CMU Interactive Map Kiosks

I think a solution for your crowding of kiosk problem would be to have the map available as an app (I'm not sure if you mentioned that in your writeup). Also a question I had was: would you be able to use the map while being logged in to it through your andrew-id? I know that there are certain events on campus that require an RSVP, and I think it would be helpful if, as an app, there could be one convenient location to RSVP. Overall I think this is a great idea, as it is very hard to keep track of all of the events happening on campus!

I think this is a great idea. I know personally when I toured the campus I had no idea where I was going most of the time, and maps on the web served little help. This would greatly help tourists and freshmans get acquainted with the campus. To respond to the earlier comment, I actually think physical large maps located at various points is better than an app. It is much more convenient and intuitive more the general masses.

I agree with Amanda that this may have been better served as a mobile app. While the kiosk idea is great, you may experience overcrowding (like you mentioned in the write-up) due to many people wanting to use the kiosk or by the time it takes to interact with it. If people are searching one by one, it would take a while for the kiosk to serve everyone's needs in which case just asking someone for directions might have been faster. Of course, there are limitations even to a mobile app. Overall, I enjoyed the renderings and the features you wanted to implement in the kiosks

Cool idea! How is the kiosk going to determine the wait time in real time though? Could it possibly be connected to some interface on the vendor's end, and they can update the wait time as they believe appropriate?

I agree that going around campus is one of the hardest things for visitors to do, as nothing is really clearly labeled, and these kiosks will really help with that. During carnival, I felt like the experience was a lot smaller than it actually was, so displaying advertisements about school events on this board until someone interacts with it would be a very good way of notifying students of carnival events.

Personally, I don't think that kiosk backup would be too much of a problem for you guys, I think a set-back could possibly be that no one uses these kiosks. How would you get people to really buy into what these are meant for? It should be easier to draw in those who want directions, but how will you attract students?

I think if the kiosks were placed in locations that visitors would run into them before they got deep into campus (so near all the parking areas people use), that might help reduce foot-traffic jams, because those locations are not necessarily where students are coming from since many of them walk or cycle to campus (or live on campus). Likewise, CMU has dorms that are specific to first year students, and each of them could have a kiosk in the common space. Perhaps if you were to do a study about what were the most popular things to look at, you could set it up so that 1/3 of the screen permanently displayed those things (like bus schedules) so that not everyone would have to wait in line to touch the screen in order to acquire the information they needed.

I think that the idea of interactive kiosks across campus is a good and helpful idea for both current students who are used to the school's layout and visitors who may be completely clueless. At first, I was skeptical because the information that I thought would be shown seemed only relevant to newcomers, but there is actually a lot of potential for dynamic content with these kiosks. I really like the example of showcasing campus events that are going on at various kiosks as well as line lengths at different eating locations on campus. It reminds me of similar displays you would find on cruise ships that allow you to easily see which spot on campus has the shortest wait. I also thought that making approximate bus times available would greatly help users decide if is worth the wait or if they need to make another decision about transportation. It is very reminiscent of the signs at NYC subways. As other people mentioned, I feel that all these ideas and more could be combined into a single CMU mobile application that would allow students to easily and conveniently have access to this information. However, I think that have the kiosks in addition to this will still be useful to notify newcomers and passerbyers of what is going on around campus.

I really like the idea of having the daily campus events displayed on it. It's often difficult to keep track of everything that's going on on campus and a lot of the times there might be events that I'd like to go to but have no knowledge of (usually because poster boards are cluttered and difficult to read through)

I agree that it might be beneficial to consider focusing on a mobile app version of the idea since that way it'll be more accessible to everyone and you can use the interface without having to be near a kiosk.

Nice idea, based on a real problem; also nice discussion. One concept to think about is that addressing problems like the one described here. or any problem in an adaptive context, may require networks of solutions. In this case a network of kiosks with different functions per location (i need different info when I am standing at the bus stop and different info at the Cohen Union) that are all accessible also through an app, may allow us to have our cake and eat it. In general, like Stravinsky says, if you use a piano make sure you have a good reason. In other words, in the age of mobility, if you use a physical fixed intervention, like a kiosk, there has to be a good reason for it or you need to generate one. At airports, people are rushing by and having many screens available that they can check as they move without having to pull out their mobile, is very useful. When waiting for a bus, finding a way to both kill time and learn something about CMU may be in order (have you seen the poetry in motion posters in the NYC subway, they really work). Overall, good project, good concept and the proof is that it generated good discussion.

