Phase 2

Roles:

Project Manager: Daeshawn Bullock

Research Lead: Aaron Alem 

Design Lead: Rylie Gentile

Prototyping Lead: Byron Richards

Evaluation Lead: Jeyi Lee 

System Concept Statement:

Concept Statement:

StreetSmart, a mobile-phone application, allows travelers to receive customized suggestions based on their current location and preferences. Upon downloading the application, travelers will be asked a series of questions to better understand their interests. People with similar responses to the survey will be grouped together as having similar interests, and these peoples reviews will have greater weight to other people with similar interest. Travel locations will be propagated on StreetSmart via destination-type databases and the reviews will be generated from the users ratings. StreetSmart connects you with local street vendors, performances, restaurants, and sites you just can’t miss! StreetSmart includes a virtual journal where one can also upload photos of their trip. Travelers can view nearby geo-fenced danger zones to ensure their safety and avoid risky areas. StreetSmart is a home for travelers; a trustworthy community that ensures all types of people can make the most of their unique trip. 

Technical Summary:

Technical Summary:

StreetSmart will be a mobile application built on the advancing technologies of location and GPS services, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. The location and GPS services will allow the application to generate travel suggestions via destination-type databases based on the user's location. As mentioned, this will make connecting with local vendors, performances, restaurants, and sites that are nearby and of interest very simple with little to no effort required by the user. This high level GPS technology will also show nearby geo-fenced danger zones to ensure safety for the users. When traveling to new places, one might be ignorant to danger zones, so this app highlights to the user places determined to be dangerous by showing a red fenced off area on the virtual map.  This map will also be integrated with the journal component of the app, such that when users upload photos to their journal, they can actually view where the photo was taken by clicking the image, which display the location where the photo was taken on the map.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning will allow customized insights and suggestions based on the user's preferences. This works by first getting the user to complete a survey upon sign-up, which records their interests. The application will continue to learn more about the user and their interests over time, by tracking which places they have rated highly, allowing to get a better idea of what things the traveler likes. This app will also provide a setting which removes the personalized suggestions, since sometimes people like to get outside of their comfort zone and try things which they might not think they like. Furthermore, with these two technologies combined, documenting your journey and finding the best experiences nearby will be as easy and convenient as possible.

In addition to the personalized suggestions, the user will also be able to filter recommendations in order to only view a certain category of places or activities. For example, if they knew they were wanting to go to a restaurant, they could just click the restaurant filter such that only restaurants were recommended to them. When these places are displayed to the user, it will include the address, closing time, rating (out of 5 stars), and a see more button which shows all the reviews left by users. The user will be able to view these reviews in two different settings; one which only shows reviews from people similar to the user, and another which shows all reviews. 

Contextual Inquiry:

Client Feedback:

 Unfortunately, we have been unable to attain a client for our product. We have reached out to around 10 different possible clients, however, have been unsuccessful at getting them to help us. We have mainly reached out to faculty and staff at UVA that work within study abroad and travel programs. This is because it would be convenient to have a client who we can meet with in person, that does not live too far from us. We specifically picked individuals who work as a study abroad/travel counselor because they have years of experience with working in this field and therefore can help us when it comes to constructing our product. 

User Interviews:

We interviewed acquaintances who identify themselves as travelers, our potential users. When selecting interviewees, our priority was diversity to ensure that our small set of interviewees best represents the larger group of potential users called travelers. Each interviewee answered 14 questions, ranging anywhere from what factors the interviewee considers when planning for travel to how the interviewee cherishes travel memories, which provided us with insights into the ways individuals behave before, during, and after travel.

As a result, 20 interviews were conducted, with an average of 4 interviews per team member. Comments were provided from a diverse group of interviewees. Their ages ranged from 20 to 65. Their locations ranged from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. Their typical travel purposes and frequencies ranged anywhere from touring 10 times a year to attending an annual business trip. Additionally, a few interviewees provided work artifacts that further explain their travel behaviors. 

The interviews were conducted in person, on the phone, or over zoom call.  When conducted in person, the conversations were recorded, so that the substance could be typed up later. This allowed for dialogue flow and increased the opportunity to make observations on their body language or emotions in response to questions. 

