Design Goal: What have you learned about the target customers? What ends (functional, emotional, psychological, social) does the design need to fulfill for the target customer?
From our research, we have found that teens will attend the Boys and Girls Club for a multiple of reasons. Whether it is to get some homework done or take part in athletic activities, many teens see the biggest benefit of attending the club is the social aspect. Instead of being home alone and bored, these teens will go to the club to hangout with friends and meet new people. Our design is focused on getting more teenagers to ultimately attend the club by creating more awareness and finding out a solution to their current transportation issue.
User Perceptions: How important is your proposed offering to the target customer’s well-being? Are there aesthetic attributes necessary to succeed with the target customer? Are there reputational aspects involved? What are the key research insights?
As we market the Boys and Girls Club, we wish to show teenagers all the different benefits they will obtain by joining. It is important for kids to join because instead of being bored and possibly making bad decisions, they can instead better themselves and meet a ton of new friends. Regarding the reputational aspects, we asked some teenagers why they don’t attend the club. One of the most common answers we received was that “It is for little kids.” We weren’t very surprised by this, noting the name of Boys and Girls Club. As a proposed solution, we stated to Camille, the head of the Boys and Girls Club in South Bend, that they should try changing the name when you are dealing with teenagers so to not scare them off. After gathering an abundance of research though, we found that transportation is the biggest issue in getting more teenagers to attend the club. Camille stated that when they were supplied transportation, more than 100 kids would be coming to the club every day. As of now, the club only has one van that can make pick ups and the number has dropped to about 25 kids a night.
Problems/Needs/Opportunities: What are the target users preferred outcomes as they engage with the offering? What pain points does the target user experience with existing options? What gaps exist with existing options that may hamper the target user’s ability to achieve preferred outcomes? What are the newly emerging needs or aspirations of the target user?
The target users in this case are the teenagers that want to attend the club. Their preferred outcome is that they are supplied with transportation so they are able to get to the club. Some current pain points that these teenagers have to deal with are having to pay local transportation in an attempt to reach the club, while some will even have to walk to try and get there. Camille told us about a teen that once got jumped on his way to the club. We know that kids are not going to try and walk to the club if they feel that their safety may be in danger. Next to that, the weather in South Bend tends to error on the side of horrible and no kid should have to be walking in the freezing cold or rain just to try and attend a club. In regard to paying for local transportation, no kid at such a young age has a job that could be constantly be paying for bus fares. While a couple kids are fortunate enough to have a car, they aren’t legally allowed to be driving more than one passenger, which causes a serious problem for these teens. Ultimately, these teenagers need to have transportation that they could use immediately after school in order to get to the club.
Functional Attributes: Does the design of the offering need to accommodate specific use-case scenarios? List them in order of importance to the target customer. Does the design need to address compatibility or standards issues?
Our design offering will attempt to find a way to get transportation to these teenagers in need. This transportation will need to accommodate the following: free of charge, straight from school, and a safe ride. In the eyes of the teenagers we asked, they see the transportation being free as the most important thing. Our solution to the transportation issue will have to follow a few standards. Some standards may include a safe seat for every teenager that gets on the bus or van, as well as making sure that every teenager that gets on the bus has their own seat and are not doubling up in an effort to get more people in the bus.
Constraints: What are the confines of our project work? What limitations might there be based on costs or requirements?
While attempting to find a solution to the transportation issue, we must be aware of some of the related limitations. As of now, these teenagers don’t have a productive way for getting to the club. We can’t just go and buy vans or buses for the club because it is simply too much money, which the club can also not afford. One of our proposed solutions to this problem that we are working on is involving Notre Dame on the issue. Students can currently ride local buses for free when showing their Notre Dame identification card. We believe that Notre Dame can put forth some effort and pay the bus organization a set amount monthly, stating that they must allow these teenagers to ride the bus for free if they show them their student ID.