Original concept based on Global Service Jam 2017 theme:

A universal, faster, shorter visual communication system that is understandable without language barriers.

Thinking about a potential user group that might have a need for easier communication without barriers: Travelers

1.3 billion people are traveling abroad each year.

See the example of China. China continues to lead global outbound travel statistics, but only 20% of population speaks —or is learning— English.

More and more people have the time and money to travel, but many of them don't speak foreign languages, not even English, or don't even understand the local alphabet. This is especially true for senior generations.

Despite the global travel market booming worldwide, these people might feel excluded and insecure to travel without a group or their tech-savvy children.

How can we make them feel more confident and comfortable during their trip?

Persona #1: 40+ Asian traveler, not speaking foreign languages. If it’s a family, then it’s the parent.

Persona #2: young Asian traveler, traveling alone or in families. Speaks some level of English. If it’s a family, then it’s the child.

Original problem assumption: these people (and especially 40-50y+) don't understand the local language/ signs/ alphabet and have problems when moving around, eating and during their stay overall.

→ Is it true?

If it turns out to be true, how can we make them feel more confident and comfortable during their trip?

Problem assumptions before interviews

● They don’t travel alone, because they are too shy. (They don’t ask for help from real people for the same reason.)

● They prefer traveling with a guide as they get all the info provided.

● However, they would prefer traveling alone, as they appreciate being free to move around.

→ if that’s proves to be true, how can we transform or substitute the guide into something else to facilitate the experience and make them feel confident when traveling alone?

We illustrated the situations to facilitate the conversation and visualize the problem

To validate problems and find pain points, we went out to the street to talk to Asian travelers of the two persona profiles:

● 40-50y plus travelers (e.g. part of families) who we assumed not to speak decent English and also

● Younger travelers traveling alone (not as part of group) who we assumed speak better English.

By observing 40-50y Asian tourists, we saw that many of them seem to be traveling and moving around in groups.

A tourist guide is with them to show them around, lead them to places, help them find information etc.

How do the people who are not traveling in groups get around; do they have problems?

→ we went to talk to lone travelers or families to validate the hypotheses we had.

Insights and observations

Insight: Families use the child to navigate and do not travel outside the country without them.

The child is the one who speaks the language and/or English and helps the family get around.

Persona #1: 40+ Asian traveler, not speaking foreign languages. If it’s a family, then it’s the parent.

Insight: The younger age groups said that they generally don’t have problems when getting around.

The locals often don’t speak English, but the travelers look for information using internet and mobile apps (instead).

Persona #2: young Asian traveler, traveling alone or in families. Speaks some level of English. If it’s a family, then it’s the child.

Young Asian travelers we talked to often held their smartphone in their hands!

Grouping what tools people currently use in different situations abroad

book hotel in advance

Google Maps

Google Translate

Show picture (e.g. “not knowing how to buy something”)

Paper map (but sometimes doesn’t understand the Spanish labels)

Buy SIM card

English menu or with pictures

Hand gestures, body language

Ask people, local services, policemen

(however, they mentioned that

shop owners often don’t speak

language)

Insights and validated assumptions● People want to feel free to move → we validated this motivation via talking to young

people. → New assumption: the whole family has this need, older people, too, not just the young ones.

● We validated that older generations don’t speak English (the young family members function as interlocutor).

● Young people experienced some difficulties with communicating with locals (“Spanish people often don’t talk EN”), they rather turned to the internet or used apps.

○ There are existing solutions that people are using to resolve it.

○ However, people are using MULTIPLE tools to resolve this problem, e.g. a combination of Google Maps, showing pictures, Google Translate, asking people etc.

But what is the case with older generations who are less tech-savvy? How can we provide them with a simple solution to help them find information in a faster way and independent of languages?

Rough ideas and inspiration, backed by the first insights...

Inspiration

http://www.oscarsenior.com/

Inspiration

Alternative solution to Tripadvisor’s text and icon-based map view

Selling the concept as plugins to existing digital businesses

● Next, we went out to the streets to explore what kind of visual mental constructions people had and how they interpret and express their needs through symbols and freestyle drawing.

● We found that even if people were influenced by the emoji culture, they also used other elements such as arrows, signs (+, ?, → ) and drew in a spatial context, sometimes even collaborating with their fellow traveler.

Prototyping & Second round of interviews

We looked for a way to translate this visual mental model into a prototype that embodied our rough idea of an application called Mapp!app.

Persona:

Yin is a 48y old Chinese woman. She doesn’t speak foreign languages. She has the money and time to travel, but she doesn’t feel comfortable being in a country where she doesn’t understand the signs.

She is not very tech-savvy, although she has a smartphone, but she is not very familiar with the different applications and websites available.

Thinking about a user narrative (example)

Context:

This is one of the few occasions when Yin is traveling alone, without a group or her 18 year old son.

She is vegetarian, and she just got hungry. She doesn’t speak Spanish, and sometimes finds it difficult to read the local alphabet.

“As a traveler without speaking languages, I would like to easily find a vegetarian restaurant to be able to follow my diet even when traveling.”

Thinking about a user narrative (example)

Drafting the user journey

Yin sees an advertisement when buying the plane ticket and then sees signs at the airport telling her to download the Mapp!app

She has arrived in Barcelona and gets hungry. She would like to find a vegetarian restaurant.

She opens the Mapp!app

(continues on next slide)

Solution:

The Mapp!app! is based on a visual solution to find a response to

your question:

You can find a video that explains the concept of the app and example

of the user journey of Yin on the website:

application_explaination.m4v

The app prompts her to pick a category out of the graphic icons. She chooses the icon for restaurants.

She see options such as vegetarian (lettuce), meat, Asian (chopsticks) etc. She clicks on the vegetarian icon.

She sees the closest vegetarian restaurants around her on the map.

What is needed:

- local businesses could support the development of the application and contribute to the content- local governments could support the idea to improve thier city’s image and appeal- existing digital players such as Tripadvisor or Google, Airbnb etc. could support the project and

partner to lead traffic to their website through this intuitive user interface

Actors:

- Travelers (value proposition: To be more confident and independent when traveling.)- Local people (influencers, specialist) (value proposition: more revenue, income, more tourism,

indirectly benefitting through contribution to the local GDP and improved urban infrastructure)- Local businesses (value proposition: reaching new demographic groups, increased traffic and

exposure)

The idea’s social and business environment

Mathilde: French; Freshly graduated from a MBA E-business, I have a background in several digital advertising agencies. I love to run around the world to discover new places and people and test new foods. I think meeting and working with foreign people help you to be more open-minded.

Zsofia: Hungarian (with one of the most complicated languages in the world!); I have a colorful background at the intersection of innovation, insights, startups and marketing. I’m passionate about traveling and believe in serendipity.

Juan Carlos: Industrial design engineer and Phd researcher in industrial design and creative processes in my free time. Heavy dreamer, crossfitter and food lover.

Team “Hannah” at Global Service Jam Barcelona 2017