GR1 - Analysis
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.
"Sara" is a 22 year old student who spent 6 months abroad in Alicante, Spain. Her parents are 50-year old South Korean immigrants who have not visited Alicante.
- wants to show landmarks from her neighborhood to her parents
General Problem Statement
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 jong 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.
Need-finding (Observations + Interviews)
Phone call with Arjun
* 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
* 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
* Breakdowns/Workarounds
- 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.
* 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?
Facetime with another parent
* 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
* 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
* Breakdowns/Workarounds
- often difficult to get sense of things through phone camera
- feels restricted by technology, wants to be closer with her son
* Opportunities
- there is an opportunity to make the communication better.
Phone call with Joy
* 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
* Context
- wants to plan his trip
- is taking help from 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
* Breakdowns/Workarounds
- he wants to get a better the 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
* Opportunities
- the breakdowns clearly suggest that it is difficult to experience 'how a trip is going to look like' in advance and there is an opportunity
- we want Joy to be able to experience what different places at Paris are going to be like
User Groups
Two user groups
- People back home
- Parents
- Relatives
- Friends
- Tourists (planning a tour)
- People living abroad
- Visitors
- Students
- Professionals
- Tour Guides
User Goals
Parent, relatives, and friends back home
- experience the place where their children/relatives/friends are living
- recreate the narrative of stories with immersive visual representation
- Person living abroad
- ability to share his 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