My prototype was mock up of the bus I want to instill in the city as a cheaper form of transportation. To test my prototype, I went to my friends and family and asked them to do some role playing. I asked a friend to pose as a commuter who had a low income. I proposed the idea of the bus and she said that as someone with a low income, it’s nice to have a cheaper option because right now, the MTA is the only mode of transportation. I asked another friend to play the role of a commuter with a higher income and he said that he wouldn’t want to pay a higher price for the bus if he gets the same as everyone else. He felt that if he was paying a higher price, there would have to be some added benefit because it wouldn’t be fair if he got the same benefits as someone who was paying less than he was. He also added that if the monthly membership for the bus was similar to the monthly fare for the MTA, then a lot of higher income customers would just stick to the MTA. This would get rid of a lot of revenue that my business plan expected from the higher class. I then asked my brother to pretend to be a fashion designer in need of studio space. I explained that the inside of the bus would be customizable for anything that he would need. For example, the chairs could be folded down, the tables could fold down from the walls, the sides of the bus could be decorated for an event, or the chairs could turn so they’d be facing a table or the middle of the bus for a fashion show. He thought it was an interesting idea because studio spaces are extremely hard to get because they’re very expensive and new designers have little to no funding because they’ve just started their careers. He did think the idea of working in a bus is impractical because looking my prototype, he saw no bathroom, changing space, or fitting space. He talked about how fashion designers need space and lots of light for the intricate work that they have to get done. He also brought up the fact that there’s definitely no question of someone driving the bus when people are working in it.
I think that the rapid testing process was really informative, especially when it came to the response from the higher income customer and the fashion designer. i saw a lot of problems that I didn’t notice when I first thought of the idea. I’m going to have to change and come up with a few things; benefits for the members paying more, bathroom space, space for changing and fitting, and access to more light. I have to think about the fashion aspect more realistically because I think that so far, I’ve only been thinking it as something hypothetical and because of that, I didn’t really think about the pros and cons for someone who would actually have to go in the bus to do detailed work.
