploring the concept of a mobile application that maps the exact locations of these drop-off points and guides you to the nearest one. Based on your experience, what key features or information would you expect from such a platform?" Explore requirements. Validate the value proposition and identify key features expected in a digital solution.
9 "Would you realistically adopt and use an app like this over your current methods? Why or why not?" Validate adoption intent. Assess willingness to switch from current habits to a dedicated mobile app.
  • Insights:
Situation What? How? Why?
1. Disposing of Expired Medicines Samuel kept a set of expired medications at home and actively searched online to find a specialized disposal drop-off point rather than throwing them into the trash or toilet. He acted conscientiously and carefully, investing personal time to browse the internet to locate the nearest official collection point. He firmly believes hazardous residues do not belong in common trash and understands the hidden ecological damage caused by improper disposal.
2. Finding Broken and Misused Collection Points When Samuel traveled to identified physical drop-off locations, he discovered several bins were non-existent, damaged, or being misused as ordinary trash cans. He experienced frustration, annoyance, and skepticism upon seeing that the points found online were either unmaintained or neglected in practice. Existing platforms lack verified, real-time maintenance and monitoring, causing citizens to lose trust in urban waste infrastructure.
3. Dealing with Unethical E-Waste Handlers When trying to recycle electronic devices, Samuel discovered that some collection services charged fees to pick up items only to dump them as standard garbage. He felt disappointed and distrustful, rejecting services that disguise common disposal as specialized recycling practices. He expects transparency and accountability in recycling pipelines so that collected materials are genuinely reused and recovered.
4. Envisioning a Real-Time Drop-off Platform Samuel envisions an application providing updated drop-off locations, showing accepted item types, real-time capacity, and exact indoor placement (e.g., specific mall floor). He engaged constructively and optimistically, clearly articulating functional requirements that would streamline the citizen recycling experience. He wants to eliminate the friction of searching blind and ensure drop-off bins have available space before leaving home.

Interview: Special Waste Disposal Points

  • Interviewers: Santiago Bernal

  • Interviewee: Alejandra (21, Software Engineering Student )

  • Question Bank:

# Question Purpose
1 "Before we start, is it okay with you if I record the conversation? Great — to begin, could you tell me a little about yourself?" Obtain consent and get to know the interviewee. Confirm agreement to record, break the ice, and gather basic demographic and background data.
2 "Tell me a bit about your household — who lives there, and who usually handles the trash and recycling?" Understand the household context. Identify who lives there and who is responsible for managing waste and recycling day to day.
3 "Walk me through what happens to your waste on a normal day. Where does it go?" Understand real behavior. Anchor the research in the concrete, everyday waste routine rather than theoretical intentions.
4 "Think of the last time you had to get rid of something like a dead battery, an old phone or charger, a burnt-out light bulb, or a Tetra Pak carton. What did you do with it?" Anchor in a recent, concrete action. Capture how the user handled a real special-waste item in the recent past.
5 "How did you decide that was the right thing to do? Are you sure?" Identify motivations and confidence. Uncover the reasoning and the level of certainty behind the disposal decision.
6 "Are there things you keep around because you're not sure how to get rid of them? Tell me about them." Surface hidden friction. Detect items that get stuck at home due to uncertainty about proper disposal.
7 "Do you know of any recycling drop-off points near you? How did you find out about them?" Map existing alternatives. Identify the current channels, places, and tools the user relies on to locate drop-off points.
8 "What usually gets in the way? (Not knowing where / too far / no time / not sure it really gets recycled / something else?)" Identify pain points. Discover the frictions, barriers, and doubts in the current disposal journey.
9 "How much does distance matter? Would you go out of your way, or does it need to be on a route you already take?" Understand effort tolerance. Assess how much detour or inconvenience the user is willing to accept to recycle.
10 "Imagine an app where you pick a material and it shows the nearest place to drop it off, with directions. How, if at all, would that fit into your life?" Explore requirements and fit. Validate the value proposition and understand how the solution would fit into the user's routine.
11 "Beyond location, would tips on how to prepare each material (clean it, remove the cap, tape the battery terminals) be valuable — or is that too much?" Test additional features. Gauge the value of preparation guidance as a complementary feature to location mapping.
12 "What would stop you from using something like this?" Identify adoption barriers. Uncover the obstacles that would prevent real, sustained use of the proposed app.
13 "Is there anything I didn't ask about that you think matters here?" Capture additional insights. Give the interviewee an open opportunity to raise anything the questions did not cover.
  • Insights:
Situation What? How? Why?
1. Disposing of a Dead Phone Battery When her phone battery stopped working, the interviewee did not know where to dispose of it, so she searched online and found a battery recycling bin at Jumbo, where she took it to dispose of it safely. She acted conscientiously, investing personal time to search online before acting, and only committed once she had located an official, safe collection point. She wanted to be sure she was disposing of a hazardous item properly rather than tossing it in the regular trash, and the online research gave her the confidence that she was doing the right thing.
2. The Two-Bag Household Recycling Routine The interviewee's household separates waste into a black bag for non-recyclable waste and a white bag for recyclables, taking the bags out on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The whole family participates in separating waste, while her mom usually handles taking the trash out, following a fixed, established weekly schedule. Recycling is treated as a shared household habit and civic routine, so separation happens by default for ordinary waste — even if special items still fall outside this system.
3. Discovering Drop-off Points Online and by Chance She knows of several drop-off points: a battery collection point and reward-based plastic-bottle recycling machines at Jumbo, and similar recycling points at Universidad de los Andes. She discovered these points partly through online searches and partly by noticing them in person while she happened to be at those places. There is no single reliable source for finding drop-off points, so the user depends on a mix of active searching and lucky in-person discovery, which leaves her knowledge incomplete and location-dependent.
4. Reacting to the Proposed App Concept The interviewee said she would use an app that maps the nearest drop-off point mostly for specific, occasional situations (like the phone battery), not as a daily app, and she valued added tips on how to prepare each material before recycling. She engaged thoughtfully and honestly, imagining realistic scenarios of use while openly admitting that being in a hurry or feeling lazy could stop her from using it. She sees the value clearly for rare, high-uncertainty moments but not for routine waste, and she is willing to take only a small detour — so convenience and low effort are decisive for real adoption.

