Daytripper
Mobile Social Networking for the elderly
Problem
Going to Life-enriching activities like football matches, theater shows, a good restaurant etc. become a distant reality for many elders due to isolation and good transit options. Most of the existing transit options are not 'senior-friendly'. Problems include difficulty scheduling rides, limited availability of services, lack of flexibility in fixed routes, demand for expanded service, paying for costs of transportation, lack of information about service, communication with drivers, lack of company etc.
Concept
We attempt to design a ride-sharing service that promotes 'mobile social networks' for the seniors. This service allows the elderly to subscribe to voluntary-driver based ride-share pools. A minimalistic pervasive keychain with the riders and volunteers help them make new friends on-the-go, get pool notifications and reminders, and also keep track of their credits and karma. This cost-effective keychain also helps voluntary transit organizations to extend their service to more people by spreading the word of mouth, and also to provide more effective rides by pool-management.
Process
Worked in a team of three to generate various design possibilities, did low-fidelity paper-prototyping, flash-prototyping, and also built a physical prototype using phidgets. Various ways to get user-feedback were used: Local Expert-Review at Bloomington, Management-Review at Orlando, High-Income Focus-group, Low-income focus-group, deceptive phone calls to the ITN operator, interviews and literature reviews. I also storyboarded and prepared a 5 mintues and 20 minutes video to demonstrate our scenarios of use.
Team
Kesava Mallela, Nikhil Balchandani, Praveen Veeramachineni, Vamsi Gadey
Duration
1.5 months (Oct - Dec 06)
Presentation
