We chose to study the entrance and exits of drake circus initially to allow us to find how the space worked and how people interacted with the space. we chose to study between the hours of 11 and 1 pm on a tuesday. We belived that this would give us a very quiet period and thus allow us to understand the worse case scenario for lack of users. Additionally we could also use this time slot to allow us to prototype and test before deployment at a busy time. We found out the following ..
The Raw data shows us that during the hour 159 people entered the complex. However around 20 percent of these visitors were walking straight though the center. This left us with around 100 potential customers. Our idea is based around group interaction, there were 14 groups entering the complex. ( a group classed as 2 and above people) single's are still important to us as they maybe hiding or seeking others. However our app is mobile web based so we wanted a rough idea on the smart phone users. We found this out by seeing visual clues, for example it being on show or headphones etc. Therefore approximately 60 people an hour could be users of our app.
Additionally The center is very dynamic. due to its central location people tend to "float" inside and out. Therefore we also studied the exit flow of people in the second hour.
The numbers were slightly less across the board. This indicates the lack of predictability. this could be an issue when we have to work out server workloads on the application. However the same correlations between groups, smart phone users and people walking through are evident. Although it seems less groups leave the center, this could be due to the fact people spilt up after meeting at drakes to complete there own tasks and then meeting somewhere else. If this is the case then our app would be beneficial to these users.
We as a group have been informally quizzing and asking a cross section of our potential demographic about our ideas. We have found that a pleasing majority like the idea of the app however some are concerned at its implications. Successful applications integrate into daily life rather than controll/replace it. Our app they said would have to seamlessly integrate into the experience of finding others and be the first port of call over texting. They say texting is problematic and calling is un-natural. This does give us a space to fill in terms of integration.
Studying the space in drakes circus i noticed that lost people and or people using phones congregated on the balcony's and entrance foyer. This offers two useful insights, one is that there is a large amount of visual space offered, Suggesting the possibility for augmented reality. Also visual clues would be easier to spot. ie if you can actually see the logo for topshop you may just be able to reconise the small section sent to you etc. The other insight is that these areas could have a fixed beacon devise. This would allow for non smart phone users as well as advertising.
There is no obvious lost and found point for children or other users. This is, I thought, unusual because most modern shopping complex's have dedicated areas, for example westfeild in London.
Studying the journey of one user ( our social group, they were unaware of my study and i made efforts not to control or influence the events other than our normal actions)
Walking into drakes with assumed friends.
Stand next to entrance when additional friend from other entrance joins.
3 girls 2 boys.
They walk into H & M
Boys walk out and go to apple store
Girls walk into zara
Boys walk back to H & M foyer
One uses phone then goes to zara.
All five walk to topman/shop
All five walk out together and go to primark
Leave primark and center...
Studying the movements of a few individuals will help us to plan out the general area travelled by the majority of people. As you can see from this one example, there was a time when the group split and lost each other and had to retrace their steps to look for their friends, from this we can see how our beacon application would be integrated into this situation and how it would be beneficial to this group. This reinforces our decisions behind making the application as we can see how it would be helpful to this group.
Photographic background research,
We were refused permission to take imagery in the center so here are a selection of images from google.
The photos that we took of Google can help us to instantly see how busy the shopping centre can become, again giving us a view of the potential users of our beacon application. As you can see at the time the photos were taken the shopping centre was very busy, we roughly estimate the photos were taken on a Saturday due to the number of people in the shopping centre, so this gives us an idea of when our application would be used the most. We hope, due to the large numbers of people, that our application will be quite successful and in the future we want to expand it to the shops in the wider area outside Drake Circus.
Demographic of users.
we aim to obviously attract a wide audience of users however we must be realistic. Its impossible to honestly attract everyone. Our break down for our initial uptake is as follows;
Smart phone users - groups of more than 3 people - groups that spilt up - digital natives our groups with majority natives. They will be likely to be young professionals and/or students additionally we will inspire families with teenagers and digitally aware parents.
Problems with the space,
Due to the inside aspects of our chosen space we have taken tests of mobile phone reception. In various locations.We found out that in communal area's that reception across the board was fine, retail units near phone shops was very good. However some retail units had struggling reception near the back of the store.
Therefore we are deciding to allow the app to also work on wi-fi as a back up. In future versions of the project we could argue a case for signal boosters in the store to increase use and therefore advertisement potential.
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