Interview: Second Hand

  • Interviewer: Sabrina Noguera

  • Interviewee: Anna (21 years old, Mechanical Engineering Student)

  • Question Bank:

# Question Purpose
1 "Just to let you know this interview is being recorded. Is that okay for you?" Obtain consent. Confirm that the interviewee agrees to the recording before starting the interview.
2 "So if you want, we can start with a little presentation of who you are." Get to know the interviewee. Create an initial introduction and gather basic information about the participant.
3 "Have you ever bought or sold a secondhand item? And can you tell me about the last time you did it?" Understand real behavior. Identify whether the participant has experience with second-hand transactions and anchor the interview in a specific, recent experience rather than hypothetical behavior.
4 "So you have never sold any item?" Clarify the participant's experience. Determine whether her experience is limited to buying or whether she has also participated as a seller.
5 "What made you decide to buy this secondhand item instead of buying new?" Identify motivations. Understand the factors that influenced the decision to purchase second-hand rather than new, such as price, convenience, and sustainability.
6 "When, how did you find the item that you bought?" Map the discovery process. Identify where and how the participant encountered the second-hand item she eventually purchased.
7 "How did you communicate with her?" Understand buyer-seller communication. Discover how the buyer initially contacts the seller and how availability is confirmed.
8 "How was the process of the payment and delivery of the item that you bought?" Map the transaction process. Understand how payment and physical delivery are handled between students.
9 "What do you like about using those WhatsApp groups?" Identify strengths of the current solution. Discover which aspects of WhatsApp make the existing second-hand buying experience useful, convenient, or easy.
10 "Are they from the university?" Understand the current community. Determine whether the WhatsApp groups are university-specific or include a broader community.
11 "Is there anything frustrating or any inconvenience about the process that you made from buying the clothes?" Identify pain points. Discover frustrations, barriers, and negative experiences in the current second-hand purchasing process.
12 "And how is the security of the group? Is there only people from the university there?" Assess security and trust. Understand how controlled the groups are and whether users feel that participation is restricted to university members.
13 "If you could change one thing about the way students currently buy and sell secondhand items at the university, what would you change?" Prioritize unmet needs. Identify the single change the participant considers most valuable for improving the current experience.
14 "Based on your experience, what would you expect from a platform like that?" Explore product requirements. Identify the characteristics and features the participant would expect from a dedicated University of Los Andes second-hand marketplace.
15 "And would you actually use it instead of WhatsApp, another platform?" Validate adoption intent. Determine whether the participant would realistically switch from WhatsApp or other existing channels to a dedicated platform.
16 "Do you maybe want to add something else today?" Capture additional insights. Give the participant an open opportunity to mention anything relevant that was not covered by the previous questions.
  • Insights:
Situation What? How? Why? Who?
1. Choosing Second-Hand Clothing Anna decided to buy second-hand clothes instead of buying new after finding an item she liked in a WhatsApp group. She browsed photos of clothes posted by another student and contacted the seller directly to check if the item was still available. She values second-hand clothing because it is cheaper and easy to purchase, while also helping prevent clothes from becoming waste. 21-year-old female university student studying Mechanical Engineering. She is price-conscious and environmentally aware, and looks for convenient ways to buy clothing.
2. Coordinating the Exchange After deciding to buy the clothing, Anna had to arrange a meeting with the seller to receive the item and pay for it. They had to coordinate around their different class schedules. Ana eventually went to the seller's class, waited outside, and the seller left class to give her the item. Although the purchase itself was easy, coordinating a time when both students were available created friction in the process. 21-year-old female university student with a busy class schedule. She is willing to adapt her schedule to complete a purchase but finds coordinating with another student's availability inconvenient.
3. Dealing with WhatsApp Information Overload Anna experiences difficulty browsing second-hand items because WhatsApp groups contain many notifications and repeated posts. Sellers repeatedly post the same items because messages are refreshed every 24–48 hours, causing items to get lost among the large number of messages. The current WhatsApp structure creates information saturation and makes it difficult for buyers to find specific items they are interested in. 21-year-old female university student who actively uses WhatsApp groups to browse second-hand items. She becomes annoyed when repeated posts and constant notifications make it difficult to find items.
4. Looking for a More Organized and Secure Platform Anna would prefer a dedicated platform where she can search for second-hand items in a more organized and secure environment. She wants items to be categorized so she can specifically look for what she wants instead of searching through daily messages. She also expects better control over who can access the platform. She believes better organization would make the buying experience easier and would use the platform instead of WhatsApp if it were easy to access and secure. 21-year-old female university student who is comfortable using digital platforms to buy second-hand items. She values organization, easy access, and security, and is open to replacing WhatsApp with a dedicated university platform.

Interview's Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pPxVTe-EaAQIeEs4MeLF9CrtZoql1yMy/view?usp=sharing

Interview: Marketplace

  • Interviewers: Andrés
  • Interviewee: Isabella (A student of Audiovisual Communication in Universidad de La Sabana)

These are the questions that were asked, along with the intention of each:

