Below are a couple scenarios that I wrote after going through all the readings for this week regarding Paper Prototyping and User Scenarios. I actually found this exercise to be useful and made me realize that I need to make sure and be fairly detailed with my map goals. When thinking about users who could actually benefit from viewing my Woody Allen map, it is so important to develop well thought out, in-depth entities and layers in order to provide a tool that is clear and user friendly. Both scenarios I wrote are possible users who would be interested in using my map as they explore Manhattan and Brooklyn, each have different interests but if I can include a solid research base with all of my established entities both users will be happy with the information provided by my map.
1. Alice has always been in love with all things Woody Allen, and has seen all of his films at least 3 times apiece. She is coming to New York for her first time all the way from Sacramento and would love the opportunity to see as many landmarks as possible that have been featured in Woody Allen films.
Alice loves to take on new adventures and has her walking shoes ready to explore as much of the city as possible. She not only wants to locate these Allen landmarks but also know their importance to New York City history, to give her a better understanding to why Allen chose these areas or objects to put in his films. She loves learning new information especially when it involves better knowledge about her favorite director of all time.
2. Jimmy was born and raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. When he was twenty-years-old he decided to move to Japan to finish his degree in Architecture at the University of Tokyo. After graduating he immediately landed a job with a top firm in the city and never looked back.
His family has visited him numerous times throughout the last decade but because of his constant work schedule, Jimmy has not been back to New York in over fifteen years.
Jimmy has always been a film lover and recently noticed during a film fest weekend with his girlfriend how both modern day and historic cinema constantly glamorizes NYC. Jimmy knows when he gets home that he wants to explore all over the city in the areas he used to live and also the many places he visited in Manhattan to see how they have changed over the years. He also wants to see how certain directors have altered the way in which these areas are portrayed in their films, and try to understand the reasoning why they felt they needed to distort the actual realities.
It’s interesting how both of these scenarios address the relationship between the “cinematic city” — the filmic representation of NY — and the material city it’s referencing. Both also imply the existence of a mobile app, which would allow Alice and Jimmy to explore the data you’re plotting while on-site at various Allen-esque locations.