Hi, so this'll be a practice interview session. Normally, your interviews might be anywhere from an hour or longer. But today, we're going to do a short interview of about 10 to 15 minutes. As you can see, I have my interview protocol with me, and this is my guest, Jasmine Corr. All right, so we'll begin. Hi, my name is Kentaro Toyama, and I'm here today to understand better how people use GPS devices, and particularly, for navigating from one place to another. This interview will take about 10, 15 minutes, during which time I'll ask you some questions. Throughout I'd like you to treat me as if I'm somebody who doesn't normally use GPS. Just pretend I don't know anything about the subject. A couple things before we start. The first is that everything about this interview will be confidential. So even if we publish information that we use from this interview, it will not be linked in any way to your name more than anything that's personally identifiable to you. If we quote you in any documents, they would also not include your name. If there's anything you really don't want on the record even despite that confidentiality please let me know and will make sure that it's not in any reports. And also all of this interview, it's going to be entirely voluntary on your part. I don't expect that there would be any uncomfortable questions but if there are any, you can let me know and we will either exclude them. Or if at any point you feel uncomfortable and want to exit the interview, please let me know and we'll just cancel the entire process. Do you have any questions for me? >> No, that sounds great. >> All right, then let's proceed, so first off, just a few background questions, how often do you use GPS devices for navigating? >> If I am in a new town then almost every time I drive, and then in town, my own town, then I would say like 50% of the time. >> And how many times, let's say a week, would that be? >> In a week, I drive everyday, I would say 14 times a week. >> 14 times a week is how often you use the GPS device? >> Yeah. >> Okay, and in general, are you happy with GPS technologies? >> Well I am. >> So you think that they help you do what you need to do? >> I think so, for the most part. There are moments which are frustrating. But overall, they get me from point A to point B, so I'm pretty happy about that. >> Great, so I want you to think back to your most recent time that you that you used a GPS device, and tell me a little bit about that. So you can begin with where you were, where you were going. >> Okay, so I just got back from California. So the last time I used was in a trip from San Francisco to San Ramon. >> By the way, do you mind if I use a audio recorder at this point? This is just for my own purposes. It will just capture everything that you're saying, so I don't lose anything. >> Yeah, sure. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so the last time I used a GPS device was on a trip from San Francisco to San Ramon. >> Great, and where exactly were you going from San Francisco to San Ramon? >> So in San Francisco Mission Bay to San Ramon, my house. >> I see, okay, and this was, when you say your house, this obviously wasn't your house. >> Yeah, my family. >> Okay. >> I was with my sister. >> Great, and how long did that trip take? >> Gosh, that day took at least two hours. >> Okay, so this was a pretty long trip. >> Yeah. >> And when exactly did you turn the GPS on? >> Time wise, I remember 5:30 PM, and I was in the parking lot. And keeping my fingers crossed that the signal would work. Because it was I think at least a five or six story parking lot. I was parked on the fifth floor, so I turned on the GPS device inside the car as well as on my phone. >> Okay, so that's really interesteing. So you use two GPS devices. >> Yes. >> And why is that? >> Hoping one would start sooner than the other. And I've just had experiences in there like one fails then I can rely on the other one. Plus the cell phone one is better in some ways, wherein it tells me what the fastest route is based on the current traffic flow, and that's really helpful. Whereas the car device is kind of my fall back option just in case the cell phone hangs, they run out of battery, or there's some problem with the connectivity. >> Okay, that's really interesting, and is this something that you do often, or is this unusual? >> As long as my car has a GPS device, I do use two. >> You use both? >> Yeah. >> Okay, that's great, that's interesting. And in this particular case, did you have to interact with the GPS once you set the destination? With either GPS device? >> Of course, all through the way. Because at 5:30 PM, Bay Area traffic is pretty bad. So on the cell phone, I kept getting messages on, hey, if you take this other route, you will save 5 minutes or 15 minutes. So that's one kind of interaction. The second is that sometimes the cellphone says, take exit number XYZ. And on many exits the exit number is not that visible, what's visible is the name of the road. So the car GPS gives the name, or the cellphone one will give the number. So one or the other works, so that's why I intend to look at the map on the car device, and then say, okay, this is precisely the exit I should take. >> Okay, so it's sounds like there is at least two different instances when you interact with the device even while you are driving. >> That's correct. >> One is to let the gps know whether they should take an alternate route or not and whenever it ask you, that do you ever actually take an alternative route?. >> I have learned through experience that if it's just five or seven minutes, it's not worth it and if it's like 15 minutes or 20 minutes then I take the alternate route. >> Okay, that's interesting. So it suggests maybe that you might even like the possibility of turning off those notifications unless it's a significant time savings. >> I don't know about it, the one frustrating moment I had was I regretted not taking the alternate route. There was an option of cancelling which actually I really dislike. There is no voice command that I can give. I have to look at my cell phone while driving. And I'd have to say, like no, like ignore it. I don't remember what the command is, but I have to say like just stop bothering me with this alternate route. But I regretted not taking the alternate route, and there was no way to ask for that alternate route again. >> I see, I see, yeah, so you would like a better kind of voice enabled