Final Project: Phase II - Define - Requirements Specifications

Task: Define target users that we want to cater the ePan to, create personas, product benefit specifications and propose a set of features for ePan.

Target Users:

1. Health-conscious (including young couples who do not have much time to cook
2. Large groups of friends (usually teenagers or young adults)
3. Families with young children

With the target users defined, we set about creating our user profiles and personas for these three groups of people (1 & 2 being advanced users, young children being novice users) and a fourth group – the anti-user (typically older, traditional “uncles” or “aunties” who are less tech sauvy).

Thus our product benefit specifications is defined as:

1. Physio-Pleasure
   - Ability to identify healthier choice of food
   - Easy to use and not mind taxing for users trying to relax
2. Socio-Pleasure
   - Allow interaction between multiple users at the same time
   - Allow bonding between diners
3. Psycho-Pleasure
   - A lively and vibrant feel
   - Stress relief and stimulate customers intellectually by providing health facts
   - Store high scores of customers who played the games on the entertainment system
4. Ideo-Pleasure
   - The entertainment system with educational and fun games suitable for families
   

To address these concerns, we proposed three features for the ePan:

1. cartoons for the kids,
2. stimulating single- and multi-player flash games for the older kid, hungry customer and the groups of friends, and
3. an educational game with heath facts for the health-conscious.

Feedback

One of our classmate feedback that the working executive who is trying to have some peace to relax and dine, may not want to be troubled by the kids making much noise while playing the games. Hence we suggested providing headphones in the ePan system so that kids can occupy themselves and be still while watching the cartoons quietly (especially when they finish their food before their parents).

Final Project: Phase I - Discover - Needs Analysis

Background of Producer: Fish & Co.

• Fish & Co. is a casual dining restaurant with over 10 outlets in Singapore.
• Fish & Co. is known for their fresh seafood served in Mediterranean style - in a pan, with middle range price.
• The restaurants have a nautical-themed ambient and a casual feel.

Need Analysis

Task: To define who our target users are and conduct a needs analysis of our target audience

Target Users: Fish & Co. dining customers

In order to do a needs analysis, we conducted a little ethnographic research by observing Fish & Co.’s customers during the peak dining hour (weekend 7-8pm) and took note of some of the problems they encounter. In addition to the observation, we took our own experiences and those of our friends’ and came up with the following list of common problems faced by Fish & Co.’s diners:

1. Orders taking significantly slower
2. Orders forgotten/mixed up by waiters
3. Time taken for orders to be served extended
4. Children bored and unable to run around the restaurant while waiting to be served

On top of the problems faced, we have also found out about what customers’ needs and expectations are. They include:

1. efficient service,
2. good food and dining experience that is worthy of the price and
3. choice of healthy food due to a health-concious society.

As for the company’s needs, we have come up with the following:

1. To enhance diners’ experience in the restaurant
2. Win over diners so that they will keep coming back
3. Earn more profits

With the needs found, in order to provide a win-win solution to address the needs of both the customers and the company, we came up with a product – the ePan which is essentially an electronic device (we have not yet decided whether it is hand-held or an LCD screen mounted to a table) that incorporates the following features and accomplishes the following goals:

1. Handheld electronic, wireless device / touch screen LCD
   - To accommodate the small dining area
   - Allows for easy play and maximum interactivity
2. Online food ordering system
   - Fast efficient and no frills way to order food at dinners’ own pace
3. Themed games
   - Occupies diners’ attention while waiting for food
   - Diners won’t actually “feel” the waiting time
   - Entertain diners, especially children
4. Fish and fun facts
   - Allow diners to have information on their food and choose more healthily

With the diners having a wonderful and smooth dining experience at Fish & Co., it will leave a good impression on the diners, making Fish & Co. a more outstanding place to dine at. This will help win over the diners' heart and and make them come back for more. Thus Fish & Co. will be able to earn more profits.

Feedback

Generally, our idea is liked by Mr Reddy and our classmates. They think that this device can come in handy to entertain hungry customers to take their mind off from the thought of "argh! why isn't my food being served yet?" The same can be said for kids (accompanied by their parents) who can get restless and run around the restaurants after they finish their food, disturbing other diners in the process.

One of our classmates said that there may not be an actual need to significantly cut the waiting time as it is not a fast food restaurant and waiting is part of the dining experience, but our stand is that we want to make the dining experience even better than it is now to capture the diners' heart and differentiate Fish & Co. from the other restaurants. Therefore we want to cut down on the waiting time.

Another classmate also pointed out that since Fish & Co. is not a fast food restaurant, customers may want to have the feel of being served by waiters instead of having to order their food from a system. Also, Mr Reddy suggested that electronic games for kids might not work out so well as they can be entertained by offline board games or cartoons instead.

Taking these comments into consideration, we have decided to go with our classmates’ suggestion and do away with the ordering component, since it has a totally different functionality from the entertainment system anyway.

