Cultural Screen  Project

Week 2

Here is a list of questions used in the interview:

1) You arrive in the strange city (maybe abroad). What will you do to know more about the city, about the interesting places to visit, special food and drinks you to try?

2) What do you usually ask at the information office? / What do you usually enter as the key words for your search?

3) As a sports fan which activities or events are the most interesting for you?

4) As a garment what restaurant aspects are the most important for you?

5) What disadvantages can you mention about info office / internet

6) What are the most interesting places to visit in the strange city?

7) Where do you usually go with a girl for a date?

8) What are the most exciting and popular places to visit in your home town?

User Information:

Steve – Irish physicist; came to Germany some months ago without any German language skills. He likes history, sightseeing, to visit museums and galleries. But because of the job, he always has little time for cultural life. Steve really needs somebody who will advice him where to go, what to see, how to spend the free evening.

Marcel – last year German student; travels a lot all around the Europe. Likes to discover new cultures, attend public places, meet new people. Leads active life, but usually plans everything spontaneously. Marcel dreams about a device which could immediately create a great plan for his evening or night.

Hey Joe – UAE new student from Dubai, he studies German and travels around in Germany. He likes sports so much. He usually checks the scores of football matches and watches games. He would like to be informed with the scores as soon as possible, specially, when travelling around. He would like to watch some clips of some matches and goals.

Report of user interview findings:

The most popular sources of information about the cultural life of the city are Internet and information office. Though there are certain disadvantages of both: internet cannot be accessed everywhere and immediately, informational office has isn’t opened all day long, so also unavailable at night or late in the evening.

The keywords people ask in the info office / enter in the internet are: name of the place of interest, possible details (e.g. name of the opera, movie). The most important info they want to get is: location (full address, how to get there, possible routes from this place), prices, something specific (what is the typical food in Barcelona, what wine have I taste there). Additionally, people want to know the rating of the places they are going to visit (top10 night clubs, restaurants) and also to contribute to the life of the city (i.e. to leave their own opinion to the rating).

Great idea is not only to find the address of the place but also to provide a map, in order to assess the distance to the place and maybe to choose among the other similar places.

Speaking about cinemas, theaters, opera houses and so on, it would be great to check the availability of tickets for the chosen performance.

And of course, people expect to find information in their mother tongue or at least in the most popular languages (English, German, Spanish, and French).

Principles of a modified design:

First, the display should have structured menu hierarchy; on the home page the main sections will appear (i.e. Restaurants, Cinemas, Theatres, Discos and so on). The other levels of the menu should lead user to the more particular details of the chosen section. The ending page will contain the description of the place, its address, how to get there, all possible routes from the current underground station.

Second, the search engine should be provided on the main page. It will support multiple search criteria (i.e. user can fill in several keywords – e.g. name of the theatre, name of the actor; street of the restaurant, its cuisine). Additionally, the Cancel button should appear on the each page. Finally, the display should support several languages.