Product Value Proposition
I was challenged by a group of friends to develop an idea for a project. The theme was extensive and interesting, so I’ve not only accepted the challenge but saw an opportunity to get a valuable product proposition. I’ve spent 3 days throughout the project and here’s my process.
The Challenge - Tokyo Olympics 2020
The 2020 Olympics will bring over 500,000 spectators and 10,000 athletes, and 80,000 volunteers to Tokyo. Going to such a huge sporting event comes with a set of challenges. Consider the whole experience of going to the Olympics - from deciding to go to Tokyo, to watching an event, to getting back home. Then choose a point in the journey that you think is the biggest opportunity to add unique value, and design a solution.
My Approach
For my research I read blogs and tourist experiences in Tokyo to understand the context and dug into the Olympics proposal for 2020. I was interested in the areas that were susceptible to become a problem and matching them with the user journey experience. After validation, I could establish a baseline for my ideas and create the first sketches.
Let’s not forget, that my goal here was to stand out and show what I’m able to do. As a Designer and a Creative I can, not only find a solution for a problem, but also, make that solution distinctive. I wasn’t constrained by any technical boundaries and took advantage of new existing technologies.
The Impact In The City
東京 Tokyo
Tokyo is the capital of Japan, overflowing with culture, commerce and, most of all, people. One of the most populated urban area in the world, Tokyo is deeply steeped in tradition and ideologies mixed with modern technologies.
Crowd Consequences
Crowded stores
Booked hotels
Late night noise
Overcrowded transportation
Consonants
Despite priding itself on having innovative technology, it ’s behind other countries in some very essential ways:
Access to WiFi
Accommodating disabled people
Outdated squatting toilets
Train stations with few escalators going down
Not many people speak English (or other languages)
The Most Futuristic Event
The Olympics 2020 is claimed to be ‘The Most Futuristic Event’.
It will take place in a total of 43 venues from 24th July to 6th August.
The most expensive seats of the opening ceremony will be around £2.100 and cheaper options will start about £83.
Tech Proposition
Panasonic will place Self Driving wheelchairs robots to help carry bags for elderly and disabled people.
Voice, signs and symbols translation device app ‘VoiceTra’
Tech focused on Machine Learning and Automation
Selft-Driving taxis
Robots
Understanding Experiences
How should I start?
I’ve contacted some of my friends that I know travel a lot, and got some insights of their travel journey. Surprisingly, 4 of them have been to Tokyo last year!
Rhodri
Loves to travel. Lived in 3 countries. Been in Asia.
Patricia
Tennis and travel lover.
Kirstyn
Went to Tokyo with a friend in November 2018.
Peter
Went to Tokyo with a Japanese and an English friend in October 2018.
Mark
Sports lover. Went to Tokyo with 2 friends in May 2018.
Gonzalo
Went to Tokyo with friends in February 2018.
Rhodri’s Experience
Rhodri is very methodic on his profession and highlighted the fact that there was no way to quickly see the prices on his own currency.
Now, thinking about it, it is one of the biggest struggles when abroad and it is something that we all go through multiple times a day.
He also mentioned the ´fear of missing´ what’s around. Specially in crowed areas and after walking miles, it’s exciting to turn left or right. These decisions can change the way we’ll spend that day. We always think we’ve made the best decisions, but what if we missed something better?
Rhodri travelled alone so he was afraid to lose his only debit card. He would feel better if there was a way to travel with 2 cards. One could be in a safest place during the trip.
He was always trying to run from the crowds and finding more relaxed places where he could eat and drink.
Patricia’s Experience
When traveling to a different country, Patricia makes her planning months in advance.
She prefers to visit multiple places at a time and don’t waist any minute of her journey.
She practices Tennis and she’s a big fan of Rafael Nadal. She’s considering going to the Olympics and visiting the amazing city of Tokyo. She says she would love to combine a cultural trip with sports.
Patricia would look into the best seats to watch the games and his favourite players.
Kirstyn in Tokyo
While in Tokyo, Kirstyn struggled in finding the best and traditional places to eat and drink. Apps like Foursquare and her exhaustive research weren’t enough.
Most traditional places offered a seat on the floor and she really wanted to find a more comfortable and at the same time, traditional place to go.
