In addition to the scheduled assignments, my past week has consisted of beginning to analyze the core merits of my project, consider what would necessary for a MVP version of this project, and to determine if the need that I want to fill is even being met right now.

Thesis recap:

My project is influenced by my on-again, off-again obsession with physical/digital impermanence, and what mitigations exist to help us adjust to changes that are a certain natural outcome of “living” in these broken bodies our ours.

Vannevar Bush’s Memex concept has been in my minds eyey for some time, and it details a device “…in which individuals would compress and store all of their books, records, and communications, “mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility”. (Wikipedia)

I feel that there is a litany of technology that helps store all the pieces of data that human’s create with ease, but there is nothing that converges these technologies and directs them towards humans. Or so I thought…

The lay of the land:

Between this class and “Designing Change” I’ve been looking at the various competing products and many of them only do a few things well (Ancestry, Legacy.com, Amazon Photos), they are heavily specialized (Replika, Twitter), or they just do a bit too much (Facebook).

So when I remembered that “StoryCorp” had an application I was both excited because they are an organization that I look up to, and concerned at just how much they offer. Long story boring – the app is very, very well done, and with a “Library of Congress” ingratiation a person’s family history can literally become a matter of American history!

A change of course?:

So as a result I am now reevaluating what I want this project to become, and that now includes rescoping aspects of my project to determine what niche I can fill with my work. One thing that came up on my user research was that “Ease of Use” was a huge concern for younger users in addition to older users when using mobile apps.

So if I stick with a model like that I would want to something that can be easy to use, efficient, and capable of proving utility in tough situations.

Otherwise, a change of venue might be necessary, and I could focus on a completely different form that can be more personable for users. Either way, there is room to flesh this concept out to help the most people in a relevant manner.