Abstract:

As part of a Masters Programme in one of Ireland’s largest universities, the students have the option to either complete an individual dissertation project, or they can work as a team of 4-6 students to develop a large, industry-ready software system that addresses a social need. In Semester 1 of the 2023-2024 academic year, six (6) students developed a project to create an easy-to-use, aesthetically pleasing rental listings application called “Renting Made Easy” (RME). The application provides a range of functionalities, including a comprehensive search experience, applying and managing rent applications, and property browsing.

A key aspect of this project was the way in which the development was undertaken to simulate a work-based approach, where students were required to follow an Agile software development model over a 13-week period, with lecturers acting as end-users, and weekly meetings (“sprint reviews”), that included presentations, to review their progress. The students had a diverse range of technical skills which they had to share with each other as well as work in a pressured situation in a group setting, from which they learned a wide range of both technical and soft skills.

The resulting application reduces the anxiety of prospective tenants when searching for accommodation by streamlining the process. The system was developed with datasets including property listing information provided by Zillow, coordinate data from Google Maps, and various crime data from Open Baltimore. With this data, a set of property services scores and crime safety score were created. Additionally, a recommendation system is incorporated into the application, and uses the collected data to make property recommendations to users via content-based filtering.

The evaluation approaches included usability testing, accessibility testing, cognitive walkthrough, the think-aloud protocol, and expert feedback. The feedback indicated that the system delivered an intuitive and easy to use property rental website, that displays standard and novel property details to users more clearly than other existing websites, and to provide users with property suggestions using a built-in and thoroughly evaluated recommendation system.

Keywords:

Cloud Development, Team-based Development, User Experience.