Scenario

An Average Day

Alexander leaves for work at 6am, to avoid traffic. Since today is a Monday, Assata and Malik will have ballet and soccer. Atatallah has been sick recently, so Suria's asked Alexander to come home early from work to take the kids to their activities. Alexander leaves work at 3pm to account for traffic on I-94, although he might leave anywhere between 4 and 7pm, depending on how much work he has. He makes it home quickly for a weekday, but still feels rushed in getting the kids to their activities.

Because Suri’s been stressed about Atallah’s health, she’s short with Alexander and he hurries to leave to avoid her. Assata is on time to ballet, but Malik is late to soccer because of traffic. By the time he drops the kids off, he has enough time to swing by Taicho, the couple’s favorite Sushi restaurant, and pick up dinner. Dropping it at home for Suria, he heads back out to pick up Assata from her hour-long ballet practice, and they watch the last 30 minutes of Malik’s soccer practice (an hour and a half) before heading home. He grabs Boston Market for the kids so Suria won’t complain about them eating healthy (McDonalds would have been faster and cheaper), and heads home for the night.

An Average Day w/plug-in

Alexander leaves for work at 6am, to avoid traffic. Since today is a Monday, Assata and Malik will have ballet and soccer. Atatallah has been sick recently, so Suria's asked Alexander to come home early from work to take the kids to their activities. Because Alexander doesn’t normally do this, he has to get directions to the ballet school and community youth center (normally he would just ask Suria, but she’s got enough on her hands with Atatallah). Alexander uses his favorite mapping service www.mapit.com to find the directions. But this time, when MapIt returns the results for the Community Center, there are a few new options that Alexander hasn’t seen before. In addition to the driving directions and map, there is a pop up with a list of alternatives, including carpooling, a bus, and bike safe routes.

It turns out that the Community Center is only a twenty-two minute bike ride from the Rice’s house, something Alexander was previously unaware of. Alexander notes this (he would like to bike to his son’s next soccer game, but doesn’t feel that there will be time for biking today) and opens a new map for the ballet school. The ballet school is farther, and the plug-in returns results for carpooling as well as fuel emissions. Alexander sees an option to send the maps and direction to his PDA, so he syncs up and transfers it over. He then heads to work, happy that he saved time by being able to send the directions to his PDA instead of having to print them or write things down.

Alexander leaves work at 3pm to account for traffic on I-94, although normally he might leave anywhere between 4 and 7pm, depending on how much work he has. He remembers that he installed the plug-in from MapIt on his PDA earlier, and using his wireless service provider, he accesses the real-time highway delay times. He is able to see that there are delays on I-94, so he takes an overland route, saving about 30 minutes. Using the same system, he checks the route to the ballet school and sees more delays, so he asks the system to find an alternate route. As a result, both Malik and Assata are on time to their actives, and Alexander has saved so much time that he stops by Whole Foods, picks up dinner ingredients and has time to make dinner for the family (a rare treat) before heading back out to pick up the kids.

Goals

  • Spend more time with his family, especially the new baby
    • Our tool can create ways for Alex to save time by keeping him up to date on traffic and route changes, thus making more time for his family (because he doesn't have to a lot of extra time for unpredictable conditions)
  • Assist his wife, Suira, with transporting the kids to and from school and activities
    • Our tool can show new and faster routes to various locations
  • Stay updated on the road conditions to ease the commute
    • Weather
    • Construction
    • Traffic (accidents, jams, etc)
      • Our tool can keep him up to date on these things, allowing for a more plesent commute
  • Integrate technology into his daily life
    • Become more tech saavy
      • Our tool integrates various types of technology (the web, PDA, etc), giving Alex more reason to use it and familarize himself with his PDA and the web
  • Network with clients
    • The interface on his PDA can be a discussion point, can also help with spreading the word to others