Note that we were not able to see travelers actually doing their own tasks. Unfortunately, travelers couldn't pay for an extra person to watch them on their vacations and observe. So all of our raw data was pulled from what the travelers told us.  

Work Roles and User Classes:

Work Roles:

• Traveler

• Businesses recommended on StreetSmart (restaurants, sport/music events, etc.)

Work Role, Traveler

A. User Class: Leisure

Task Data:

• These travelers have a number of differences when it comes to deciding on a travel destination (will look on Weather app, look at hotel ratings, a general search on google, recommendations from friends and family, etc.)

• These travelers have a lot more time to venture into the town/city they are in, so in addition to quality, they are also looking for quantity when it comes to number of things they are doing and places they are visiting. 

• Tend to document their trip with plenty of photos as well as through journaling.

B. User Class:  Business Traveler

Task Data:

• These travelers look at the best hotels nearby, since, depending on their work, they will probably spend a lot of time at the hotel, and not much time traveling the town/city they are in. 

• In the short amount of time they have, they would also like to explore the area and find fun things to do. 

• Budget tends not to be a problem for most since the trip is paid for. This will allow them to try places that may usually be too expensive. 

2. WORK ROLE - Businesses recommended on StreetSmart (work role)

A. User Class: Restaurants

Task Data:

• Looking for an easy way to publish updates to their online blurb

• Looking for a secure platform that enables them to provide their own data without restrictions on their freedom

• Would like a setting where users get notified about restaurant updates

B.  User Class: Shops

Task Data:

• Want to be able to show all the different things they sell so that online viewers can see everything in a clear and concise way

• Looking for one platform where they have the freedom to advertise their business themselves, without having to follow an outsiders template. 

• Typically reach out to other companies to advertise their information for a certain cost, and therefore would be willing to do the same for an online platform that brings in more customers to their business. 

C. User Class  Other (sports/music venues, activities, sites, etc.)

• We were unable to gather task data since couldn't get our hands on an interview with one of these businesses. 

List of Interview Questions (for traveler work role):

Q0.   Age:

           Gender: 

           Location:

1. How would you describe yourself?

2. How often do you travel? 

3. How do you decide on where you are going to go / what you're going to do?

4. When you think about a trip do you like to plan everything out well in advance? Or are you spontaneous?

5. Would you like personalized suggestions for trips? Or view all options and filter yourself?

6. Do you like documenting your trips? How do you remember your trips?

7. What sites/activities do you most commonly look for when on vacation?

8. How often are your trips business related? If a lot, do you try to squeeze in activities during your free time?

9. When you travel, do you usually find yourself not sure what to do?

10. What difficulties do you run into when traveling?

11. Do you like to do more niche, less traveled activities? Or  do you prefer doing all the must sees!
    
    

12. Does budget tend to be a significant factor when planning your trip?

13. Are there any things which you look for no matter where it is you are traveling to?

14. Have you ever had a bad experience from trip recommendations?

List of Interview Questions (for business work role): 

1. Do your business currently publicize themselves on another website?

2. Have you found any problems when advertising your company on other sites?

3. How much control do you have on the visual display of your website? Are there any restrictions?

4. Is there a way of seeing how certain customers find out about your business?

5. Would you like to have more of a virtual interaction with customers (more of an online presence)?

6. Would you say there are certain characteristics/personas that are present in your customer base?

7. How do tourists find out about your business?

8. How many customers, on average, would you say that your customers are from out of time (tourists)?

9. Do you think there is a platform which already exists that tells individuals exactly where it is they are looking for in an effective and efficient manner?

10. Are there certain things which you would like outsiders to know about your business?

Sample Interviews:

Sample Interview 1: Rocksand

Q0.   Age: 42

           Gender: Female

           Location: Chase City, VA

1. How would you describe yourself?

"Some words that describe my characteristics are friendly, energetic, and extrovert."

2. How often do you travel? 

"Work takes up majority of my time, so I tend to travel whenever I have time off from work."

3. How do you decide on where you are going to go / what you're going to do?

"According to my previous experiences, I decide the destination typically based on group effort."

