UW TEXTBOOK MARKET

[ TEAM I ] : Brandon Thai Ria Hu Yuyang Fan Autumn 2013

Problem Description:
Textbooks today are expensive and their use short-lived; each class requiring a unique set of textbooks that get put away or sold immediately after the class is over. Very rarely are there textbooks that have long term use; even more rare are textbooks that are usable cross-class and cross-department. Some required textbooks are rarely used in the class, if at all. Universities offer University Bookstores to supply these textbooks - the University of Washington is no exception, with the University Bookstore available all throughout the year for textbook, classroom supply, and school gear needs. However, theres a large problem at hand - the U.S. Public Interest Group reports that 70% of students in general admit to not purchasing the textbook altogether (NBC News, 2013). A variety of factors play into this decision - among them the price of new textbooks (~$1,200/year according to College Board), the student crowd during textbook buying season, and textbook availability. An informal poll of UW students suggests that less than half of students purchase textbooks on time and at bookstore price; many noting alternatives like purchasing the textbook through Amazon, not purchasing the textbook at all, or pirating online versions via torrent websites. This presents itself as a non-ideal situation - students are choosing to turn to alternative sources for their textbook needs, which can be untrustworthy or slow. While not always the case, textbooks are generally important to learning the material presented in a class as either baseline knowledge or supplementary information. The compromise between purchasing the book at full price and not purchasing the book at all comes in the form of renting or buying used textbooks from the bookstore - but even these are pricier than other online sources. When asking students why they choose to purchase from the bookstore, the overwhelmingly popular answer is convenience. Yet a half of polled students indicate that convenience is not enough; they turn to alternatives like purchasing the book late, seeking alternate stores, or not purchasing the book at all. While alternative websites currently exist, they cater to a wide variety of students and cannot offer the convenience of on-campus exchanges. Similarly, its become clear that the bookstore cannot offer competitive pricing for textbooks. And while exchanges set up via Facebook or through friends are both convenient and cheap, they target small audiences. An ideal solution is both convenient and cheap, trustworthy and simple to use - something that the UW Bookstore cannot provide in full.

The Project Scope:

In Scope

To address the problem, UW Textbook Market is a website designed and developed to exclusively provide University of Washington students as a medium for both online and student sources to either buy or sell textbooks for the best prices available. The scope of the website is mainly built around a price comparison tool for online sources as well as a textbook exchanging system for students sources. The emphasis is on providing students with a medium to extend the life of textbooks as well as informing students of alternative sources (which may offer lower prices) for textbooks outside of University Bookstore. In terms of details, the interface is designed to be simple and intuitive. The website consists of seven main pages: the MyUW Login page, search page (with quick previous and next quarter textbook lookup), a tasks page meaning whether to sell, buy or place an ad, a sources page containing the online comparison tool and student sources, account page, and transaction ratings page. Login Feature: The website will require users to use their UW Net ID to log in at the first stage in order for certain features of the website to operate, pull out contact information and assure security. Search Feature: Once users login they will be introduced to a search bar where they can search for their textbooks via ISBN-13 number, title or author. Furthermore because the site pulls from users MyUW information, they may quickly select textbooks from the past quarter or next quarter. Transaction Ratings Feature (if going through a student source, not online source): Users can rate an exchange after it takes place which affects the other users feedback. An overall feedback of all user transactions is displayed to inform others if the user is a reliable source. Once users search for their textbook they may perform three tasks, they may sell, buy or place an ad. Both buying and selling tasks share the same features. The following features are: Online Price Comparison Tool Feature with filter: The price comparison tool will render information collected from all reliable online sources (ex. Amazon, Chegg, etc.) and rank a list of results by sell or buy back price from low to high by default; however, users can adjust the results via a filter by their own preference. Student Sources Feature: The student sources will render all student posted listings and rank a list of results by sell or buy back price from low to high by default; however, users can adjust the results via a filter by their own preference. The following is a feature if a user chose the place an ad task, users may choose listing an ad because their searched textbook is unavailable in the student sources or they are not satisfied with the current listed prices of the student sources: Listing An Ad Feature:

UW Textbook Market allows users to list an ad for the textbook by filling out the textbook details and their target price. Once the ad is listed, the website will release the listing to those students that are searching to buy/sell that particular textbook. The following are miscellaneous features that aid the user: Account Feature: Users may access and see an overview their UW Textbook Market account to view their buying and selling history, messages, and pending transactions. Messages Feature: The message is an internal communication system which alerts users when someone is interested in their listings. Meaning they want to buy or sell the users listed textbook. We will go into greater detail regarding each feature later on.

