IH02-MichaelToulouse
From IEOR 170 Spring 2007
- Target Users
The target user group is frugal students who have active social or work lives and responsibilities, yet lack expensive forms of personal transportation or portable consumer electronics aside from the ubiquitous basic cell phone. Their needs include basic means of communication and transportation, and punctual forms at that, and their wants can extend to whatever makes their needs less expensive or inconvenient, because both time and money are valuable for this student.
- The Problem
The problem happens when the users have to use a form of public transportation, like the BART or AC Transit, or would like to know the weather, and need extremely current information about the state of it to make immediate plans or stick to immediate plans. They have a basic cell phone, wallet and backpack, but no computer access. The aspects of this situation that can be improved with a technical solution are finding ways to provide immediate information to older existing devices without requiring any previous planning.
- Additional Problem Context
The users’ schedules are full enough that they have places to go, and can’t afford the unnecessary delay of waiting 30 minutes for a bus or train when there’s a quicker way, while at the same time their schedules aren’t rigid enough that everything can be planned first thing in the morning, when everything relevant can be checked online. Already many forms of transportation, and of course the weather, have “check our status/where the buses are right this moment online at www.___.com” to compensate for not always sticking to their schedules. However, the usefulness of these messages is limited to those who either find it so immediately important that they seek out a computer, or go home and check in preparation for another day, or have an expensive cell phone that can access such things online. There is little latitude for those who suddenly have to go from point A to B as soon as possible, though these are the ones for whom the bus/train/weather status updates would be the most helpful. An example situation: You are a student, and you get a call and find that you need to quickly pick up items for an event held by the student organization you are active in, but you don’t have access to a car. There are three different bus routes to get to the store, but they can vary greatly in their times. There’s not enough time to go back to the apartment to check the bus schedules online. In addition, the one who called you with the problem needs an answer as to when you’ll be able to make it, so she can adjust the event’s schedule accordingly. This could be extended for almost any situation, including trains, weather,
- Basic sketch of a possible solution:
A possible solution involves some sort of simple scanner at bus stops or train stations that will send the information to your cell phone simply by waving your phone at it or pressing a button or something. Then the information could be accessed from the phone, perhaps by text messaging it if the phone is too old to support other methods.
