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.

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

Phone Call With "Sara"

* Personal Details

• Sara is a 22-year-old student who lived abroad in Spain for 6 months. Her parents are 50-year-old immigrants from South Korea who live in the U.S.

* 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.

* 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.

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.
• Family members
  • Interested in "mundane" details of daily life. (e.g. Is there a park nearby? Which market do you go to?)
• Friends:
  • Interested in "highlights" of stories.
• Tourists
  • experience what the tour is going to look like beforehand

People Living Abroad:

• ability to share experience in a visual way
• Wants to differentiate between information shared with family and friends.
  • e.g., The location of the nightclub in Barcelona where I was out until 4am vs. My school's campus
• Tour Guides
  • ability to better convey the tour experience to prospective tourists