Out of Scope
Due to the time constraint and circumstance, there are certain features / functionality that currently cannot be implemented to the current design but we acknowledge may be useful as a future goal or idea. In order to study users preference on browsing devices, we conducted an informal Facebook survey addressing what devices our target users uses more frequently around campus. 63 people responded and the results showed that users use computers more often for working and information gathering activities like online purchasing and product searching. 78% of participants reported using computers as their primary device, 17% mobile devices and 5% on a tablet. Furthermore, there are still limitations for mobile devices when it comes to multitasking, adaptability and information security. Since users account information must be protected, and we assume that they may want to do other online researches while using our website, we believe multitasking and security play important roles in our design. UW Textbook Market was then developed into a fully functional website instead of a universal mobile app. Since our technical development team are more familiar with HTML/CSS web development technology, we believe it is better to develop it into a website application. Although in the future an app may be useful for tablets users because of its growing popularity (Furman, 2012).

The Target Audience

The following profiles exhibit characteristics of college students who are the targeted audience. The main focus of these personas have and/or need textbooks and need to gain/save money. The success of how much money they gain/save can be improved by using Textbook Market Board as a medium.

Profile #1: Peter Chao

Peter Chao is a 19-year-old full time international student in the University of Washington. As a freshman, he intends to double major in history and political science. He has an average of 60 pages

reading to finish every week and he has to purchase at least five textbooks per quarter, therefore at the least 15 per year. Peters parents try their best to provide for him but it is difficult and due to his schedule he cannot work during the school year. He lives with his friend in an apartment close to campus and his rent is $850 per month including utilities. Even though he doesnt really have budget constraint, he always tries to save. As seen on the chart below, an international student generally spend about $1,206 on textbooks for the year on top of their $31,971 tuition (University of Washington Office of Admissions, 2013); however, Peter estimates that spending on textbooks for his freshman year will exceed $1,800 because of his goal to double major. Generally, he buys his textbooks from Amazon because used textbooks are cheaper. But sometimes he cannot find textbooks that are used only by UW teachers on Amazon, thus he has to go to UW bookstore for new ones at full price. When it comes to selling textbooks, Peter finds it difficult because UW bookstore only accepts current editions textbooks and the buy back prices are sometimes so low that Peter would just prefer to keep his textbooks. However, where to keep and how to store these heavy textbooks in his small apartment make Peter anxious. Peter goes to the library to study, and one day he hears from a group of people talking about UW Textbook Market. He then browsed the website and tried it in order to see whether BookMarket.com can become a good source for him or not. He carries his laptop to school every day and he is very familiar with online shopping. Thus, getting to know this website and become familiar with using it wont be a problem for Peter.

Profile #2: Kate LeBlanc

Kate LeBlanc is a 20-year-old junior who just declared her major as a Biology student this upcoming fall quarter. Biology is the largest undergraduate major on campus. Kate has a few books she wants to sell from pre-requisite classes she took during her freshman and sophomore years at the UW. She wants to go into research and therefore will be taking classes that are textbook heavy. As a result, she wants some extra cash from the books she no longer needs to spend on the ones she will need for the upcoming quarter. Financially she is very stable because she receives support from her parents and works a part-time job. In the past she has simply gone to the UW bookstore for her textbooks needs. On average as a Biology major, she will spend about $221 a quarter and up to $2000 by the time she graduates (Beeman, 2011).