Final Project: Project Theme Brainstorm

For the final NM4210 project, we are required to come up with a project theme for an interactive project. With this in mind, we brainstormed a few ideas:

• Online adminstration system for Music Orchestras
• Product to help promote tourism
• Interactive camera user manual
• System for taking orders and providing entertainment for Fish & Co.

Reasons behind the different themes:

1. Online administration system for Music Orchestras

• Most orchestras under the National University of Singapore, Center For the Arts face the problem of keeping records of their members. It is a mess to update members records every year when it comes to the period of keying in CCA points as some members may be overseas and uncontactable, and it is a chore for the secretary to record all members' matriculation number.
• Quater masters are in charged of keeping track of instruments loaning, and need to be around all practices in case anyone needs to loan an instrument, making life difficult for the quater masters
• Committee member have to keep track of all the leave forms of the whole orchestra, which becomes very messy
• With an online administrative system, members can update their particulars on their own immediately, taking the burden off the secretary. Members can submit online loan forms to loan instruments, so that quater masters do not have to bring the loan forms to evry practice. Members can submit leave form online for executive committee member approval for attendance tracking.

2. Product to help tourism

• Advertisement to promote tourism are static and not engaging.
• With an interactive product, such as games etc. promoting tourism will be more interesting and captivating

3. Interactive camera manual

• Camera usually comes with a thick book manual which does not help much sometimes as the explanation is not very clear
• With an interactive camera manual, users can interactively try out the simulated camera in the manual to see the different modes instead of reading

4. System for taking orders and providing entertainment for Fish & Co.

• More and more fish and seafood based restaurants are coming up and overtaking the place of Fish & Co. in customers' heart
• At peak hours, Fish & Co. quality of service can be seen to decline
• With the system, fast and accurate order taking can be performed and while waiting, be entertained by the entertainment system, thus improving dining experience

Based on the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, we finally decided to choose the system for taking orders and providing entertainment for Fish & Co. to be our project theme. As there has been no previous case of restaurants having a system to take orders and entertain, we can be sure that we are the first in the field. This will help Fish & Co. to be a unique dining place, differentiating from other restaurants which serves fish and seafood, and this impresssion with the system will reserve a place in the consumers head. With this, we can at least be sure that there will be a market for our product.

Assignment 3: Four pleasure analysis

Name: Tricia

Age: 28

Occupation: Banker

Background: Tricia is from a well-to-do family and had received high standards of education since young. She holds a MBA (Masters of Business Administration) from Stanford University and is now the senior financial manager of a well known bank.

To Tricia, it is either the best, or nothing. Therefore, she is willing to put in lots of hard work to get to the top of the corporate ladder. As the senior financial manager, she is very conscious of her image in front of her clients and subordinates. Being an efficient worker, clean cut is the style for her.

Although Tricia works very hard to climb the corporate ladder, she also knows that a healthy body is important to enjoy the fruits of work. Every week, she will make time to indulge in her favourite sport – tennis. While keeping fit, she also takes the opportunity to keep in touch with her family, friends and boyfriend.

Tricia is dating Norman, a 31 year-old trader. They are both very fond of each other, but have put off marriage to pursue greater heights in their career. Both of them love to chill out in places with nice and quiet ambient over the weekends to take stress off their work.

Physio-Pleasure: Being a person who is very conscious about her image, Tricia does workouts at the gym in her fitness club weekly, on top of her tennis games. (Need pleasure)
Sometimes, she likes to spoil herself by going on luxurious spa treatment, or just an expensive pedicure where she can just relax. (Appreciation pleasure)

Socio-Pleasure: As a senior financial office, clients take up a lot of her time. So Tricia will try to meet her friends whenever she has the time. Her friends are envious of her glamorous lifestyle, and Tricia takes a secret pleasure in it. (Appreciation pleasure)
Although Tricia leads a glamorous life, she is a little woman at heart and needs to feel that she is being loved. Therefore her relations with parents and Norman are very important. (Need pleasure)

Psycho-Pleasure: She needs to feel that she is in control of her life and be updated with the latest news. She prides herself for being the most updated person by using the latest technologies. She also needs to show that she is a unique person of a different caliber from the others. Therefore she will only wear the most fashionable designer items. (Need pleasure)

Ideo-pleasure: Tricia aspires to be seen as a capable successful young woman. She aspires to achieve even more career success. (Appreciation pleasure)
Due to her constant need to maintain the image of a successful career woman, she enjoys using the latest technologies that are not only of the best quality, but also exude a sense of class. (Need pleasure)

Product benefits specifications:
The phone has to be sturdy so that it can take the strains of her gym exercise. It will be a plus if the phone has MP3 player so that she can listen to music while running on the treadmill or waiting for her freshly painted nails to dry.
The phone has to be efficient to match Tricia’s speed.
It has to look expensive, unique and classy to prove her sense of style, and at the same time, feminine to suit her little woman character.
The phone has to allow her to do web surfing and email checking at all times so that she can be the most up to date with her work. It will be a plus if she can use the phone as an organizer at the same time, so that she can carry as little gadgets around as possible.
The phone has to look professional enough for a successful career woman to carry it around.

