Elliot Swaim, Simon Taye, Hiiro (Hero) Uchino, Jingyi (Yuki) Huang, Diogo Tandeta Tartarotti, Oluwatobi (Jemzy) Alabi
Spring 2024
Overview
GBudget is a web application designed to enhance the efficiency of the budget request process at Grinnell College. This tool enables efficient and clear communication between student organization treasurers and the SGA treasurer, simplifying budget management for student organizations. RSO treasurers can create and submit budget requests, while the SGA treasurer can approve, comment on, or reject these requests through this web application.
Motivation
The current process for requesting budgets is time-consuming and unclear. Communication between the SGA treasurer and the RSO treasurer relies on emails and Excel spreadsheets, which is complex and annoying. Our motivation for this project is to build a platform to simplify the budget request process for student organizations and SGA treasurers. Our target users are the Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs) treasurers and the Student Government Association (SGA) treasurer, who need an organized platform to manage their communications, and budget requests effectively.
Product
Once ITS approves this application, RSO treasurers and SGA treasurer can access it through the web link and sign up with their organization email credentials. This product has an RSO dashboard, which provides the basic information such as the total budgets and the remaining budgets for an RSO in a year, and enables RSO treasurers to create, modify, duplicate and delete their budget requests. A budget view page is also provided for treasurers to add item information for the budget requests. This product also has a SGA dashboard, allowing SGA treasurers to review, comment on, approve or reject the budget requests from RSOs. New users can get tutorials for how to use this app through the Help page.
Process
Our team employed an agile development methodology, which involved breaking down the project into manageable sprints and holding regular meetings to track progress and address any issues.
A significant challenge we faced was achieving a front-end design that is both user-friendly and visually appealing. Balancing functionality with aesthetics required extensive user testing and designs. We gathered feedback from SGA members to ensure the interface met their needs and preferences, making adjustments to improve usability and visual appeal. This experience highlighted the importance of user-centered design and the value of incorporating user/consumer feedback throughout the development process.
Acknowledgments
We want to take this opportunity to thank all the people who helped us make this app the best version of itself. We would like to thank our Professor, Leah Perlmutter, for all her teachings, feedback and input in class. We also like to thank our course mentor, Mae Bernacchi, for all the suggestions and support she gave.
- We would also like to thank all the peers in CSC-324-01 who listened to and gave us peer feedback through the demo presentations.
- We would like to thank our SGA treasurer, Nam Do, for the helpful and constructive advice, especially.
- We would also appreciate all the feedback and suggestions we got from our testers and stakeholders through these test sessions and stakeholder meetings.
Repository Link
https://github.com/csc-324-sga-assisting-tool/csc-324-sga-assisting-tool
