Week 1

Primary & Secondary Research:

Me and my partner Madison both missed the first week, so we paired up and have to work extra hard this week to catch up. After going through the readings we decided to go with "Stress in the City" and began to brainstorm issues that we both related too and found is a common issue amongst other students.

We then started looking at ways we could find our primary and secondary research. With our primary research, we liked the idea of creating an online survey where we can get students and landlords to fill in.

Existing Apps/Sites to help with finding a flat:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vicdeals/
Trademe: https://www.trademe.co.nz/flatmates-wanted/wellington
Easyroomate: https://www.easyroommate.co.nz/wellington-region/wellington-flatmates
Student Flat: http://studentflat.co.nz/
https://www.wellingtonnz.com/study/plan-your-move/accommodation/

Interesting Articles:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/6832308/Is-Wellington-a-student-friendly-city
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/105399301/high-cost-of-wellington-living-forces-students-into-long-commutes
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/102837864/wellington-flatmates-film-hilarious-ad-for-their-absolute-bargain-flat
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/26-02-2018/tinder-for-flatmates-how-flat-candy-is-improving-the-flat-hunting-experience/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/100897016/dire-rental-situation-has-victoria-student-kaya-edington-considering-leaving-wellington

Wellington's rental shortage bites, flats snapped up in record time.

Interesting Facts in the article:

Trade Me's latest property index has found the national median rent increased for the first time in a year, up 3.4 per cent to a record-breaking $460 per week
Higher rent due to lack of available flats and housing.
In Wellington, the number of available rentals was down 71 per cent in November on a year earlier, slightly worse than in October's 69 per cent. The site distinguishes between 'total rentals' which are the number of listings we see onsite each month, and 'available rentals' which is the number of rental listings onsite at the end of the month.
Median weekly rent in Wellington rose 8.7 per cent to $470, compared with $530 a week in Auckland, up 1.9 per cent.
Rent averages in Wellington: $470 per week

- https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/99983535/wellingtons-rental-shortage-bites-flats-snapped-up-in-record-time?cid=facebook.post.99983535

Comments made by students who wish they knew what they were getting into:

It is almost exam time for university students and as I sit in my living room on a Sunday afternoon, my plate vibrating from the raging party next door reminds me I am in a place like no other. Welcome to Dunedin.

"My flat has been blessed this year with the privilege of living next to people with no concept of the appropriate time for booming music. 11am on a Monday? 5am on a Tuesday? 3pm on a Wednesday? What is the time when you have your lounge outdoors and a nice cold beer?"

- https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/98268117/worry-about-students-living-conditions-not-initiations

A Dunedin man who filmed women showering and stole underwear has been sentenced to eight months' home detention and ordered to pay compensation to his victims.

"I was suffering from major depression and stress-related issues," Mr Blackbourn told the Otago Daily Times.

"I am still unsure to this day why I did it."

- https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/dunedin-man-filmed-women-showering-stole-underwear-sentenced-eight-months-home-detention

This isn’t uncommon. Students are stressed about study, not eating properly, and living in cold and damp conditions - and nothing is being done. No wonder the mental health of students is slowly deteriorating; this is no way to live.

- https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/103264294/Student-numbers-demanding-more-modern-accommodation

Shower Thoughts:

When it comes to students leaving home for the first time, there is a common theme of money struggles, unlivable and unaffordable housing and moving into a flat with people you really know nothing about. We have decided to focus on students moving in with other students because it's important to be in a home where you feel comfortable around the people you share your flat with, working together to find more suitable accommodation and general support is vital. I personally have been/seen people in a flat where they just dont get along with the people living there, it undoubatably effects your mental health and ability to fully focus on the things you need to i.e studying.

Newspaper Article task:

Our target audience is students who are new to the city or moving out of their parents home and venturing into the world of flatting. And students and young professionals who are away over summer and aren’t in the city to flat hunt.
In New Zealand, 450,000 households are renting and 83 per cent of 20-29-year-olds don't own the properties they live in, according to Stats NZ. The beginning of each year is a notoriously hard time to find a place to live. January is Trade Me’s busiest month with rental listings clocking an average of 24,000 hits a day. Students usually take what they can afford without any knowledge of who they will be sharing their space with which can result in needing to move out.
We are looking at creating an easier way for students to look for flats/flatmates to decrease the stress and anxiety that comes with leaving home for the first time or moving to a new city. A way to interact with your potential flatmates and get an idea on their time schedules and interests before making the decision to move in and vice versa.
Students are leaving home and moving cities without any social connectedness, as unnerving as it seems, there are thousands of people in the same situation that will be at the same university or just a few clicks away online.