A possible match: BlackBerry Pearl 8110
The phone allows constant access to e-mail wherever you are, has a high quality QWERTY keyboard for easy typing of emails. The phone also allows Tricia to access her vital corporate databases and applications from anywhere. Therefore Tricia does not have to worry about missing new emails when she is on the move.
It has the basic function for calling, SMS and MMS, and on top of that, allows Tricia to navigate and browse websites with a roll and click of the trackball so that she can stay up to date will all the world’s financial news.
It can also allow Tricia to organize her daily plans with the organizer.
BlackBerry Maps is an added feature on the phone, which allows Tricia to get directions and view maps while on the road to meet her clients.
The phone also comes with a media player, which Tricia can use to listen music while working out.
The 2.0 Megapixels camera with built-in zoom and flash also allows Tricia to capture happy moments when she is out celebrating with her friends.
Most importantly, the pink phone looks stylish and classy and feminine all at the same time. Perfect for Tricia!

Assignment 2 - Pleasure with products (Handphones)

Behavioral

Behavioral: Compact, comfortable to hold and use, has all the basic features easily accessible, easy to navigate menus, user-friendly, practical.

Reflective: Not a show phone.

Visceral: Not very exciting

Nokia 1100

Visceral

Behavioral: Not a great performer (lack of wireless connectivity, infrared and Bluetooth), only 20MB of memory with no expansion slots, unfriendly text messaging user interface; sluggish photo and video performance; average sound quality.

Reflective: Not something which has great show off value, for Mickey Mouse fans with extra cash to spare.

Visceral: Disney-themed design, lots of Disney animation and graphics, virtually pleasing

Dmobo M900

Reflective

Behavioral: Not a great performer (lack of wireless connectivity, infrared and Bluetooth), lack of features (camera, FM radio, MP3 player), no expandable memory.

Reflective: status symbol, self-image, show off.

Visceral: Attractive, sleek, visually pleasing and expensive lookng.

Vertu Ascent Ferrari 60 Limited Edition

Bad Design

Below are some pictures of the new nokia bus taken on bus route 151. The design of the bus may look very cool and refreshing the first time one gets on the bus, but once the freshness wears off, problems with the design of the bus starts to surface.

picture (C) Copyright Nokia.com.sg (view at the back)

Notice the corner seats with the metal bars right in front of the seats?

Only very skinny passengers are able to squeeze into those seats. Bigger size passengers can only stand and stare at the empty seat right in front of them and yet be unable to sit down.

picture (C) Copyright Nokia.com.sg (Special Chairs)

Very nice looking chairs, which does not offer passengers any grip. Passengers can be seen to almost fall off the chair when the bus brakes suddenly.

Passengers realised the problem with the chairs soon and will try to change to the sofa chair.

picture (C) Copyright Nokia.com.sg (view from front to back)

Notice that the nice long metal bars along the long aisle do not have the bell button? There is no bell buttons along the window frame too! The only bell buttons are found at the metal bars right beside the doors.

Therefore any passengers who are sitting at the ends of the bus will have to walk to the door long before he reaches his stop, just to press the bell to signal that he wants to alight. It is even more fustrating when the bus is fully packed, and the passenger has to elbow his way through the crowd on a moving bus just to press a bell.

Most of the space is wasted on the sofa, causing the aisle to be very narrow. Therefore passengers can only stand in one single file. On the whole, the bus has a much lower capacity for carrying passengers than normal SBS Transit single deck bus. This problem of lower carrying capacity is amplified even more during the peak hour where most of the passengers cannot even get to board the bus.

Overall, passengers have much dissent towards the nokia bus. Many passengers cannot get on the bus during peak hours, and even if they do, most of the passengers have to stand. Passengers who are sitting down are not comfortable in their seats, and have to risk the chance of falling down just to walk to press the alight bell. With so many problems, passengers have a poor impression of the bus. It is a bus that is good to look at but not very practical.

Reflections

I think it is very important to design a bus for its usability rather than the looks. Although the nokia bus made its point of being a bus that brings you to fun through all the nice looking chairs and sofas, in the eyes of the passengers, all the design flaws will over ride the notion of "fun" with fustrated feelings, spoiling the initial intended wonderful experience the passengers should get.

It will be good if alight bells can be installed on all the metal bars. The nice looking bar chairs can also be changed to the sofa chairs to increase seats that are not dangerous for passengers use. As the bus capacity is very small, it will be better to not use the bus during the peak hour so as not to add on to the peak hour burden.