4. When you think about a trip do you like to plan everything out well in advance? Or are you spontaneous?

"I like to plan ahead of time. In my opinion, spontaneous planning is too risky."

5. Would you like personalized suggestions for trips? Or view all options and filter yourself?

"I prefer personalized suggestions!"

6. Do you like documenting your trips? How do you remember your trips?

"Yes, I take pictures on my phone and look back in the future."

7. What sites/activities do you most commonly look for when on vacation?

"I look for anything that seems fun nearby."

8. How often are your trips business related? If a lot, do you try to squeeze in activities during your free time?

"My trips are never business-related."

9. When you travel, do you usually find yourself not sure what to do?

"I do sometimes, but I also often find a way out."

10. What difficulties do you run into when traveling?

"I have trouble keeping track of everything, especially when I am in an unfamiliar area."

11. Do you like to do more niche, less traveled activities? Or  do you prefer doing all the must sees!

"I don't have a preference; either works as long as it's a memorable activity."

12. Does budget tend to be a significant factor when planning your trip?

"Yes, I feel safe staying within my set budget."

13. Are there any things which you look for no matter where it is you are traveling to?

"I always value safety because trip is meant to experience fun activities."

14. Have you ever had a bad experience from trip recommendations?

"Yes. One example I remember was when I traveled based on recommendations, and I did not enjoy them as much."

Sample Interview 2: Neil

Q0. Age: 60

           Gender: Male

           Location: Cornwall, UK

1. How would you describe yourself?

"When it comes to travel, I describe myself as adventurous."

2. How often do you travel? 

"Depends on the situation, but I travel once or twice a month."

3. How do you decide on where you are going to go / what you're going to do?

"Some are business-related and some are personal. For personal trips, I tend to look for nice hotels and whether or not it is in a good location."

4. When you think about a trip do you like to plan everything out well in advance? Or are you spontaneous?

"I certainly plan everything out. When the trip is not individual, I definitely decided with a group."

5. Would you like personalized suggestions for trips? Or view all options and filter yourself?

"I would love personalized suggestions, which will allow me to have an initial list of considerations. From there, I can further filter which once I like. If I don't have personalized suggestions, then creating the list of considerations itself is a challenge."

6. Do you like documenting your trips? How do you remember your trips?

"I often journal my trip in addition to taking photos. They help me reflect upon previous trips."

7. What sites/activities do you most commonly look for when on vacation?

"In addition to hotels that I previously mentioned, I also look for restaurants. I also seek verbal advice from the hotel on recommended restaurants."

8. How often are your trips business related? If a lot, do you try to squeeze in activities during your free time?

"Most of my trips are business-related. Although I don't have a lot of business trips, I try to squeeze in activities during free time."

9. When you travel, do you usually find yourself not sure what to do?

"Not necessarily, even if I don't have something planned out, I usually find something to find joy out of."

10. What difficulties do you run into when traveling?

"My biggest pet peeves during a trip is transportation issues such as delayed planes. However, I realized this is not an issue for some areas."

11. Do you like to do more niche, less traveled activities? Or do you prefer doing all the must-sees?

"I like a fair combination of both. Travel plans are bound to change, so I try to be flexible on whatever occurs."

12. Does budget tend to be a significant factor when planning your trip?

"No, budget is typically not a significant factor for travel plans. My philosophy is having sufficient amount of money because I may never return to the place I visit. In conclusion, I try not to worry about how much I spent."

13. Are there any things which you look for no matter where it is you are traveling to?

"Consistent weather is something I value the most. The reason is that even if I set up an outdoor travel plan, the plan may change depending on the weather."

14. Have you ever had a bad experience from trip recommendations?

"Not usually. I get the recommendations from my friends, and my interest usually aligns with their opinions."

Sample Interview 3: Nick

Q0. Age: 20

           Gender: Male

           Location: Chicago, IL

1. How would you describe yourself?

"Outgoing, and like to travel, middle of extrovert and introvert."