However, this upcoming year she wants to save money on textbooks because her family is also supporting her two other siblings who just entered college. Although she is not stingy with her money, she is smart about it. For example, Kate will generally cook food at her apartment during the weekdays but go out with friends on the weekends. Also, despite living in North Gate and having a car, she rides the bus to campus and back home in order to save on gas and only drives when its necessary. She does not care if the textbooks she obtains are new or used as long as they are readable, usable, and not too many marks in them. Also, she knows she cannot sell back her pre-requisite books to the bookstore because she missed the end of the quarter buyback and therefore missed the opportunity have her books bought back for up to 50% of the new book price. Kate likes to plan ahead of time meaning she buys her books in advance and starts reading them before classes begin. Therefore, she will have and want a lot of time to explore different sources in order to get the best prices. The website will allow Kate to do just that. Although she has never used a source outside of the bookstore, she is technology savvy because she has been occupied by technology from young ages. Therefore she will have no major problems navigating through the website.

Hypothetical Scenario:
Both profiles represent undergraduate students who want to explore new textbook sources outside of the UW bookstore, and willing to use a website as a medium to find other sources. Peter represents international students and other students who try to save over textbooks. He always searches for the cheapest used textbooks and only buys new ones when it is necessary. He has a lot of old textbooks for sale but just cannot find good prices. Kate represents the financially stable student who is supported by her parents but still conscious about the amount of money she spends. Once entering a major, she knows there will be more textbooks required and she has textbooks in her hands currently that she no longer needs.

Money Smart, Kate LeBlanc:

Since Kate missed the end of quarter buyback, she won't be able to sell her textbooks back to UW bookstore with good prices. However, by using UW Textbook Market, She can list her books under student sources and sell these books at her target prices to other UW students who may need them. Also, because Kate likes to plan ahead of time, she is more likely to find textbooks with good prices. Plus, she can always order a book at her target price, too.

Price Matters, Peter Chao:

Peter recently started using UW Textbook Market and he soon finds a solution to his problem. UW Textbook Market allows Peter to check how much his books are worth in the market and sell his textbooks at his target price. This website also provided him a better place than Amazon that he can not only see results from Amazon but also many other online stores like Chegg and Barnes & Noble. When he needs to find textbooks that are used only by UW teachers, he can also search through student sources or simply order for it. As a result, Peter can compare prices among different sources and pay the least amount of money for textbooks.

DESIGN DETAILS:

Prototype can be fully viewed here (please contact bthaib@uw.edu if you cannot access):

http://students.washington.edu/bthaib/info360/uwtextbookmarket/ System Integrations: The purpose of system integrations is to use already well established systems in order to provide a faster and better user experience for student users. By integrating established systems, users can easily transition into using the website without too much confusion or barriers because certain aspects will be familiar to them.
Decision: MyUW, a personal gateway to the Web resources of the University of Washington only for UW students, is integrated into our website. Meaning users will need to login to UW Textbook Market using their MyUW username and password for authentication and will use their class schedule to generate certain features later shown in the specification. Rationale: It ensures the safety of students as well as establishes the user base for the website. In terms of safety, integrating MyUW means only those affiliated with the University of Washington can use the website and no outside persons. This prevents unwanted communication from spammers, or those who intend to use the website for malicious reasons. Users will be able to see exactly who they are communicating with in terms of the UW student directory, meaning names and pictures will be displayed on a students listings in the student sources section of the website for other users to see. Additionally there is an internal communication system, therefore it is important that messages sent between users show real names, and not nicknames. Another reason for MyUW integration is to establish a base number of users, half of the websites functionality relies on having students use it. Therefore, by automat ically having students already signed-up they may feel more inclined to use it without the hassle of going through a separate process to sign-up for the website. Additionally, certain features of the website rely on being able to know students schedules for the past quarter and next quarter (will be shown later on). Decision: Integrate User Positivity Feedback System Rationale: Similar to an eBay type feedback response, users will be able to see a students positive feedback rating are rated based on their textbooks exchanges with other students. There are three criteria that exchanges are based on, friendliness, timeliness, and correctly describing condition of book. In order to help prevent students having to deal with other unreliable students, a users positive feedback rating will always be displayed next to their name in every listing. The goal of this integration is for students to recognize and be cautious of students with low feedback rating and be more inclined to communicate with students with higher positive feedback ratings.