One interesting thing I’ve found was that she’ve tasted food that if she knew the translation in english she would never have eated it. - Translator apps could use this to advise the users to don’t translate it in a fun way.
I’ve felt that there was a sense of satisfaction but again, anxiety of finding better places.
Peter in Tokyo
Peter is a fan of Japanese culture. He’s Chinese and had the opportunity to visit with family when he was 12yrs old. 13 years later he went back with a Japanese and English friend. He felt that it was hard to plan on where to go with them with such different interests.
Language wasn’t a problem but he felt he could have explored more based on his interests. Maybe if he knew that there was something going on or a nice place he would like to go nearby, his friends wouldn’t be so reluctant in following him.
He was worried that him or his friends could do or say something that would offend Japanese people.
They did a lot of tourism group guided and didn’t spend much time exploring has he would like.
Mark in Tokyo
Mark is into sports and when travelling, takes care of his budget. He couldn’t find something that he had struggled with in his trip but, If in Tokyo while the Olympics, he would look into more cost effective events he could go to and places where he could watch the games live.
Gonzalo in Tokyo
Gonzalo highlighted that it was difficult for him to find the prices of the tourist places in advance. Google translator and Monzo were super helpful during his trip. Also he found that people in Tokyo can understand and write in english but they don’t speak.
Findings
After speaking with people that I know well through phone I could almost picture them on such different environment. I didn’t follow a guide, but there were some common questions that I wanted to ask:
How did you planned your trip? What services did you use?
They all answered in the same way: long period of research, blogs, and same prince comparison services. No one seamed to struggle.
Did you struggle with the crowds?
They were all prepared for it and avoided as possible the rush hours. But generally no one likes a queue or crowed areas.
Do you think that someone with disability would struggle with their mobility?
I’m sensitive with this point and I feel that people don’t usually notice this. The common answer was that they would in crowed places. Looking online I see that there are a lot of places with 1or 2 steps in the main entrance and that there is a big focus in assuring that the accessibility won’t be a problem during the Olympics.
Was there something that you’ve struggled the most?
Most of them did! The common feeling was fear of missing something meaningful for them that they’ve missed nearby where they’ve been. An experience, a place to eat, to drink, a toilet, a reference point, (…)
With such big environment where everything claims attention, it’s hard to find a direction.
Would you consider going to the Olympics?
Only people interested in sports would love to go and combine sports with travel. They wouldn’t go just for the sports. Which tells me that the tourism is a huge part of this experience.
Was there something that you regret doing or not doing while there?
Everyone had the feeling of missing something. Probably is common and that’s why people return to places like this. But it’s not always easy to return to such over the budget place.
Customer Journey
Who will go to the Olympics?
Volunteers
Olympic fans
Someone’s close to who’s competing
Someone’s who’s part of the event organisation
Someone’s into sports and Japanese culture
Corporate partners
How’s the travel experience for the users?
1st Step: Search and make the decision
2nd Step: Plan and explore
3rd Step: Collect and share memories
Findings
This exercise helped me to identify potential problems and to consolidate ideas.
By helping people that will go to the Olympics, I would help travellers that will to Tokyo because they have a lot in common - language and cultural barrier.
Not everyone that goes to the Olympics will face these barriers but I also know that there will be an app focused on the Olympics that should assist the event customers needs.
Words Mapping
I wanted to analyse also the feelings involved with the experience of being in Tokyo and attending the Olympics.
I’ve found 5 main feelings: Adventure, Risk taking, Being tolerant, Experience of being inside a movie, Being an actor of your own movie, Having fun.
And 3 main factors: Motivational, inhibiting and trigger. This helped me to explore the solution as innovative as possible.
Problem Definition
Avoid crowds
Being in the most populated city in the world in such a busy moment like the Olympics, there will be large gatherings everywhere. It will be difficult to know if the place that I’m going to is crowded and knowing how to avoid crowds.
Find the best place to go nearby
When in Tokyo, there will be moments where the traveller will need to find a place nearby to seat and rest, eat, go to a toilet or even get free wi-fi.
There will be noise, lights and lots of people everywhere. Everything will claim for attention and it will be hard to find the best places around that suits the traveller needs and interests.
Currency barriers
No quick way to convert prices into their own currency.
Counting money in the wallet, understanding the prices from a market stall or from a menu might be hard.