Writing our first brief concept:

Our target audience is students who are new to the city or moving out of their parents home and venturing into the world of flatting. And students and young professionals who are away over summer and aren’t in the city to flat hunt.
In New Zealand, 450,000 households are renting and 83 per cent of 20-29-year-olds don't own the properties they live in, according to Stats NZ. The beginning of each year is a notoriously hard time to find a place to live. January is Trade Me’s busiest month with rental listings clocking an average of 24,000 hits a day. Students usually take what they can afford without any knowledge of who they will be sharing their space with which can result in needing to move out.
We are looking at creating an easier way for students to look for flats/flatmates to decrease the stress and anxiety that comes with leaving home for the first time or moving to a new city. A way to interact with your potential flatmates and get an idea on their time schedules and interests before making the decision to move in and vice versa.
Students are leaving home and moving cities without any social connectedness, as unnerving as it seems, there are thousands of people in the same situation that will be at the same university or just a few clicks away online.

5 Ways of Wellbeing: 1. Keep active, take notice, keep learning, give, connect

Some discussions me and my partner had in class:

Young people may feel discouraged to pursue a university degree as the flatting situation is
Therefore with long time effects, we will have less and less qualified people to do jobs.
Including the university in the process creates a safe environment because young people feel like they have something to support them and they won't be left completely homeless.
Want to make a similar experience for people that don't have the opportunity to be in a hall in first year. To make their first year of flatting smooth.

In this brainstorm, we discussed why we have this housing problem- the top of the pyramid for the issues which falls back onto the houses being so expensive that for the landlords to pay off their mortgage.

First Brief Draft:

Draft Brief feedback:

We moved down to the far end and discussed it with a group of other girls. They were really open to our ideas and said that this brief was relatable to them and that they had personally been in the same situation as Cassandra. They understood that there is a huge issue in the problem area we have chosen to explore and that they would benefit from having a permanent solution to this issue to reduce stress in their lives.

Reflective Image for week 2:

Understanding the cycle and relationship between landlords and students

More demand for housing - more people being desperate for houses - they take advantage of people being desperate -they know people will pay whatever price to not be homeless - their lives are impacted by having to spend more on rent and less on necessities

When students received higher student living costs (which was really good), the landlords took advantage by increasing rent- some even increasing the exact amount that our living costs had been increased by.
Lack of respect for younger tenants. They are eight times less likely to respond to an issue within the flat (eg lights, heaters, mould) from a younger person than they would of an older Tennant.

Jasons Feedback:

Might need more than one person, where the problems lie to express this issue. The human condition is illogical. Age- first time moving? What portion of students go to hostels first? Or flatting?
Four Personas
Timeline of finishing school to the end of 1st semester. Pressures from the parents, themselves.
Paint different scenarios -old sibling in the city? From the south?
Identifying different opportunities
Understand different dynamics within the university community also look at precedents of how people are talking to students/how they are talking to students

Chris and Josh feedback on the brief:

Add facts/research to provide context to brief to gain a better understanding
Fix the last wellbeing part- go further into connections? provide more wellbeing examples
Reinforce fact that they are a student

In class today we presented our booklet and went around viewing other peoples brief, it was good to see how others displayed certain bits of information and where everyone else was up to. We were then asked to get 10 pieces of paper and note down the most important points that we want to get conveyed during our presentation on Thursday. I found this task extremely useful and gave us an understanding of our project brief more clearly and what our intention is with this presentation

Our tutor said we should almost treat these as cue card material. Each presentation is going to be 90secs long, so realistically we should have around 9 points- speaking for 10 seconds each. This gives us enough time to quickly get our points across.

Some interesting statistics regarding accommodation in Auckland and the need for beds by 2026:

"The days of old-style university halls of residence and shoddy student flats are now officially over," Keenan said.

The University of Auckland has one bed available for every 10 students and reportedly receives twice as many applications as there are beds available.

AUT, New Zealand's second-largest university, has just one bed available for every 28 students, Keenan said.

"Over the past decade, rental growth for one bedroom apartments in the Auckland CBD has outperformed the city's prime industrial and office markets."

About 62 per cent of all purpose-built student accommodation beds in Auckland was in the CBD.

The development pipeline of student accommodation includes four projects currently under construction in Auckland and will deliver 1646 beds by 2020 and boost the total number of such accommodation to about 6600 beds.

"This new supply will still won't meet demand. The University of Auckland has identified that it needs to provide 7500 beds by 2026, or more than the entire existing supply of beds across the city."

Reflective Image for week 3:

Reflective Exercise:

After discussing our brief with another pair, we got some really good feedback and advice. We hadn't thought about the positive outcomes that come with the resolution of our problem. We also included the consequences/fear and rearranged and added more slides.

Working on our presentation slide order and coming up with a simple journey map of one of our example audiences. After talking to a few friends of mine who have had bad flatting experiences which have resulted in them having to drop out and some even moving back home to restart and find their confidence again.