# Question Purpose
1 “Think about the courses you’ve taken recently. Have you ever bought a book, calculator, lab material, supplies, or any other academic resource that you barely used after the course ended?” Understand the problem. Establish whether the waste of academic resources actually happens to her.
2 “What did you do with those things after you finished the course?” Clarify the current behavior. Find out whether she keeps, throws away, sells, gives away, or stores them.
3 “Have you ever needed a resource for a course and tried to get it second-hand from another student? How did you look for it?” Understand the alternative. Discover whether there is already demand for second-hand academic materials and what channels students use.
4 “How did that experience go? What made it easy or difficult to find and get what you needed?” Identify pain points. Look for problems such as difficulty finding specific materials, unreliable sellers, lack of information, coordination, or trust.
5 “Have you ever tried to sell or give away something from a course to another student? If so, how did you find someone interested?” Validate the other side of the marketplace. Your app needs both people looking for materials and people who have materials they no longer need.
6 “If there were a marketplace exclusively for students at your university where you could buy, sell, or exchange course materials, what would you need from it for you to actually use it?” Explore requirements. Identify features or characteristics that would make the proposed solution useful and trustworthy.
  • Insights:
Situation What? How? Why? Who?
1. The Unused Economics Calculator Isabella bought a calculator for an introduction to economics class, but she barely used it. It is currently just laying around in her bedroom. She behaved practically by bringing it to class, but she ultimately defaulted to her smartphone. The situation negatively resulted in an abandoned purchase taking up space. She was already very accustomed to using the calculator app on her phone, making it much more convenient and familiar than learning to use the physical one. Isabella, a 22-year-old Communication student at the University of La Sabana who is reliant on her daily technology.
2. Relying on Siblings for Materials Isabella does not usually try to get second-hand academic resources from other students. Instead, she acquires materials like calculators and books directly from her siblings. She acts resourcefully, experiencing a positive situation where she can easily obtain necessary items without the stress or effort of searching for strangers to buy from. She has many siblings, which provides her with a convenient, built-in network for reusing academic materials that have already been purchased by her family. Isabella, a 22-year-old student who benefits from being part of a family with multiple siblings.
3. Failing to Sell a French Book Isabella attempted to sell a second-hand French book but was unable to do so. The students she found who actually needed the book preferred to buy it brand new instead. She likely experienced frustration, as she put effort into finding a buyer but was negatively impacted by a lack of demand for her specific used item. Buyers may have lacked trust in the condition of a used language workbook, or they simply had the budget and preference for a brand-new, unmarked copy for their studies. Isabella, a proactive university student attempting to recoup the costs of her past course materials.
4. Imagining an Ideal Marketplace Isabella suggests a university marketplace must clearly show item conditions—such as whether they are new, old, or stained with marker. She also states items should be classified by academic programs, like a dedicated section for Communication. She thinks analytically and practically, positively engaging with the concept by visualizing a highly organized, user-friendly, and transparent digital platform. She wants to avoid the inefficiency of scrolling through irrelevant items from other majors, and she needs visual proof to guarantee the quality of the items before committing to a purchase. Isabella, a pragmatic Communication student who values efficiency, organization, and clear categorization.

You can find the complete audio here

You can also find the complete transcribe here

Interview: Parking near Campus

# Question Purpose
1 "Tell me how often do you drive to campus?" Understand commute frequency. Establish a baseline for how heavily the user relies on driving as their primary mode of transportation.
