CORRECTIONS WERE MADE FOR THE MS2 ON THE MS2 PAGE

MS3 – Defining a Solution

1. Brainstorming Process

For this MS3 brainstorming session, our team met in person at the university for approximately 15 minutes to generate possible solutions and smart features for the university food options problem.

Each team member proposed different ideas based on the needs and difficulties identified during our previous interviews, journey maps, and empathy work. During this stage, we focused on generating a variety of ideas without immediately judging their feasibility, following a divergent brainstorming approach.

As each idea was proposed, we discussed it briefly, built on each other's suggestions, and added it to our shared Canva board. We explored solutions such as a centralized campus food map, live waiting times, daily menu updates, food availability, budget and dietary filters, personalized recommendations, and pre-order options.

We also discussed how smart features could make these solutions more useful by adapting them to the student's context, preferences, available time, and current needs.

The purpose of the session was to create a broad set of possible solutions before moving into the convergence and selection stage.

2. Problem Description

Selected Problem: University Food Options

During MS2, our team explored different problems experienced by university students. For MS3, we selected the experience of finding and choosing food options at the university as the problem that we will continue developing throughout the Sprint.

The problem is not necessarily the absence of food options. Instead, the main difficulty is that students do not always have an easy way to identify which available food alternative best fits their needs at a particular moment.

University students often need to eat between classes, meetings, study sessions, and other academic activities. Because their available time can be limited, choosing where and what to eat becomes a decision influenced by several factors, including:

• Available time between activities.
• Price and personal budget.
• Distance from their current location.
• Restaurant opening hours.
• Waiting times and queues.
• Food availability.
• Dietary preferences or restrictions.
• Type and variety of food available.

Information about these factors is not always available before the student reaches a food location. Students may therefore have to visit different restaurants, ask other students, check different sources of information, or simply choose an option they already know.

This situation can lead students to spend part of their limited break searching for food, encounter long queues, discover that a desired meal is unavailable, or repeatedly choose the same familiar alternatives because they do not have enough information to confidently explore other options.

Problem Statement

University students have difficulty quickly identifying which food option best fits their available time, budget, location, dietary preferences, and current needs because relevant information about university food alternatives is fragmented or not easily accessible.

Users Affected

The main prospective users are university students who eat on or around campus during their academic day.

However, different students may experience the problem differently. Some may prioritize speed because they have very little time between classes, while others may prioritize price, dietary preferences, proximity, or food variety.

These differences will be explored through the empathy maps and personas.

Main User Needs

Based on the problem identified, the main user needs include:

• Knowing what food alternatives are currently available.
• Understanding prices before choosing a place.
• Finding options that fit within a limited amount of time.
• Knowing the location and distance of different food alternatives.
• Identifying food that matches dietary preferences or restrictions.
• Avoiding unnecessary waiting in long queues.
• Discovering alternatives beyond the restaurants they already know.
• Making the food selection process faster and easier.

Problem Context

The context is especially important because the same student may make different food decisions depending on their situation.

For example, a student with one hour available may be willing to walk farther or wait for a preferred meal, while a student with only twenty minutes between classes may prioritize the closest option with the shortest waiting time.

Therefore, the problem depends not only on the student's preferences, but also on contextual factors such as:

• Current location.
• Time of day.
• Time available.
• Academic schedule.
• Restaurant congestion.
• Current food availability.
• Student budget.

How Might We?

How might we help university students make faster and better-informed decisions about where and what to eat during their time on campus?

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3. Decision Process

Pending: This section will be completed after the team's brainstorming and convergence activities.

Once the brainstorming process is completed, this section will explain:

• How the team moved from divergence to convergence.
• Which technique taught in class was used to evaluate the ideas.
• Which alternatives were considered.
• How the team selected the idea that will be developed during the semester.
• Why the selected idea was considered appropriate for the identified problem.

[CONVERGENCE / VOTING EVIDENCE WILL BE ADDED HERE]

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4. Empathy Maps

The empathy maps are used to understand how different prospective users experience the selected problem.

Each empathy map should correspond to a different prospective user and should explore the user's thoughts, observations, feelings, behaviors, pains, and desired outcomes related to finding food at the university.

For our team, at least five different empathy maps will be included.

Empathy Map 1 Catalina ALvarez

Empathy Map 2 Samuel Mauricio Carrillo

Empathy Map 3 Felipe Boada

Empathy Map 4 Karin Guerrero

Empathy Map 5

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5. Personas

After analyzing the different prospective users through the empathy maps, the team will identify patterns in their behaviors, goals, needs, and pain points.

These patterns will be used to develop at least two personas representing relevant groups of users for the selected problem.

Persona 1

Persona 2

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6. Solution Description

The solution selected by the team is a mobile application that centralizes the food options available on and around the university campus, displays them on an interactive map, and allows students to rate and review them, building a food community based on the experiences of the students themselves.

Each registered establishment has a QR code displayed at its physical location, which the student scans to open the review screen directly. Moreover, the scope of the application is deliberately limited to the campus and its surroundings, so the map is not saturated with options that are irrelevant to the student's situation. In addition, the application organizes the options through filters such as the price and the relative location from the university buildings.