Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Brittany Traynor

Testing the Opportunity Hypothesis Part 1

Due: 09/29/17

Step 1:

            Opportunity: College students use their student ID’s for many different purposes on a daily basis. Some of these uses include purchasing food on campus, riding the RTS campus buses, going to the gym, checking out books in the libraries, and more. However, students often misplace or forget to bring their student ID’s with them, and this can lead to great inconveniences. Similar to new applications that allow credit/debit cards to be used from a mobile device, I think there should be a Student ID app that can access and scan the ID via mobile devices.

Step 2:

            The Who: College students. For the purposes of this assignment, I am referring to students at the University of Florida, but this product can be applied to any college campus.  

            The What: Students would have more convenient access to their ID’s if they had a mobile app on their phone that they could pull up whenever they needed their ID. This mobile ID could then be scanned right from the phone when needed. How desperate is this need, however?

            The Why: Students misplacing, forgetting, or entirely losing their student ID’s can lead to restraints to the things they can do on campus until they locate or replace their ID. However, most students in today’s society do not go anywhere without their phone. Having access to their student ID via their mobile phone would ensure that they never have to worry about not having their ID when they need it.

Step 3:

            Testing the Who: I believe that a vast amount of college students can relate to this need. If people switch bags or wallets, or even just have a large number of things in their wallets, it may sometimes be frustrating to access a student ID as quickly as it would if it was on a mobile device. In addition, we are all humans. Therefore, we misplace and lose things. Having mobile access to ID’s would make misplacing or losing an ID less of an issue for busy college students.

            Testing the What: Do all UF students have this problem? Is this something that bothers them or do they not mind taking the extra time to be sure that their ID is with them when they go places where they might need one? Could this lead to other challenges?

            Testing the Why: Is there an alternative solution to students misplacing or forgetting their ID’s? I think this idea is something that would sell for convenience and security rather than desperate need. Could this idea be applied to other cards and eventually eliminate the need for a physical wallet entirely?

Step 4:

            Interviews: I interviewed several people with different needs on campus. 2 were freshmen, 1 was a sophomore who lives near campus, and 2 were juniors who are residents of my apartment complex, which is about 2 miles south of campus. I first asked them if they have ever gotten to a place on or off campus where they need a student ID and then realized that they forgot their ID. I then asked them if they felt that having a mobile version of their ID would be of any convenience to them. They did not particularly have daily occurrences of forgetting/misplacing their ID’s, but they did agree for the most part that having access to their ID via their mobile phone would be very helpful in getting things done faster on campus. Both of the residents of my apartment complex said that they use their ID’s very frequently because they are always traveling back and forth via the bus system. They said that sometimes it is frustrating when they are walking onto the bus and digging through their bag looking for their student ID. In addition, one of them lost her ID last fall and had to deal with the inconvenience of finding other ways to get to and from campus until she could replace her student ID, which required a trip to the Reitz Union. This was out of her way on her daily schedule and also cost her $15. She said in cases like this, it would have been helpful to have a mobile version of her student ID.

            The freshmen I interviewed agreed that having a mobile version of their ID would be helpful when quickly stopping in the dining hall because sometimes they run down from their dorms and don’t bring their wallets with them. They then realize they need their ID and have to run back up, which is time-consuming and frustrating. The only point that was made against a mobile ID was by the Sophomore that I interviewed and he said that many students give their ID’s to friends to pick up game day tickets at the ticket office, and this would be hard to do without a physical ID. This is something I had not thought about before. I assured him that having an app that mobilized the ID does not mean that they have to get rid of their physical card. Rather, it simply provides another way to access the card which could make student’s daily lives more convenient. He agreed that in a lot of ways this idea would be very helpful as well as innovational as far as keeping up with technology and the current trends from physical items to electronic items.

            After conducting my 5 interviews, I concluded that although this is not a particularly dire need of students, this is an idea that would allow for more convenience for students.