2 "Walk me through your typical morning routine when you drive to the campus... how is the flow of it?" Map the user journey. Discover the step-by-step process, from early morning driving conditions to the bottleneck upon arrival.
3 "Which parking lots do you normally use near the campus of the university and why those and not others?" Identify current solutions. Learn which infrastructure the user prefers and the specific criteria (price, quality, recommendations) driving that choice.
4 "Tell me about a specific time when it's hard for you to find parking?" Pinpoint extreme pain points. Anchor the interview in a specific memory of frustration to uncover the reality of peak hour congestion.
5 "What do you do in that situation... you are searching for more, you don't find it. What do you do?" Understand fallback strategies. Discover the tools (like Waze) and workarounds the user relies on when their primary plan fails.
6 "What do you feel when... going far away from campus... have you ever considered the safety of your car or your belongings?" Uncover emotional friction. Explore the underlying anxieties related to vehicle damage and personal security in unfamiliar areas.
7 "Has a parking lot ever surprised you with their price, in a good way or a bad way?" Evaluate financial friction. Understand the user's price sensitivity and the frustration caused by unpredictable rates.
8 "When you left your keys in a parking lot... how do you feel about that, do you do it on a regular basis?" Assess trust and risk tolerance. Identify how users manage control over their property and their willingness to trust third-party attendants.
9 "Have you ever used an app or method to check the availability of parking before leaving home?" Map existing alternatives. Determine if the user is already seeking out proactive, tech-based solutions for their commute.
10 "When you arrive to the university, do you ask someone to check... or you just go there and then you cry a little because you know that it's already full?" Identify process failures. Highlight the "blind search" problem where users only discover a lack of availability upon physical arrival.
11 "If you could know just one thing before leaving home related to parking, what would it be?" Prioritize unmet needs. Uncover the single most valuable piece of information that a future digital solution should provide.
  • Insights:
Situation What? How? Why?
1. Navigating Morning Traffic to Primary Lots José drives to campus daily for 6:00 a.m. classes, aiming for the SD building or Tequendama lots, but frequently encounters massive bottlenecks upon arrival. He experiences a smooth initial commute through the city, but is forced to wait in long, stressful lines just to access the immediate campus vicinity. Demand vastly outpaces supply at university-owned and highly recommended lots, creating a daily rush for limited, affordable spots.
2. Resolving Parking Scarcity at Peak Times When his preferred lots are completely full, José is forced to scramble to find alternative parking spots further away from the campus. He frantically uses navigation apps like Waze to locate nearby alternatives, and in extreme cases, is forced to park illegally on the street. There is no centralized, real-time system to route drivers to available spots, forcing them into a reactive, stressful "blind search."
3. Managing Security Risks and Valet Handovers José frequently has to park in unfamiliar, distant lots where he is required to leave his car keys with attendants. He acts highly defensive by emptying his car of valuables, putting everything in his backpack, and worrying all day about potential vehicle damage. Parking far away in insecure areas of Bogotá naturally triggers anxiety, and leaving keys removes his sense of control over his property.
4. Dealing with Unpredictable Pricing José faces drastic price variations across different parking lots, sometimes paying up to 25k compared to a standard 15k. He feels surprised, frustrated, and financially strained when forced into a more expensive lot just to make it to class on time. The lack of transparent, standardized pricing in the area means students are at the mercy of whatever lot happens to have an open space.
5. Searching for Pre-Trip Information José wishes he could know the exact real-time availability of parking spaces and traffic conditions before he even leaves his house. He currently drives to the university relying purely on luck and routine, often resulting in wasted time and the frustration of arriving at a full lot. Without predictive data or a live tracking platform, students cannot make informed decisions about when to leave or where to route their cars.