Sketches
Sketch out a solution
I’ve found that an app could solve some of the users expectations by showing them what is around. There can be events taken place inside or outside the Olympics area.
I would like the user to:
Identify crowds near him,
Know how big the crowd could be,
Know if the crowd has Olympic attendees (it means they have a lot in common),
Understand the reason for the crowd,
Know how to join or avoid it .
A crowd can be a high volume of people condensed in a restricted area. There could be multiple causes. The idea is to give enough information for the user to decide if he would like to join or avoid it.
The sketches above seam to focus too much into a map solution and that wasn’t my goal. I would like the product to intuitively give the user a different experience from others. The feeling that they’re inside a reality that they can control and they’re the main actor - first person camera feeling. This app will be seen as complementary of others.
The user should be able to:
Identify places near him that matches his preferences,
Find if any of the people he follows in social media have ever been in that place,
Know if there is any Olympic attendee in there,
Set on a mode to convert a currency into theirs.
Product Solution UI
The concept
The user should have the feeling that they’re inside a reality that they can control where they’re the main actor.
Knowing the surroundings from an unknown place might seem simple with a map. But what if there is an app that only shows you places that are relevant to you?
Nothing has more power than the pages you follow on facebook, or the people you follow on twitter or instagram.
I would like to create a new social community where famous people could have a privilege access so that they could add content that would be meaningful to the other users.
When opening the app for the first time the user should be given the option to create an account or not. By creating an account they could connect it with multiple social media or select the things they’re interested on or people they like (based on suggestions).
The app will use Artificial Reality technology based on their location (limited radius) and camera. It will also be connected with the main app of the Olympics, Google and other social media. They can use it in the event areas or outside.
1. Street view
When inside the app, the user should be able to identify if there are any crowds or places of his interest.
A crowd is represented by a white dot. The dot size will represent the crowd volume.
A place of interest is represented by a horizontal shape that will be placed on top of the landmark in perspective. Each place will have a colour that represents a category. When pointing to a place of interest, the name from the place should be seen with the category above it.
At the top of the screen, there will be the current location name (potentially also in Japanese).
At the bottom of the screen, there will be 3 options.
The button in the left will give the user access to the currency converter feature.
The button in the middle will give the user access to the filters - e.g. bars and food, traditional food, toilets, battery charger points, wi-fi and others. Also, options like accessibility and food taste specifics.
The button on the right will give the user access to the app settings - account, language, currency and others.
2. Select a place of interest
By selecting a place of interest, it will be highlighted, the screen will fade out and a new modal view will be seen at the bottom of the screen.
The user can see how many Olympic fans are on that place, how long it will take for him to get there (by walk).
They can also see if any of the famous people they follow have been there in the past.
By scrolling up from the panel, it will reveal more info like picture from the place, opening hours, reviews, map preview from their location and others.
3. Select a crowd
By selecting a crowd circle, it will have the same screen effect from selecting a place of interest. This time, that circle will be highlighted.
The user can see how many Olympic fans are in there and how many posts from that location have been sent to social media recently.
This place is ambiguous but by scrolling the panel up, the user will be able to find more information about what is going on in that area.
4. Crowd details
When pushing the crowd details panel up, the user will be able to see underneath the top info, some places that are related to that location. The user can select them to access more details. There will also be a gallery with the latest pictures shared online from that location. This will help the user to identify the reason fro the crowd. In this case it might be a Fun Zone!!
5. Currency Converter
By selecting the Currency Converter option from the main screen, the screen will go into a different mode. There will be a modal at the bottom, and the screen will show an area that will identify numbers.
The sensible area in the middle will convert numbers based in the currency from the settings and the current exchange rate (displayed underneath).
The user can scroll the panel up and it will show more info like the exchange rate graph.
The user can select the cross on the right t dismiss the currency converter mode and go back to the street view.
Learnings
This challenge was a marathon. I’ve learned so much from the interviews with my friends that I would love to do this again for a different subject.
Potentially, the things that my friends experienced from their travel, will be the same as many others travellers.
I’m happy that I’ve found a starting point that can minimise some of the issues that Tokyo Olympics 2020 attendees can face.
This project is big and there is still a lot to explore but the problem solving subject is solid, and it’s based on facts.
I will definetly add Tokyo into my wish-list of cities to visit.