11.27 Prototyping & Finalizing Our Concept

Our meeting of the day was split into two parts. First, we tested some hypotheses we had about intervening at bus stops to promote for stranger-stranger interactions. Following our prototyping session, we synthesized our takeaways and opted for another approach to promote for these interactions. Our final proposed concept aims to connect strangers via a consolidated platform within Pittsburgh that disseminates local information via a digital platform for Pittsburgh-based events.

Part I: Bus Stop Prototyping

Bodystorming in studio

Testing prototypes at the Market District bus stop

We began the session with testing out a low-fidelity prototype of our proposed concept. Our idea, to reiterate, was to create physical installations at a bus stop in order to promote for interpersonal interaction by visualizing similar interests.

We put out two whiteboard with voting dots, and with prompts that indicated “I am a tea lover” or “I am a coffee lover,” along with stools in front to engage individuals to sit. We set these out in front of Market District’s bus stop for about 2 hours. During this study, we also spoke to some people who were interested in what we were doing, and also talked to some individuals who sat or chose not to sit at our stools.

During this study, we observed what people were doing when they saw these ‘out of place’ whiteboards, and the behaviors they carried while waiting for their busses. What we learned was that most people had no trouble seeing the whiteboards, but few actually engaged with them. One lady we spoke to said she saw the stools, but didn’t choose to sit because she had been sitting all day already. Another lady we saw was sitting at the stools, but when interviewed she told us she did not see the whiteboard information at all. A lot of people were curious about the project, but none actually engaged with strangers while interacting with it.

Part II: Reframing Connecting Strangers

We went back to the drawing board after our prototyping experiment. We realized that we may have to rethink our assumptions about bus stops as a place of intervention, given that those we spoke to seemed most interested in their bus and less interested in those around them (i.e. not in the right environment for interaction).

We therefore went back to our research, and brainstormed around environments where individuals are in the mindset of opening up and interacting with strangers. We first brainstormed around activities where individuals may feel unpleasant doing things on their own (i.e. watching a movie alone, eating out alone, etc.), and then thought about possibly intervening in the settings where these activities take place (i.e. theatres, concert venues, restaurants, etc.).

Looking back on our research, we realized that several of our interviewees did talk about having difficulty figuring out what events are available to them in their area, as well as citing difficulties coming into contact with others outside of their social circle. As a result, we were left with the following ‘points’ to keep in our ideating:

• Common interests as a liaison for connection
• Connecting strangers
• Maintain ties to the DIY cultures of Pittsburgh
• Reveal subcultures (niche) present in Pittsburgh

We tossed up some ideas surrounding dating apps, and connecting people with others in their area based off of their common interests. We looked at some apps currently in the world, including:

• https://www.mealsharing.com/
• https://www.cookening.com/
• http://www.eatwithme.net/welcome
• https://www.eatwith.com
• http://likelunch.com/
• http://letslunch.com/
• http://imdtl.com/
• http://www.meetup.com

In addition to creating linkages virtually, we also looked at the physical linkages that these interests may manifest themselves in. We went back to our earlier explorations of place, neighborhoods, and activities.

Our Final Concept

We therefore propose to design a participatory information-dissemination platform for Pittsburgh that revolves around the passing of information on physical flyers. Our platform would source event and local information from local businesses and users, and present this information on an interactive web-based application specifically for Pittsburgh. Additionally, individual users who are interested in events but do not have ‘buddies’ may request to be matched with others who are also in the same situation, thereby matching up strangers who may otherwise not have the opportunity to engage in these community events. This platform would present transparency of event happenings within Pittsburgh, and give users who may never visit a business or neighborhood (for example, a Garfield resident who never visits Homewood’s businesses) the chance to see what events are being advertised within that neighborhood.

This platform is different from:

• Meetup, because it connects individuals to events, and individuals to one another rather than connect an individual to a group
• Craigslist, because it uses a graphical interface and also involves an aspect of social networking
• Dating apps, because it does not connect individuals on the basis of finding partners, but rather based on their interests in one-off events (and possibly their track record of attending similar events)

Some details:

• Users or businesses can contribute to the board by taking a photo of a flyer, and uploading this image to the platform. Information about the event (name, location, date, time, etc.) would be logged, as well as where (cafe, restaurant, street corner) this information was seen. This create a network of ‘nodes’ where information is disseminated. The assumption is that nodes could be the ‘event-in’ for certain genres of events (for example, food events at a cooking school and music events at a concert hall) such that individuals can explore what there is around them with more ease.
• Unlike traditional bulletin boards, where they are overgrown with outdated information every week, digitalized flyers will have an ‘expiry date’ where they would be removed from the community board automatically.
• We propose a rating function for events, much like Yelp ratings for businesses, where individuals can rate the entertainment value of events hosted by companies or groups. This enables individuals who may have never attended an event to gauge whether it is worth their time.