@rrhoover To be fair, all two-sided networks have the same challenge early on. Even Uber had to start somewhere! Thanks for replying though as all the exposure helps solve the problem.
In all seriousness, we know we're up against it - there's a lot of friction when it comes to downloading apps. That's not to say it's not worth raising awareness that Beacons could have more of a social impact, rather than retailers using them to blast annoying ads at us (this is probably why they didn't take off BTW https://www.bloomberg.com/news/a...).
Plus remember this is V1, we're looking at an Android version that doesn't require an app (e.g. Eddystone to Chrome).
To be honest, we're surprised no one has leveraged Beacons to create something like this before. Our hope is that by raising awareness of 'Beacons for social good' it'll get more entrepreneurs to start unleashing the power of the location-based sensors in smartphones to benefit society. Perhaps the device manufacturers will focus on this too, who knows??!
PS it's worth saying we've created this to help people, start a conversation and 100% of profits will go to charity.
PPS Thanks for Hunting us Raz!
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Love the idea and the purpose. How'd the testing for this product go? Find that people were willing to use it? How have your users found that this is better than asking other riders face-to-face?
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@bryanpostelnek Thanks Bryan!
We conducted months of in-field testing and lots of user interviews with pregnant commuters.
Their insights and stories are both fascinating and at the same time quite upsetting. E.g. one woman told us a guy on the train saw she was pregnant. He didn't offer her his seat. Then another passenger, who spotted this, started shouting at him for not giving up his seat. He said he's still not giving up his seat. A massive argument kicked off and the pregnant person (who said nothing up to this point) started crying and had to get off the train because she was so embarrassed.
Embarrassment is the key here. It's a very British thing to not directly ask for a seat because many of us don't like the embarrassment if someone says no. Same thing applies if you give up your seat: what if they publicly decline your seat because they're not pregnant but you thought they were?
We showed it to a contact born and raised in Beijing. They didn't understand why you don't just asked for a seat. Then all the British people around the table chipped in to explain why. They got it because they are used to British culture but it seems the culture in China is different. You need a seat, you ask for a seat.
Perhaps it's something that will only work in certain places like Britain, Japan, Australia?
Also worth noting that the time pregnant commuters most need a seat is in the early stages when there's no bump (e.g. they're more nauseous, dizzy, etc). We didn't realise this but it strengthened the argument for a discreet alerting system.
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@hewleith I never knew about those cultural differences. Very interesting! Thanks for taking the time to reply. :)
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