Interview's Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12FiuQvRY6tK3IexeOHrA0kiI32Am-Ysx?usp=share_link

  • Interviewers: Carla
  • Interviewees:
    • Frequent Buyer: Maria, Universidad de los Andes student who occasionally buys online and uses marketplaces to compare options and prices
    • Occasional Seller: Pedro, Person who has sold personal items through digital platforms

Question Bank Frequent Buyer

# Question Purpose
1 "How often do you buy products through marketplaces?" Establish behavior frequency. Anchor the interview in real purchasing habits rather than hypothetical interest.
2 "What is the first thing you check when you find a product that interests you?" Map the evaluation sequence. Identify which signals the buyer prioritizes and in what order when assessing a listing.
3 "What problems have you had buying in marketplaces?" Identify pain points. Surface concrete frictions and negative experiences in the current buying journey.
4 "What makes you trust a seller?" Understand trust drivers. Uncover the positive signals that reduce perceived risk before committing to a purchase.
5 "What generates distrust in you?" Understand risk signals. Identify the red flags that cause a buyer to abandon a listing.
6 "How important is it to be able to compare different products?" Assess comparison needs. Measure how central price/quality comparison is to the decision process.
7 "What information would you like to find more easily?" Explore requirements. Pinpoint the data buyers currently have to hunt for and would expect a platform to surface.
8 "If you could change one thing about current marketplaces, what would you change?" Prioritize unmet needs. Isolate the single most critical improvement from the buyer's point of view.

Question Bank Occasional Seller

# Question Purpose
1 "How often do you sell products in marketplaces?" Establish seller profile. Determine whether selling is occasional or habitual, and what triggers it.
2 "What difficulties do you find when publishing a product?" Identify listing friction. Understand the effort required to create a complete, competitive publication.
3 "What questions do you get most often?" Detect repetitive workload. Reveal which information gaps force sellers into redundant conversations.
4 "What makes it difficult to make a sale?" Identify conversion barriers. Surface the behaviors that waste seller time without closing a transaction.
5 "How important is the seller's reputation?" Validate reputation mechanics. Confirm whether sellers perceive reputation as a real driver of sales.
6 "What information would you like the platform to show about buyers?" Explore two-sided trust. Test whether trust signals are needed in the buyer→seller direction as well.
7 "What would you improve about the sales process?" Explore requirements. Identify the features that would reduce the operational burden of selling.
8 "What would make you use a marketplace platform more?" Validate adoption intent. Determine the conditions under which the seller would switch to or increase use of a platform.

