Plan for the Generative Phase

There are many questions that we hope to answer through our generative phase research: What makes a location safe? What will make someone comfortable enough to participate? What types of accessories do people carry with them all the time? What types of information are people willing to communicate about themselves? How can we make an invitation that people will respond to?

To understand what safe and comfortable means, we will use photo diary and workbook methods. Participants will take pictures of their everyday outdoor environments that make them feel safe/unsafe, or comfortable/uncomfortable. They will also capture outdoor activities that interest them. As they take their pictures they will describe and reflect upon their environments and activities in the workbook. Using the pictures that the participants took, and a set of pictures and phrases we have gathered, we will have these same participants place these items on scales of safety and comfort as a collage method. We hope that discussion with the participant about their collage will help inform our design.

To help inform the design of the physical aspect of our product we want to understand accessories people carry with them all of the time. As participants participate in the workbook described above, they will draw the items that they were carrying or wearing at the moment when they took the picture.

To understand what types of information people are willing to give to others and what information is necessary for them to be willing to participate we will hold a series of sessions with four participants. Individuals will be presented with a scenario describing the kind and details of an activity. We will instruct them to convey whatever they think is necessary to encourage like-minded strangers to be comfortable with joining them to participate. They will be able to use any combination of the following: (1) a video recording of themselves via a small screen video device, (2) an audio recording of themselves, (3) a still photograph they take of themselves, and/or (4) written text. Their recordings will be shown to the other participants in turn to see if they would like to participate. We will ask them to think aloud during their decision process.