commands. >> Yes. >> Not having to actually press buttons or screens. >> Yeah. >> Great, and the second issue that you had was that sometimes it's hard to tell which exit you're actually being asked to take. Because the names or the numbers are different from what you see on the road. >> Yes, plus I'm so bad at estimating what 0.3 or 0.6 mile is. So I need some visual indicator or an image, which is helpful. >> Okay, that's terrific. Did you have any other passengers on this particular trip? >> No, I was driving by myself. >> So you were driving by yourself, so it wasn't possible for you to have let's say your passenger do some of the navigation for you, anything like that? >> No, and it just doesn't work for me, if somebody else is telling me what to do. It's an additional distract. >> Right, terrific, and then anything else on this trip that you remember interactions with the GPS device, anything that it did that frustrated you or anything it didn't do that frustrated you? >> It took me through this very crazy, I don't know if you're familiar with the Tilden Park Area. It's like in the mountainous or hilly kind of region, and I hate driving in the hills. They're like very narrow roads, so the GPS suggested that would be the fastest route, and I had no idea what the topography of that area was like. And once I was on it, I realized that, gosh, this is going to be a pretty crazy drive for me. And there was no way now for me to say can I exit this route, and can you give me an alternate route? I was stuck on it for at least 30 miles. >> Okay, that's very interesting. So it took you on a kind of curvy moutain route that you didn't like, and you couldn't exit even if you wanted to. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Those are great, anything else that might've happened on this trip that was unusual, or that you don't like? >> No, I think that was about it. >> And in this case, would you say that this was a typical kind of trip that you've been on with your GPS device or this is unusual? >> I think the mountain drive was pretty unsual. Other than that, pretty typical. It's always the same, I'm in the parking lot. I'm hoping that the GPS device would start, one or the other, because it takes some time to locate where you are. And that's time lost and every minute lost means a long wait in the traffic. So that's always there. The directions around the exits sometimes are a little confusing, that's also there. So I think it was pretty typical except for the crazy mountain drive. >> Great, and you also mentioned that this was a two hour trip. >> Yes. >> Is that usual for you? >> Not very usual, but in the Bay Area, it's more typical. >> Okay. >> I'm there like a month or the year. >> Great, well, so that's a great example of a trip that I think is relatively unusual for you, and that it was in a place that is not where you normally live. And there are several instances where you mentioned things like the detour through the mountains that were unusual. I'm actually interested in these kinds of unusual trips. Can you think of any other recent unusual trip that you've taken that you could tell me about? >> Let me think, yes, I went to this place close, again, from San Ramon to this place before Santa Cruz. I believe it's called Boulder Creek or Bear Creek, Boulder Creek. And it was for a friend's daughter's birthday party. I've never been there before. And again, gosh, the fastest route or probably it was the only route, I don't know what it was. But again, it was at least a 20 mile drive through the mountains, so yeah, that was again not a very typical drive. >> And did you use a GPS for this trip as well? >> I dis, I did, in fact, I was very frustrated about the mountain drive, having to go through it a second time within a week, that I started shouting. Come on, said Siri, please show me an alternate route, knowing that that wouldn't work. >> And did Siri respond in this case? >> Siri most often tells me that it doesn't understand what I'm saying. >> Are there other instances that you can think about where you've gotten some kind of unusual use of the GPS? Whether it was unusual circumstances, or a situation when the GPS device provided some unusual help? >> Yes, I didn't know the iPhone app that I use for navigation, that has this feature where I can find what are the gas stations nearby, and other things, there were some six options. Once I accidentally clicked on the screen, I don't know in which form, but it was a left or a right drag, a bottom to up, or I don't know what I did. It popped up, and that was really helpful. But I still don't know, if you just asked me today, that can you make sure that it pops up, I am not sure that I'll be able to do it before school. I'll have to tinker with it a little bit, but that features was a surprise for me. >> Okay, so it sounds like you accidentally set off the feature that finds, is it gasoline stations? And that was- >> Yeah. >> Useful to you. >> Yes. >> Okay, terrific, anything else that might be relevant? >> Let me think, I think that's about it. >> Okay, wonderful, well, thank you so much those are all the questions I have for you. What we will do after this is I'll get together with some of the other people who are conducting interviews, and we'll take all of this information, put it together. We'll compile a report for our purposes. If you're interested, we can send a copy of the report to you, as well. But otherwise, if you have anything else you'd like to add, please contact me. You already have my email, and that would be great. Any questions? >> That's it, thank you. >> All right, well, thank you again. Okay, well that was a sample interview, I think about 10 to 15 minutes in length. Normally, of course, you would go on for longer. There are lots of interesting issues that she brought up that I think could be followed up on. Things like why did she use two devices and why does she use them all the time? Has she, in fact, experienced a situation where one of the other device failed? There were interesting questions around additional features like ways to use the GPS device, especially on the smart phone, without having to physically interact with it. Maybe just through voice commands, as well as features that are difficult to discover, but which are useful, such as how to find a feature where you can find the nearby gasoline stations. All of these are interesting user needs that could be explored, and with further analysis could lead to recommendations.