Insights

Situation What? How? Why? Who?
1. Comparing Multiple Listings Before Buying The buyer opens several publications at the same time whenever she is looking for something specific, reviewing price, characteristics and opinions across all of them before deciding. She works manually and methodically, keeping parallel tabs open and mentally collecting scattered data to build her own comparison of price, quality and delivery conditions. No platform consolidates this information, so the buyer has to reconstruct the comparison herself, turning a routine purchase into a slow research task. A university student who buys online several times a month and treats every purchase as a comparison exercise.
2. Reading Trust Signals Instead of Product Data Before committing, the buyer checks the seller's reputation, number of sales, response speed and the comments of previous buyers — not only the price and photos. She acts defensively, screening profiles for history and activity, and discards listings with new profiles, unusually low prices or little information. Her main fear is paying for a product that never arrives, so reputation acts as her only available guarantee in the absence of formal protection. A cautious buyer for whom perceived seller reliability outweighs a marginally better price.
3. Facing Incomplete or Misleading Listings The buyer has repeatedly found listings where the description is insufficient, the photos do not represent what actually arrives, or the item is shown as available when it is not. She reacts with frustration and extra effort, either investigating further, messaging the seller, or abandoning the purchase entirely. Sellers decide individually how much information to publish, so listing quality is inconsistent and the burden of verification falls on the buyer. A buyer who has already been burned by inaccurate listings and now anticipates the risk.
4. Publishing an Item Takes More Effort Than Expected The seller must take photos, write a description, set a price and then personally answer questions from many different people every time she publishes something she no longer uses. She invests significant personal time up front and repeatedly afterwards, since the same doubts arrive over and over from different buyers. Listings do not enforce a minimum information standard, so gaps in the publication are transferred directly into repetitive one-to-one conversations. An occasional seller who publishes items she no longer uses and is deterred by the operational cost.
5. Filtering Buyers Who Never Close the Deal The seller regularly deals with people who ask many questions but never buy, negotiate excessively, or stop responding after a price has already been agreed. She spends time on conversations with no outcome, unable to distinguish genuinely interested buyers from casual browsers. There is no signal about buyer reliability — reputation systems only work in one direction — so the seller carries all the uncertainty of the interaction. An occasional seller who needs to protect her time and wants some guarantee of buyer commitment.
6. Expecting Reputation to Work in Both Directions Both interviewees want visible reliability signals: the buyer wants proof the seller is trustworthy, and the seller wants to know whether the buyer has completed previous purchases or has good references from other sellers. Each side currently infers reliability from indirect clues (ratings, history, response speed) or simply accepts the risk when no information exists. Trust is the real currency of the transaction, and a one-sided reputation system leaves half of the participants exposed. Both profiles — buyer and seller — converge on symmetric reputation as the condition for participating comfortably.

3. Journey Maps

Two key problem domains were selected to map detailed user end-to-end experiences:

A. Journey Map: Marketplace

journey map marketplace

B. Journey Map: Parking Spots

4. Brainstorming & Proposed Solution Prototypes

Brainstorming - Second Hand

Based on the insights gathered during user interviews and our C2 session, we conducted a brainstorming process to sketch early-stage solution prototypes (Wireframes/ UI Mockups):

  • Green: Daniel Diab

  • Yellow: Sabrina Noguera

  • Purple: Angie Gutiérrez

  • Light Blue: Andrés Botero

  • Pink: Carla Gonzalez

  • Violet: Santiago Bernal Brainstorm

Solution Prototype - CampusSwap Marketplace

  • Core Value Proposition: A secure, peer-to-peer campus marketplace designed exclusively for university students to easily buy, sell, and trade specific academic materials (such as textbooks, calculators, and lab gear) within their own university community, reducing waste and saving money.

  • UI Sketches / Wireframes:

    Figma Dynamic Prototype

  • Video Presentation:

    Figma Prototype Video

  • Key Screens & Features Description:

    • Visual Theme & Identity: A friendly, student-centered notebook aesthetic complete with clean card layouts, playful microcopy, and clear typography tailored to academic life.
    • Authentication & Onboarding: Simple access flow with a clear tagline ("buy & sell within your uni!") that establishes the exclusive, community-driven scope of the app.
    • Home & Discovery Dashboard: Features a specialized search bar for academic gear and quick-access category filters (e.g., Books, Electronics, Lab Gear). The "Hot Deals" section highlights heavily discounted course materials to directly address the financial burden of brand-new resources.
    • Item Details & Trust Building: Provides crucial academic context by tagging items with the specific courses they are used for (e.g., For: MATH 201, PHYS 101). It fosters a trustworthy environment by displaying peer seller ratings, item conditions, and a direct "Chat" button to facilitate safe, on-campus handoffs.

5. Repository & Environment Setup

  • The team's central repository for the semester has been successfully initialized and configured.