Flow of Website:

General flow of website and functions that users can perform

Prototype with Decision and Rationale:

Screen 1: Login page, users use their MyUW information to login A. Decision: Set beginning page as a UW NetID login box in center of the page similar to Gmail. Rationale: Prevents users from continuing to the next page if they are not UW student and many people have Gmail accounts and having a set up similar to Gmail login makes it familiar and simple for users. B. Decision: Have a need help selection on login box. Rationale: Based on the 10 Heuristics, there should always be some form of help for users, in this case there will be assistance for users if for some reason users with MyUW accounts cant login. (Ex. may inform users that MyUW is down, therefore UW Textbook Market is down)

Screen 2: Textbo ok Search and Select

A. Decisio n: Have UW Textbo ok Market logo on top left corner on all pages (minus initial page) that links back to search page. Ration ale: Based on the 10 Heurist ics, we wanted users to have user control and freedom meaning in the later pages, if for some reason they wanted to go back to the search page,

they can simply click on the logo. Additionally we wanted consistency on all pages. B. Decision: Have a user profile box on the top right corner at all times consisting of links to log-out and account page, as well as displaying their name and UW picture. Rationale: Ensures users they are logged on to the correct MyUW account by prominently displaying name and picture. Common on most websites (ex. Facebook, Gmail, Canvas, etc), we stayed consistent to included links to log out quickly whenever needed and to view account in the top right corner. C. Decision: Start search by providing multiple ways to search for a textbook through the search form (ISBN-13, Title, Author). Rationale: Through user feedback, users wants multiple ways to search for their textbook that they find most convenient at that moment. D. Decision: Display section for textbooks used from past quarter for quick selection Rationale: Based on feedback, users wanted a way to quickly select textbooks from the past quarter instead of having to search for it in order to buy/sell. E. Decision: Display section for textbooks used in the upcoming quarter for quick selection Rationale: Based on feedback, users wanted a way to quickly select textbooks for the upcoming quarter instead of having to search for it in order to buy/sell. F. Decision: Used a blue select button for all search links Rationale: Blue would stand out in terms of the overall website basic color scheme, therefore users would automatically see it and know to click there.

Screen 3: Users have option to sell, buy, or list an ad for the book they selected from screen 2 A. Decision: Prominently display various information about the searched textbook including a large image of it. Rationale: To ensure users that the website was able to bring up the correct textbook that they searched / to ensure the user they correctly searched for the right book. B. Decision: Display the four various options in separate colors that can be completed once searching for the correct textbook. Rationale: By assigning each color to an option it, users can quickly notice them as well as recognize that each button serves as a separate function. List an ad is an option for users to choose if there are no listings available of that specific book at that current time or they do not like the prices that students are currently selling/buying the book for therefore they can list their own. C. Decision: The last button (yellow) sends users back to the search page. Rationale: Based on the 10 Heuristics, users want control and freedom and we thought to include another option besides clicking on the logo to quickly exit if the website or user made a mistake in their search.

Screen 4: Online & Student Sources to Sell Textbook, redirected to this screen if user selected sell this textbook button on screen 3

A. Decision: Prominently display what is going on to the user, in this case the user is selling the textbook they searched. Rationale: Based on the 10 Heuristics, we needed to include the visibility of the system status so that users are not confused and always informed on what actions they are going to potentially make. B. Decision: Include sorting filters for both student and online sources (ex. Cash vs. Credit, Low vs. High, Type of Condition) Rationale: Based on interviews and practicality, it would be practical to include a filter system for each source so that users can view listings based on their needs. For example, one user may prefer getting credit over cash. C. Decision: Include a section displaying the University of Washingtons bookstore price with white colored button and note for users. Rationale: One way to make our site different compared to other comparison sites is to include up to date buyback prices of UWs bookstore. The button is white to let users know that UW bookstore does not buy back textbooks online, but users have to physically go to the store. The note is included to further make it apparent. D. Decision: Include a next button to view more listings of that type of source (if applicable). Rationale: The next button will display more available sources for the textbook. The idea is that the page will then be populated with all available listings with an endless scroll until no more are available. This includes the student sources. E. Decision: Include a note section for users to type their own information of special notices/requests for other viewers to see. Rationale: Lets the user know if they should contact the lister based on more than just condition or price. For example, if the user likes the price Ria Hu wants to buy their textbook but the users textbook contains stains then they would not contact Ria.

