7A Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Marston website to see available seating

• Opportunity: 
• Students at UF, usually around the time of midterms and finals, cannot find seats in Marston for study groups and waste their time looking because there is no way to know the availability of seating.
• The who: UF students who study in Marston
• The what: They are unable to see the seating availability in Marston
• The why: The wasted time and effort used because of the lack of availability
• Testing the who: Not only people at Marston have this problem, but also people at Library West. On an even bigger scale, this happens at college campuses across the United States and possibly even the globe. However, since I am a UF student I am looking to solve this problem for UF.
• Testing the what: This problem really only occurs during midterms and finals and it doesn't happen every day. Just when it does happen it's a huge annoyance and waste of time.
• Testing the why: I think that this opportunity is justified because it can stop the waste of time and effort because of the lack of a system to check the availability of seating.
• Interview #1: 
• In this interview I found that this person studies with a group of three other students and in fall 2018, she could not find space for four seats together in Marston and got super frustrated. I asked if they would like a form of knowing which seats were being used up at Marston at a certain time and she said thought it was a really good idea. She says it's not a huge problem but is definitely an annoyance.
• Interview #2:
• In this interview I found out that this person just rents a room at Marston to avoid the problem of not finding good seating arrangements. This person completely avoids the problem by finding a new solution and doesn't seek the opportunity of a system in which it can be known that people are sitting in specific seats.
• Interview #3:
• In this interview, I found out that this person chooses to study in his dorm study room during finals and midterms to avoid the chaos of Marston. Again, this person is using another way of avoiding the problem entirely and thus doesn't need to seek an opportunity of a system in which it can be known that people are sitting in specific seats.
• Interview #4: 
• In this interview, I interviewed a group of five people who have the similar problem of the girl I interviewed in the first one. They have huge trouble finding seats in Marston around midterm and final time. They also would like a system in which they could know the availability of the seating. They find it extremely frustrating walking through the library with their backpacks, ready to study, and can't even find a place to sit down and actually start studying.
• Interview #5:
• This interview was with someone who studies at Marston, but they study alone. This person can always find at least one seat at Marston and never finds the problem said in the problem statement. This just emphasizes the fact that the "who" in this opportunity is definitely groups of students, not just one person.
• Given your interviews, what do you know about your opportunity that you didn't know before?
• I know that some people can completely avoid their problems by either renting a room or just studying in one's own dorm study room. Also, I know that this opportunity has to only be targeted to groups, instead of solo studiers, because solo studiers will almost always find a seat to study, even in the most busy times of the semester.