Sections:
Problem Statement
Notes from Interviews
User Classes
Goals
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Problem Statement
Housing managers and desk workers need to efficiently manage dormitory-related duties. In particular, they need to efficiently manage static/transient resident information, resident access to dormitory housing, and resident billing/fees.
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We interviewed several individuals with various positions in the MIT housing and facilities system.
House Managers
Interview #1: JN (house manager for undergraduate student dorms)
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He proceeded to recount other problems that he deals with in terms of software such as having to enter in the billing information, resident info and other information at the beginning of the semester. JN was fairly frustrated with having to enter the information multiple times because he felt that some of the material was simply redundant. He did not seem to have the best grasp of how to use the computer in terms of navigating multiple systems. JN seems to find the computer as a way of slowing him down because he claims he can prioritize everything in his head.
Lessons Learned:
- It is a pain to give card access to students at the beginning of the school year because he has to enter every individual into the billing, access and housing systems. There are too many systems in existence.
- As House Manager, he is in charge of having to deal with students (e.g. desk workers), mechanics, plumbers/electricians, and upper management. He has to think about budgeting, maintenance and fixing of broken, making sure that people are happy at their jobs, etc. He says that it takes time to build these relationships and understand what each individual wants. JN said his boss is new and is trying to figure out the system but don't know how to do it. JN seems to find that there is there is insufficient time to address all of the issues that he needs to or wants to know about.
- There is a disconnect between the two groups on campus. Facilities and housing do not really communicate so if power goes out in the rest of campus or the steam is having issues, the house manager do not necessarily find out till later or after the work order is filled out.
- Communication between different dorms is different so he has to gear his emails to different audiences.
- The way that FIXIT works is that once someone files an order, an email gets sent to him and the mechanic. The mechanic has to then deal with each one of the orders and then close it himself.
Interview #2: BR (house manager in charge of undergraduate student dorms)
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Since there are many repair requests at a time, BR and other housing managers must prioritize their tasks. Life safety and security tasks have highest priority; emergency plumbing, heating, and electrical tasks have the next priority; other tasks are completed when workers are available.
Lessons Learned:
- There are numerous people BR has to be in touch with regarding building tasks.
- Building residents report repair requests online via SAPweb or in person.
- BR must mentally prioritize many tasks based on their urgency.
Desk Workers
Interview #1: K. (student desk worker in an undergraduate dorm)
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- Most desk workers are computer-literate and thus they are usually able to learn how a given software platform works by playing with/exploring the software. However, even these computer-literate individuals are having usability issues with the current software used to handle most desk functions. Namely, the desk software is unlearnable, unsafe, and suffers from some GUI performance/efficiency issues.
- While desk workers who are experienced may know how to execute the commonly used tasks in the current desk software, they are unable to figure out how to execute less commonly used tasks when the need arises. Moreover, the software’s lack of learnability poses a steep learning curve for novice desk workers.
- A significant amount of resident information has yet to be digitized, blocking efficient desk worker performance.
- Desk workers struggle to enforce security restrictions on people entering the dormitory due to an inability to confront suspicious entrants and an inability to quickly access/refer to resident guest lists.
User Classes
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House Managers
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- Age: generally older than 50 years old
- Education: educated in operations or dealing with managing systems
- Experience:
- Housing: 15+ years of housing experience
- Technology: Uses Windows computer and knows how to use the computer systems, but still am unsure how to deal with problems on the computer (e.g. what happens in response to a confirmation dialog)
- Usage: deals with residential information on a normal basis
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Desk Workers
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- Age: 17-22 years old
- Education: Candidate for Bachelor’s/Master’s degree at MIT (and thus generally proficient in verbal/mathematics skills)
- Experience:
- Housing: Anywhere from 0 months to a few years of desk working experience
- Technology: Generally computer-literate. Comfortable with operating/exploring desktop software (on Windows at least), web applications, and mobile applications.
- Usage: Deals with residential information (e.g., extremely static information like a resident’s room number or forwarding address as well as transient information like what items a student currently has on loan) on a normal basis.
Goals
House Managers
- Easily charge residents fees and monitor monetary transactions with residents
- Easily enable/disable student access to dormitories via students’ ID cards.
- Eliminate work redundancy (e.g., in maintaining consistent resident information) across disparate systems, each responsible for handling different housing functions.
Desk
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Workers
- Efficiently read and update static resident information (e.g., student room number, forwarding address, etc.) to handle student needs (e.g., redirecting mail to students’ forwarding addresses when students are absent).
- Efficiently read and update transient resident information (e.g., what items a student has on loan, what packages are available for said resident, etc.) for handling other student needs (e.g., checking in/out packages, etc.).
Appendix
Notes + Quotes from Additional Interviews
BK - undergraduate housing manager
“...I keep track of via a regular to-do list, written out and crossed off every day. Not high-tech, but gets the job done.”
“I’d say the biggest frustration is just the fact that MIT is so segmented as an institution, and for every thing that has to get done, there are multiple steps involved and multiple people involved.”
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“As far as waiting list, I maintain the lists, offer out to students and assign. The buildings give me their availabilities at the beginning of the term and update as assignments happen.”
TM - graduate student dormitory manager
“I use excel sheets to keep track of tasks that have been completed, are in progress or have not been touched yet.”
“I have been a Housing Operation Manager for 24 years. Prioritizing comes naturally on a daily basis in my mind.”
E - Custodian for undergraduate student dormitory
The custodian does a walk through to begin his shift, mentally noting which areas need attention. The housing manager, Bob Ramsay in this case, sometimes calls for special requests. Sometimes the housing manager will forget about particular problems causing the custodian to need to work extra hours.
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The housing management lacks human resources, but they tell you this before you take a job.
EJ - Zeisger Athletic Center award winning desk worker
"A big issue is that people who get a new id card no longer has access to the z-center. I have to send them back to the card services people to resolve the issue. There is this constant back and forth between us and the card services people."