An empathy interview is an approach to finding out as much as possible about a person’s experience as a “user” of space, a process, an objective or an environment. We want to understand the choices that people make and why they make them.
Findings:
People in the neighbourhood love the peace and quietness of the area. Surprising, they don’t find it boring and lack of resources. I interview four people in total, and all of them are mostly happy about their current situation.
Interview 1:
- A lady who has lived on the island for two years.
- works in Manhattan
- love the peace and quietness of the neighborhood
- love the convenient transportation
- went to Manhattan for yoga class
Interview 2:
- A worker works at Jupioca- a juice/smoothies/ice-cream place
- does not live on the island
- Jupioca is the only juice/smoothie place on the island
- another one closed one year ago
- Customers are mostly workers and residents
Interview 3:
- A couple who have lived here for three years
- Literally don’t find anything they want to change
- Love the peace on the island
- Only complain is that it’s hard to get out of the island during weekends
- Trains are not on time during weekends
- work in Manhattan
Interview 4:
- A lady who works at the information centre
- First group of residents on the island
- Dislike the commercialized island
- Mentioned it was a smaller and more intimate community before
- wished there are better restaurants on the island
- big restaurants couldn’t survive on the island due to low demands
- Mentioned island house has the best view on the island with a swimming pool
- can be used as an attraction to people from Manhattan
Social structure:
Most people who live on this island are professionals either work on the island or in Manhattan. They decided to live on the island because it can give a break from the city. Therefore, remaining peace is a significant matter for the residents on the island.
This island was even a smaller community before. Since the real estate companies start to invest and develop on the island, the sense of community was lost a little.
Reflection:
What people need on the island was similar but also very different from what I imagined. I assumed this development on the island was welcomed in this community. However, it took their peace and quietness away. The challenging part is to remain this peace on the island at the same time bring people together to form a community.
