- Interview #1 - The first person I interviews was a friend from back home. He wishes to travel more but cannot afford to. His main reason for wanting to travel revolves around wanted to surf around the world. Due to this he was uninterested in the idea of VR to travel since it could not recreate that experience accurately enough.
- Interview #2 - The second person I interviewed was my grandmothers friend. She loves to travel but does not go as often since her husband died. She was very interested by the idea but said it sounded "much to complicated" for her. She said she wasn't very good at "computer things". This made me realize that the market for VR is reduced because many people dont understand it.
- Interview #3 - The third person I interviewed was one of my roomates (not the same one interviewed in 7a). He said almost exactly the same things as the person in interview #1. He travels for experiences and while he would be interested in the VR travel it would never be a solution for him.
- Interview #4 - The fourth person I interviewed was a fellow computer science classmate of mine. He absolutely loved the idea of VR travel and had the technical know-how to use VR technology. However his computer was not powerful enough to run VR and the cost to build/buy a computer that could run VR was to high for him. He pointed out he "could just take a trip" for the same cost.
- Interview #5 - The final person i interviewed was a fraternity brother of mine. He did not believe that VR could create a realistic enough experience to simulate travel.
The biggest difference between those with this need and those without are "observers vs participaters". Those who wish to travel to observe and learn were very interested in the use of VR technology to simulate travel. Those who wished to interact with their surroundings and environment are less interested in the use of VR for travel.
Even among those who wish to do VR travel there is a split between those more and less technically inclined. An easy to use platform could be built for people who who already are familiar with the concept of VR and have VR devices. These devices also often require special equipment like powerful computers. However to appeal to a larger audience it would be necessary to create a simple to use all in one VR device. I dont believe the technology to do this cheaply exist yet, but once it does this would be a great opportunity to take advantage of.
Hey! I completely forgot about the fact that some people are not very advanced at using the technology they may need to use this product. I have noticed that a lot of older people are the ones that have the time and money to travel, but many of them are not technically inclined. I think this product would appeal more to a younger audience because of this. I also think it is true that it will be necessary to have a simple product that can be bought to view this kind of virtual reality. There is definitely an interest amongst young people to travel, but I just wonder how many would be interested in simply having a virtual view of places instead of actually going to the site. However, I do think that people probably all the way up into their early 60’s are good at using technology for the most part so it could still appeal to a variety of older people.
ReplyDeleteThat is the most difficult thing to compare. Especially with social media everyone wishes to take pictures and share their experiences so VR makes it really difficult to do so. Like I said in your previous post I think its best purpose would be for educational reasons and while you're reading or studying something in history or anything and wish to visualize the occurrence you can use VR to do so.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think comparing Observers vs participaters won't be a soluble question in this industry. As I mentioned, the Pokenmon Go, was sensational stuff around the world, but it also brought privacy and security problems. I agree that i won't do this cheaply exist yet, but hope this would make better opportunity. Great Work Lee!
ReplyDelete