Get recommendations from the people you trust
My contribution: Created concept platform, created wireframes, created video storyboard sketches, and directed, produced and edited concept video
Team: Individual Project
Type: Digital Media project
When: Fall 2013
Where: IIT Institute of Design, Chicago
What's the solution?
bellwether is a digital platform that connects you with the people you trust the most for the best recommendations. Currently, yelp is the default platform for many consumers to find the best restaurants, hotels, venues and other services. However, as the site grows, ratings are leveling out and it's becoming more difficult to know whether a business will be the right fit for the right individual. A tourist on Michigan Avenue might rate a coffee shop much differently than a local aficionado. A mother of two might have different point of view on what makes a good park compared to a single college student. So why can't we create a way to get recommendations from people with similar tastes and expectations?
Once on the platform, you can add your friends and see you friends' friends. Read their recommendations and add your own. What makes bellwether different from other rating systems is that you build up points for rating businesses. bellwether works with businesses in our network to offer real incentives to the most influential users a.k.a. bellwethers. For example, if you recommend a restaurant on our platform you earn points. However, if you get those in your network to go to the restaurant, you earn even more. Eventually, you can earn discounts, free meals, and more!
How did I get there?
It started with my personal frustration with using Yelp. When looking for new restaurants my default action was to look them up on the platform. However, some of the reviews had questionable content and many seemed like rants. Plus, how could I know the other side of the story? Perhaps that reviewer was being unruly. Maybe they had unreasonable expectations from a mom and pop restaurant that happened to be understaffed and the reviewer showed up with a party of 12, 15 minutes before closing time.
I also thought about how I get my best recommendations. There are a select few friends with good taste in music and food. I probably get 50% of my recommendations from three friends. So I figured there could be a system that rewards these bellwethers. Plus, businesses could be incentivized to give them rewards for bringing in more business.
Over the course of a semester, I developed a mobile app, partial iPad app, and a full concept video. The video began with a sketched storyboard and shot list. I worked with one of my favorite coffee shops to film the video (It's Eva's Cafe in Chicago. You should check it out!). This was the first video I ever directed and produced, while simultaneously learning how to use InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere, and AfterEffects during my first semester at ID.
Takeaways
- Seeing your ideas out in the world is a good thing. I completed this project in December of 2013 and Foursquare released Swarm in the spring of 2014, which had several similarities to my concept. My gut reaction was "if only I had the capital...". However, over the course of my two remaining years at ID, I realized that the ideas are the easy part. Seeing a similar idea out in the world is validating. As I continue in my career I'll strive to bring ideas to implementation and validation.
- When thinking of concepts, start with problems that frustrate you. Reviews on Yelp weren't cutting it for me, so that inspired my solution.
- Rigorously plan your shooting schedule. I wrote out all of my shots and it helped me stay efficient and keep my actors happy.
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