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THESIS PROJECT (MA INTERACTION DESIGN 2006)

Have you moved to another country or within the country or even within your city? If you have, you have relocated. Think about the last time you moved, who packed the boxes, could you find the belongings you needed most urgently on arrival, where was that frying pan again? Did you remember to take the documents you need to show to the bank when you get to the new location? There are many incidents when relocating of losing things and forgetting where you packed things. Relocating and packing is very functional and not much of a personal experience. When moving there are many different things happening at once. You are leaving behind what is familiar and comfortable and moving to the unknown. When you move you lose all your reference points and the phenomenon for this is called cultural shock. Cultural shock happens because people are not in their environments, many local customs and habits are different from yours, so you have to adapt and this is what makes it hard, to change and learn so much in little time.

ASSUMPTION:These are the three main steps when you move from one place to another. These are the three most common points in the moving process people that I talked to would bring up.

ASSUMPTIONS:People don't like packing, packing takes to much time, it is mostly do it yourself activity, it is expensive to hire a relocation company. Leaving a familiar place can be difficult. Most often people are excited about moving somewhere new. Learning a new language can be difficult.

RESEARCH: Before deciding on a specific target group I intervied several people. The initial survey was sent out to 100 of my contacts and was then passed on to others through them. In total I got 83 email responses from that survey. From this survey I got a variety of experiences from different age groups and cultural backgrounds. The age group that stuck out the most was the 20 - 30 year olds, mostly moving around on small budgets with not much direction of how to go forward with procedures.

OBSERVATIONS: One of the excericies I did was by observing a moving company uploading boxes and personal items form a family of three, the parents are in their early thirties and have a young son of three years old. The husband was at work, the mother and son were watching the movers take theire belongings from the house to the trucks. The mother (Mariam) is very attached to her things, she packed everything her self and is watching every move the movers were making. She warned them every time they picked up a box of the contents and was stressing them, the job was done slowly because she was in the way. After the truck was full and the movers were driving away, I asked her what she thought about her packing methods, and I suggested she might want to mark on the outside of the box what is inside them so they will know to be carefulll. She did not like this solution because she did not want them to know what is each box.

STORIES: Through out the research I did, I had many people starting discussions about what they thought the best packing techniques are or how things should be organized around moving. People are so divers in life including packing and moving methods. I got a lot stories from peoples experiences while packing or moving. One couple I talked to while in a group discussion about how they pack. This couple are very specific with the technique they use, identifying boxes with colour symbols to know where the box is going (storage, the house in London or the house in Italy) or even listing all the contents of the box on the outside in a word document. The other people part of the discussion did not understand how and why commit so much time to this. But when it came to their turns to talk about their techniques which they didnt realy have, they complained about never finding back items (possibly years, forgetting to open a box). So after these observations, and research I could see that there is a group of people that move several times and need tools to make this a better and more effecint process.

EXPERIMENT: In several different cities around the world friends of mine wore a t-shirt similar to the one above. They wrote on the t-shirt 'I am new in...' and then walked through the city. I wanted to know if people would approache new comers, and what they would say if they approached. In Geneva the person was approached and invited for a drink. In Milan, no locals approached but foreigners that spoke english did. So in a place like Geneva where it is very international and many people speak english the experience was easier and more successful and imformative than in Milan.

A service is a networked structure that provides multiple touch-points that will be experienced over time, which are designed to create an engaging experience. The ecology of a service is sustained by several actors, the service provider, and possible stake holders.

The service flow is the process through which you go while moving, from beginning to end and all the possible touch points through out the move.

These are the seven main steps in relocating, where there is design opportunity to create a better experience. There are more, smaller events that happen along they way. The steps that I have identified as the main ones are the most common and obvious ones that most people experience while relocating.

Step 1: This when the decision of moving has been made, and now are the questions of where am I going to live? How am I going to get there? Do i know any one there? and so on.

Step 2: At this point the packing has started. And more thoughts and questions arise. What furniture will I take? What happens to what I leave behind? Should I sell furniture, rent, give away? What will I need where I am going?

Step 3: Everything is packed. At this stage there is the unease of not having your belongings with you. Good byes to family and friends. Closing up the house, phone line, electricity, and so on. What should I do with all these things I don’t need?

Step 4: Moving of the boxes. Where are my belongings? In how much time will they be there?

Step 5: Arrival in the new location. Where do I get my keys from for my house? How do I set up a phone line? Where do you go to set up electricity?

Step 6: Un packing and first contact with the environment around. Where do I buy food? Where do I buy furniture?

Step 7: Settling in, where can I learn the language? Where can I meet people? Where is the gym?

Above are some of the prototype iterations done through out the thesis, to develop the touchpoints and test them. Some of these touchpoints were taken out. Some of the prototypes have been done over several iterations and then tested in experience prototypes, then have been modified to reach the final designs, and graphics.

WEBSITE: The website is the initial contact a person has with the website. This is where you will register to then personalize your home page, chose services that will help you during your move. The website has a blog, a comments page and a chat where people can share their experiences.

| website demo |

The above image is from the video scenario developed to show the experience that moov provides. During the filming it was also a time to observe how the 'actors' (users) were interpreting the use of the designs and what they thought of them. The final video scenario is to show as this is the service I designed, but it was also an experience and I got honest and on the moment comments from the users which will help to further develop the service.

| video prototype |