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h2. Point of View

Arjun is a 40 years old father living in Mumbai, India whose son Raj is a working professional recently moved to San Francisco
* *wants to be able to{*}* recreate the narratives of his son's stories with immersive visual representation.*



h2. {color:#660000}General Problem Statement{color}

Parents and relatives living apart want to get a better experience of the stories of their loved ones.
* Experiences are difficult to communicate
** What is it like to walk around Harvard Square or jog along the Charles river?
** How does MIT campus look like?
* Traditional forms of communication, like verbal description, images, and videos, fail to fully express what a place is like.



h2. Need-finding (Observations + Interviews)
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h3. Phone call with Arjun
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h4. Personal Details

* 40 years old
* lives in Mumbai, India
* works in a bank (a clerk )
* has never been to US before
* has travelled to three other countries (Dubai, Singapore, and Kenya)*\* has only one child (Raj, 25 years old)
** Raj works for a software company in Banglore

h4. Context

* feels lonely because his son has recently moved to San Francisco
* they both talk over phone almost every day
* his son tells him interesting stories (some sample stories below)*\* his son told him how amazing it was to drive to LA from SFO through Highway 1 along the pacific coast
** a story about his son's hiking to glacier point (Yesomite)
** a story about his visit to Google's Mountain View Campus
** a story about Stanford University's beautiful Palm Drive entrance and the oval

h4. Breakdowns/Workarounds{color:#000000} {color}

* after the phone call, he often goes to web and tries to look up images, videos, etc.. of the places to relate the stories with a visual representation
* he feels that had he been at the place before, he would be able to 'experience' the stories
* he often tries to imagine - what it would be like to be driving on Highway 1 along the pacific coast. 

h4. Opportunities

* these breakdowns clearly suggest that it is difficult to communicate experience and there is an opportunity
* we want Arjun to be able to experience what it is like to be driving on Highway 1 or walking over the crooked street at SFO?
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h3. Facetime with another parent
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h4. Personal Details

* 47 years old, mother
* lives in Pune, India
* has never been to US before
* has not travelled to any other country
* has her one child studying in US
* lives with her other two children

h4. Context

* prefers to talk over webcam/facetime instead of phone call
* wants to see her son's face while talking
* often asks her son to show the office, dorm through the phone camera 
* interested in seeing the place where her son lives.
* likes video over phone because she feels more closer to her son

h4. Breakdowns/Workarounds{color:#000000} {color}

* often difficult to get sense of things through phone camera
* feels restricted by technology, wants to feel closer to her son

h4. Opportunities

* there is an opportunity to make the communication that gives an experience of being closer.
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h3. Phone call with Joy
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h4. Personal Details

* 33 years old
* a resident of India
* a prof 
* planning to tour Paris with his wife
* has never been to Paris before
* has travelled to many other countries

h4. Context

* wants to plan his trip
* is taking help of a tour agent
* tour agent has given him a leaflet that has
** textual description of each trip location
** beautiful images of various landmarks
** review and comments from people

h4. Breakdowns/Workarounds{color:#000000} {color}

* he wants to get a better sense of what the trip would be like 
* he wants to take a virtual tour of various places so that he can make a better decision of which all places to go

h4. Opportunities

* the breakdowns clearly suggest that it is difficult to experience 'how a trip is going to look like' in advance and thus there is an opportunity
* we want Joy to be able to experience what different places at Paris are going to be like
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h3. Phone Call With "Sara"
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h4. Personal Details

* a 22-year-old student
* lived abroad in Spain for 6 months
* her parents are 50-year-old immigrants from South Korea 
* her parents live in the U.S.

h4. Context

* Parents feel concerned about their daughter living abroad.
* Sara wants to show parents that she lives in a safe place.
* Sara wants to show her parents landmarks from her stay so that they can connect together different stories she has told them.

h4. Breakdowns/Workarounds

* Some images of Sara's trip are available on social networking sites (Facebook), however: 
** most of these aren't relevant to the details Sara's parents are interested in.
** hard to establish relationships between pictures if you haven't visited the place; no continuity.

h4. Opportunities

* a better way to communicate about the neighborhood
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h2. {color:#660000}User Groups{color}

Based on our interviews, we have divided it in two broad groups. We will be focussing on #1.

# People back home
## Parents 
## Relatives
## Friends
## Tourists (planning a tour)
# People living abroad
## Visitors
## Students 
## Professionals
## Tour Guides


h2. User Goals


# *Parent, relatives, and friends back home* _(we would be focussing on the goals related to this user group specifically)_
## Experience the place where their children/relatives/friends are living
## Recreate the narrative of stories with immersive visual representation
# People Living Abroad:
## ability to share experience in a visual way
# Tourists
## experience what the tour is going to look like beforehand
# Tour Guides
## ability to better convey the tour experience to prospective tourists