Note: Screen 5 is very similar to Screen 4 therefore decisions and rationales are similar.

Screen 5: Online & Student Sources to Buy Textbook, redirected to this screen if user selected buy this textbook button on screen 3

A. Decision: Prominently display what is going on to the user, in this case the user is buying the textbook

they searched. Rationale: Based on the 10 Heuristics, we needed to include the visibility of the system status so that users are not confused and always informed on what actions they are going to potentially make. B. Decision: Display the condition of the book next to price listing in the student sources. Rationale: Based on user interviews, they wanted to see the condition of a book they were potentially going to buy upfront because it would make choosing very efficient and easy.

Screen 6: List an Ad for selected Textbook, redirected to this screen if user selected list an ad for this textbook button on screen 3

A. Decision: Prominently display what is going on to the user, in this case the user is listing an ad for the textbook they searched because there were none available or they did not like pricing of other listings. Rationale: Based on the 10 Heuristics, we needed to include the visibility of the system status so that users are not confused and always informed on what actions they are going to potentially make. B. Decision: Include a drop down menu of various conditions of books beyond just used and new, includes New, Used - Like New, Used - Very Good, Used - Good, Used - Acceptable, and Old. Rationale: Based on interviews and practicality, it would be best for users to be able to have more than two options when listing textbook conditions because used and new are two very broad categories. C. Decision: Include link that will help users determine how to truly judge the condition of their textbook. Rationale: Based on the 10 Heuristics, we needed to take into account consistency and standards as well as help and documentation. We needed to set a community standard that everyone could follow when judging their textbook and provide help on exactly how to do that. The link would bring users to a page describing the various conditions similar to Amazons standards. D. Decision: Include note section for users to input any further description of the textbook or requests for viewers to see. Rationale: Based on interviews, people wanted to include more information in their listings besides just condition and pricing. As a result, including a note section would allow that and prove to be helpful for all users. For example, if a user listed a textbook to buy, they can include a note saying no markings, therefore no one with markings in their textbook would communicate with the user. E. Decision: Large submit button leading confirmation pop-up. Additionally, clicking it would lead to a confirmation pop up. Rationale: A large button would be easy for user to see and make it apparent for users to know they must click it on order to list their add. The confirmation pop-up will quickly inform users that their listing was successful (The pop-up is functional in our full viewing of the prototype).

Screen 7: View Account, can be accessed via clicking on view my account on the user profile box on the top right corner of every screen A. Decision: Prominently display users account information on their account page. Rationale: The user can ensure all information of theirs is accurate and up-to-date so that others can correctly contact that in case of a transaction. B. Decision: Include various links within users account for easy and quick access. Rationale: Based on interviews, people wanted a simple way to view and access all user account necessities such as viewing messages, history of their buy/sell listings, and on-going transactions.

Screen 8: Message Box, can be accessed via screen 7 and clicking on messages A. Decision: Display messages by name, listing #, positive feedback, message body, time, and contact button. Rationale: The layout of messages should be intuitive, similar to how real e-mails are displayed therefore users can quickly look for information they want to know. The message body displays fully generated message to keep consistency and quick to the point. B. Decision: Green contact buttons Rationale: Users can quickly see the buttons to contact interested users and a popup will appear containing interested users information such as phone number and email therefore things will be quick and simple.

Screen 9: Confirmation Page, redirected to this page if user chooses to buy or sell a textbook from a student source from either screen 4 or 5. A. Decision: Display a confirmation page and information if user chooses a student source. Rationale: Based on the 10 Heuristics and interviews, people wanted error prevention, meaning they wanted to make sure they selected the correct student source and not mistakenly a different one.