2. How often do you travel? 

"I travel once or twice a year - I see it as the opportunity to see new things. I have mainly traveled in the United states - South Carolina, California, Louisiana"

3. How do you decide on where you are going to go / what you're going to do?

"I look at money and then look at if there's a beach town or rural city. Once the location is found, I don't really plan."

4. When you think about a trip do you like to plan everything out well in advance? Or are you spontaneous?

"I don't look up reviews and experiences. he looks on google.. bars and the first one that pops up he goes to. he makes reservations at restaurants, or renting a boat, skiing- found it on google."

5. Would you like personalized suggestions for trips? Or view all options and filter yourself?

"Yes, I would like a list of recommendations, I want the top ten best places to visit in that place! NO his personal interests don't matter in the filtering process for him. If anything, he has used trip advisor and urban spoon for food."

6. Do you like documenting your trips? How do you remember your trips?

"I take photos but don't post them on social media.. photos for you. I have journaled before - doesn't journal a lot but does it to make a schedule or to write down thoughts he has that day. On a trip, he has never journaled. He thinks that he would use the feature to tag writing or voice memos to a photo or video for context." 

7. What sites/activities do you most commonly look for when on vacation?

"Water sports, outdoor events, restaurants on forum pages, historical landmarks - I am big on that one"

8. How often are your trips business related? If a lot, do you try to squeeze in activities during your free time?

"My trips are never business trips."

9. When you travel, do you usually find yourself not sure what to do?

"No, well, yea it's difficult sometimes when your not looking at recommendations and unsure what to do"

10. What difficulties do you run into when traveling?

"Lots of fraud and police officers. he got charged 300$ to go into a club because he was American!"

11. Do you like to do more niche, less traveled activities? Or do you prefer doing all the must-sees?

"I like both, but if I had to pick heavily visited - but if you had time other niche sites would be good too."

12. Does budget tend to be a significant factor when planning your trip?

"BIG YES, when I was abroad and looking for flights I tended to look in a nearby country that had the main airport for fewer connections - the dependent cost of travel. I made a lot of decisions based on budget. For instance, instead of eating out all the time I made sure to buy groceries and cook at my place. I also tried to buy my alcohol in the liquor stores rather than bars because of the price jack."

13. Are there any things that you look for no matter where it is you are traveling to?

"Women and a night on the town in the clubs. As well as restaurants, and local cuisines!"

14. Have you ever had a bad experience with trip recommendations?

"I had all sorts of problems when traveling but mostly when abroad. I have had to deal with fraud and corrupt police officers. For instance, there was a bar that locals were getting into for practically nothing, and then when I walked up to the bar they tried to charge me 300$ to go into the club so I just couldn't go! Another time, In Mexico the policemen pulled me over for no reason saying that I was driving crazy when in fact I wasn't. They offered the chance to avoid going to jail by paying 100 dollars. I didn't want to run the risk of going to jail in Mexico so I paid the cop. "

Sample Interview 4: Crozet Pizza (Jack Pooley)

1. Do your business currently publicize themselves on another website?

Currently, Crozet does not really publicize themselves on any third party platform. They use Instagram but that's really it. There resaurant is also displayed on google by default. 

2. Have you found any problems when advertising your company on other sites?

They do not really run into problems when it comes to advertising their business on other platforms. That is because Instagram allows for them to have complete control of their content. By creating their own username, they are able to make their own posts. 

3. How much control do you have on the visual display of your website? Are there any restrictions?

There aren't many restrictions when it comes to posting their content on Instagram. Instagram does restrict profane content, however, that is not the content which Crozet tends to post, so it is not a problem. 

4. Is there a way of seeing how certain customers find out about your business?

Currently, there is not an accurate way of seeing how customers find out about their business, however, he believes that most of it is word of mouth, as well as a convenient location which tends to bring in strayers. 

5. Would you like to have more of a virtual interaction with customers (more of an online presence)?

Pooley mentions how it wiould be beneficial to have more interaction with their customers online since the world is only becoming more digitalized, and a lot of people spend time online nowadays. 

6. Would you say there are certain characteristics/personas that are present in your customer base?

Pooley states how there is not really one persona which makes up their customers. Inadvertently, it tends to be college students, however this is because the restaurant is located in the center of a college town. He mentions how their other restaurant which is located in Crozet has different types of customers (older and more families) 

7. How do tourists find out about your business?

He says that tourists tend to find out about their restaurant mainly from word of mouth. 

