Pads In the Wild

This past Saturday I took our creations into the "Wild", meaning Somerville and Cambridge.   This was the first chance to test out the pads and view user's interactions.   I visited three locations, each to varying degrees of success.   I took a passive approach, placing the pad at the location and watched from a distance, versus the more direct approach Tess took in explaining this experiment to potential users.

The first image shows the heavily used bus stop at Union Square in Somerville.   I placed it next to a woman, and within a few minutes another woman sat next to her on the metal bench.   At first they both sat next to it.   After another minute, one of them picked it up, looked at the tag and did an overall inspection of the pad.   After the initial inspection, you can see in the first photo the woman placed it underneath her.   Success!   When the bus came a few minutes later, the woman grabbed her bag and the pad, and took it with her, hopefully to further enjoy the pad on the bus.

I then placed another pad at Harvard Square where the 66 bus makes its stop.   We had thought that Harvard Square would be very receptive to the idea, but after fifteen minutes of patiently waiting, only two students had arrived at the bus stop and they were busy chatting, paying no attention to the available pad on the bench.   This was Saturday morning and may not have been the ideal hour for implementing the pad.

Onward and upward!

After Harvard Square, I took the bus to Inman Square in Cambridge.   The second photo shows the pad at the Bus Stop for the 91 and 83 busses to Central Square.   I take the 91 frequently and there are always people congregated at this stop.   I watched from across the street as people came and went, barely paying any attention to the pad.   As a few people passed, they craned their neck to peek at the tag, but that seemed to be the extent of use.   As you can see, a person decided to kneel on the bench next to the pad, but that was as close as I came to observing somebody using our pad.

In all, a mixed review on the initial release of the bench pads into the wild.