Student project led by Joseph Poore

Student round 2016/17

Now live at  ‘Workplace Finder’: https://workplaces.itchallenge.ox.ac.uk.
See also ‘Introducing Workplace Finder’ (blog article at https://www.it.ox.ac.uk/news/introducing-workplace-finder
For more information, please contact workplaces@it.ox.ac.uk

ABSTRACT

There are a huge number of places to work in Oxford, each with a different environment – some are silent, while others are good for group work; some places are bright and airy, some are richly decorated and imposing; facilities and opening times also differ significantly.

Oxford Workplace Finder (OWF) will be a list and map of all workplaces in Oxford, that ranks each location by its characteristics and provides their opening times. It helps address a welfare concern that students are put off leaving their rooms because they think other workplaces might be too busy, too noisy or too cold, or don’t know what is available to them. Additionally, it should motivate students to explore the University; help visiting students familiarise themselves quickly; boost productivity by helping people find the best place to work and know exactly when they are open.

In collaboration with the Web and Mobile Applications Team, informed by an initial survey of what students want from a workplace, we will produce a simple and engaging mobile friendly website allowing filtering by these criteria. The initial set of workplaces will be fixed and criteria initially populated. User feedback, if deemed relevant, will be allowed to re-rank criteria.

The project has 5 work steps: 1) a student survey to identify most important attributes for workplaces; 2) listing of workplaces and initially ranking them on attributes; 3) mobile friendly webpage development to filter and map the workplaces, and allow users to re-rank attributes; 4) pilot testing with a focus group; 5) publicity.