Screen 10: Pending Transaction, can be accessed via screen 7 and clicking on pending transactions A. Decision: Prominently display transaction information including with who, what book, and transaction number. Rationale: Inform users which transaction they are going to rate and make sure it is the correct one. This prevents any error happening of rating the wrong transaction. B. Decision: Star rating system with three categories Rationale: The three categories cover all aspects of a transaction for both sellers and buyers. Most importantly timeliness and textbook condition. The star rating because its a common system used around many review sites, and based on interviews, all users had no problem with it and quickly were familiar with it.

Case Studies:
The current UW Textbook Market design was created using our own ideas, user feedback and case studies. The following websites were looked at upon the initial design of UW Textbook Market as inspirations. Although our goal was not to replicate these websites but rather look at their strengths and weaknesses, and integrate them into our design to better fit our audience and problem. To better understand our current design it is best to look at our case studies and see how we explored them.

Facebook Group: UW Textbook Exchange

Background: The UW Textbook Exchange Facebook Group was created as a medium for UW students to communicate in order to exchange textbooks, whether that that be buying and selling. Pros: The upside of this group is that there are over 4,000 members in the group and it stays moderately active throughout the years, even more so before/after quarters. Cons: The downside of this group is that the way Facebook works, postings will often be buried over time because posts are displayed by time or bumped up if commented on. This makes it difficult for students to find textbooks because they potentially would have to scroll for a very long time without the guarantee of even finding a posting with their textbook. This also hurts the student trying to sell a textbook because people often do not want to look too hard for their textbook. Another problem is that it is an open group with the privacy setting for only people who live in Washington. Even though ideally the group is for University of Washington students, theres no way to truly to moderate that through Facebook. As a result, not everyone in the group attends the UW and occasional spam from unwanted users clogs up the feed. We liked the idea of incorporating student sources as a way to deal with our problem without all the disadvantages a Facebook group medium brings.

Design Revisions:
Initially, UW Textbook Market started off as two separate ideas, one being a comparison site called UW Textbook Comparison and another only using students sources similar to the Facebook Group for textbook transactions called UW Textbook Exchange. After many interviews and delegating within the group, the decision was to combine the two in order to better provide a solution to our design problem. In the early interviews many testers said they wouldve liked to also see a student sources in the comparison site to better suit their needs. Especially to those who did not like to deal with online sources. We then mocked up a low-fidelity prototype via PowerPoint to better gauge the potential success of our idea. Eventually that led us to wanting to integrate MyUW into the website to better provide service and safety among users. All of those interviewed were students in the Information School who were taking a design thinking class too. After listening to six more interviews as well as incorporating the 10 Heuristics for User Interface, we were able to create a high-fidelity prototype of the current UW Textbook Market.

Weakness / Limitations:
One weakness of UW Textbook Market is that it assumes there will be frequent activity on it however there is no guarantee students will want to use it even if it is integrated with MyUW. If there is not a solid amount of active users, then essentially half of the websites functionality is obsolete. We are assuming the incentive of increasing the life of textbooks leading to saved money will be enough to convince students to use the website. Another problem is we assume there will be student responsibility on the student sources side. Meaning, students will choose safe areas to buy/sell textbooks as well as actually showing up on time and not wasting the time of others. By implementing a user positive rating feedback into the site, we hope to counteract against irresponsible / unreliable students.

Conclusion:

According to the Huffington Post (Kingkade, 2013), college textbook prices have increased faster than tuition, health care costs and housing prices, all of which have risen faster than inflation (see graph on right). As a result, it is important to provide a medium for students to buy textbooks at the best prices available as well as extend the life of textbooks in general outside of just the University bookstore. By creating a medium like UW Textbook Exchange, we hope to provide a solution to the textbook problem in the means of providing comparison of online sources and student sources. Through many revisions and interviews, testers have responded positively to the idea and prototype of the website and if ever implemented, would take the time to use it as a medium for buying their textbooks. In todays textbook market, it is important to provide a website like this for students to utilize and take advantage of in order to extend the life of textbooks and possibly save money.