8. How many customers, on average, would you say that your customers are from out of time (tourists)?

He doesn't know exactly how many customers are tourists, but does not think many are. He guessed that 1 out of 100 might be tourists. 

9. Do you think there is a platform which already exists that tells individuals exactly where it is they are looking for in an effective and efficient manner?

He does not think there is a superlative platform which provides people with information regarding where they might want to go in an effective and efficient manner. He thinks there are many things which exist but none are perfect. 

10. Are there certain things which you would like outsiders to know about your business?

Yes, he thinks Crozet would like to be able to show things to people who might want to check out their restaurant, such as their ambiance as well as special events they have (bands and deals) 

Here are some scans of sketches that helped articulated travelers' issues that they ran into. These were developed after the interview with the interviewee to ensure that we understood their problem

Contextual Analysis:

 The Process of Building the WAAD stemmed from the types of questions we asked during our interviews for both work roles. We wanted to ask questions that enabled us to scrap as much information as we could about our work roles: Travelers and Businesses. 

To stay organized, we created a shared excel sheet amongst the group to add all the raw data we gathered from interviews including dialogue, observations, and work artifacts. Each group member constructed work activity notes from each of the interview results. We thought it was best to have the interview conductor produce the work activity notes for their respective interview because they had the best contextual awareness. 

We extracted our work activity notes from the contextual inquiry interviews with travelers and businesses. Each WA card held one one concept, idea, or fact to be discovered throughout the Work Activity Affinity Diagram.

We made sure each work activity note had a source ID like "I[2:3] meaning Interviewer #2, note #3" so that we can reference back things. We also made sure that each note stated the work role associated.

See below for examples:

Here are some examples of the Business Work Role Work Activity Notes

Everyone who helped construct the work activity notes read them aloud at the beginning of each WA card to start to bin them. Group members would listen and pull any work activity notes associated with them. We iterated this process over and over again until we had the main subtopics for each work role, at least at that time. For Travelers, we found the broadest bins to be planning personality types, problems, recommendations, how the traveler spends their time,  how they document their trips, budget, and choices on where to go. We then iterated again, asking, "Can any of these subtopics be broken down even more, or even moved under other ones?" We discovered that "planning personalities" could be divided into "lower planning affinity" and "higher planning affinity". We noticed that problems could be described by transportation, safety, little insight, and being in a new environment. Lastly, recommendations could be divided by sites to gather them used like "YouTube Videos", as well as bad experiences.

 Overall, we started from top to bottom, building up our way the WAAD hierarchy. The sticky notes made it easy for WA notes to be moved around after a new realization. 

Our finished WAAD.

Requirements:

After completing and examining our WAAD, we searched for work activity notes that could possibly fall into the category of a design interaction requirement. This was done by examining the users’ choice of words during the interview and grouping all of the similar notes together. Additionally, we conducted a walkthrough of the WAAD with a group of students in Rice to search for possible data holes we may have missed in the process. 

Modeling:

Model 1 (Current Practice Model):

Model 2 (Envisioned Model): 

Model 3 (Model of Choice = Social Model):

For the third model, or model of choice, we decided to create a social model. The strongest advantage of the social model is its focus on feelings, interests, and perspectives of involved parties. Additionally, interaction amongst various involved parties are clearly labeled. We believed that our work roles can be divided into a few subcategories with clear differences in goals, purposes, and perspectives on travel. For this reason, we chose the social model in order to clearly express the varying thoughts of the involved parties and the intertwined relationships amongst the involved parties.

The combination of the current practice model, envisioned model, and social model provides an improved understanding of our domain. The current practice model shows the current structures, so we are able to identify weaknesses to overcome. The envisioned model serves as guidance on the improved version of the product, which also allows us to evaluate the feasibility of the features we plan on incorporating. Additionally, the social model provides a simplified view of the perspectives of and relationships amongst various involved parties.

Here are some photos of us working in real time.. through the entire Phase 02: