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Week 3 - Context Research

This week we spend gathering data on shared rides and the interaction between the passengers and the driver.In class we saw how to conduct a context research with three methods: Observe, Engage and Watch and Listen. We where given the task to do the three in the context of shared driving.

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We started looking for carpools as passengers and found it difficult to get a ride. Using the carpool ride via IDC Waze carpool community led to us being rejected for 10 times. The IDC whatsapp carpool groups had a lot of requests however very few offers for rides.

 

After almost giving up one of us succeed and  got a carpool ride from a coworker. "We talked mainly about work, I was too embarrassed to ask to open the window or close the air conditioner and felt it's rude to use my phone during the ride." 

From this experience we understood how awkward  the ride can get when you travel with a  stranger in their car and the rules are unclear.

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Next, we tried the second angle of shared rides - the driver. At the first try we got stood up 20 minutes before the pick up. When we arrived to the pick-up point we didn't know who we are looking for. During the awkward ride, the guys were afraid the girl they picked would feel as they are flirting  with her so the conversations stayed very superficial. From this drive we understood that male and female differences also contribute a lot to the awkwardness of the ride.

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We did the third observation  in a Service Taxi looking to see how it is different from carpools. The ride was less intimate which made it not awkward. Most of the passengers were on their phone and had no interaction with other passengers. The only time passengers had an interaction was while passing money forward to the driver and when one women talked loudly on the phone and was asked to stop.

Over all due to lack of intimacy  the ride was not awkward at all, the rules were clear and everyone was doing their own thing.

After the rides observations we moved on to interviewing  some hitchhikers. We showed them some photos and asked them to choose the one that represent carpool rides the most, here is the chosen photo and some hitchhikers quotas.

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"At first it can be embarrassing, because some people prefer to be quiet the whole trip and there are people who will interact with you. You have to let the driver decide, and not start talking to him if he does not look interested"

“I don’t like the situation where I feel like I need to talk with all the people in the car, it is embarrassing to me”

IDC Media Lab

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