I like the idea that the kiosk includes information about restaurants and activities as well as directions. I know I have been asked multiple times for directions from visitors who have maps, but aren't sure where they are or which building they are looking for. As Amanda mentioned, it might be useful to also have this as an app, but I feel visitors (who often come for a short time and may never come back) might not be willing to download an app, and that would be if they knew it existed, which would be another problem entirely. I was curious who your target audience is? I think depending on who this is intended for (students, visitors, etc) you could see if this could lead to a backup at the kiosk or if it would be in use enough to justify the costs associated with its implementation.

To me, this idea is incredibly sound in practice. As an events organizer for clubs on campus, the ability to advertise through the kiosk is an added bonus. There are two drawbacks that I invite you to address - you've probably thought about this and I'd like to hear your ideas!
First, this seems incredibly dependent on people reliably reporting their progress through various apps in order to realistically calculate wait time. This in particular strikes me as unlikely - how many people in a line are going to pull out their phones for the purpose of logging where they are? How exactly do you plan to calculate wait times?
Second, this intervention seems to be of limited benefit to those who are already on campus. Most students are probably already aware of where they are going, and if the idea is to keep these out of the way, it seems unlikely that some would go to such kiosks for any reason. This also limits the helpfulness of the events on campus advertising - not many would be pulled in by this because not many would check for it!
I think this project has a lot of potential, and it would definitely help out those who are new to campus, so it solves the problem you all set out to solve. These are just things to think about if you try and expand it. Great job guys!

I think this is a great idea; I especially love how it would incorporate bus schedules, which can get very frustrating. Because of that, you might want to consider putting some of the kiosks near bus stops to encourage people to check which buses are coming soon. I also agree with Judy and Amanda in thinking that it might be a good idea to have a mobile app, as well. However, because a map on such a small screen can get a bit difficult to navigate, you might include just wait times at dining areas at CMU and bus schedules on the map, which could also potentially solve the problem of overcrowding at the kiosks by making some of the information available on people's phones.

it is nice to see how the discussion is bringing up new applications that tell something about our community. We know that we live and work amongst busy people but we dont have time to see what they all do. What if a network of customized kiosks and mobile apps allowed us to browse work happening at CMU while we wait to get food or take the bus. It helps with the waiting and with the community. This is exactly why group crit is important; it generates new ideas through the collective process.

@Brian To respond to your question about how we plan to attract not just visitors but also students, we designed that the kiosks so that they not only present a map, but also information that would be of interest of students - dining wait times, campus events, etc. One way we could make the kiosks more appealing to students is including the specific building plan for a kiosk in a building; visitors do not tend to go to specific rooms, but for a student looking for a classroom, the kiosks can be helpful.

Most of the comments I have read above have discussed the idea of also having a mobile app. As one of the originators of the this project, I can definitely see the pros of having an app and think this is a great idea. It will help reduce overcrowding at the kiosks. At the same time, people might ask what the point of the kiosk is, if we already have an app that serves the same purpose. There are two points that I believe still make the kiosk relevant. One is a point brought up earlier by Laura that visitors to the campus might not be willing to download the app to use just for the short time that they are here. Also, some of them might not be tech-savvy enough to use apps or they might not have smartphones. As a result, the people who would use this app more would be current students and faculty, the people who will actually be on campus for the long-term. This leads to our second point, a point brought up by Raisa. We would only include some of the features on the app, the feature that would be most useful to the intended app users. We would have waiting times for dining locations, the list of events on campus, and the waiting times for buses. The interactive map is less likely to be useful for people already on campus for a while and would be hard to navigate on a mobile so we could leave that out.

Hence, the kiosk would still be very useful for new students and visitors. This also means that it would make more sense to have these kiosks in places where more visitors will arrive at as well, like parking lots. This is a point mentioned by Tonya earlier, which is a good observation.

@Amal, in order to make the bus waiting time more reliable, we discussed that we can use an app called tiramisu app, that show a more accurate schedule of the bus. Since lots of students live off-campus, I believe the bus schedule will be very helpful for them, it may help them decide hong long they can stay in the library.