Design Challenge
#3: How might we learn from COVID-19 to reimagine our future for life, work, learning and play?
Project Description
Develop centralized household-to-household synced up calendar platform, reflecting clear boundaries for work time, ‘me’ time and family time, with social invite function to connect with friends, family members. Allows for sharing of calendars and tiered visibility of blocked off/ available slots to connect.
Back-end system syncs up with a wide range of activities (virtual with flexibility to shift to physical post-COVID) e.g. concerts, museum tours… curated and personalized to individual/ household preferences, with flexibility of sending invites to friends/ family also on platform.
Pilot virtual experience categories to include
1) Unique experiences that offer sense of a breather (escape)
2) Sparks joy, happiness, positivity e.g. hobbies
3) Bonding with friends/family
Criteria #1: Value
In view of Circuit Breaker and foreseeing mid-term stay-home behavior, users’ lives are disrupted and they are coping with considerable change and adjusting to the new norm.
Pain points include social isolation, merging of previously clear physical boundaries of work, life and family (now merged to one physical location – home), perceived limited choices due to mobility restrictions.
Needs include breather space, positivity and perceived choices in life, new demarcation of work, life and family boundaries.
Criteria #2: Inspiration
With physical distancing also comes physical merging of work, life, family, as individuals cope with the new norm of being 24 hours under one roof in the same household.
The physical distancing from other people who are not from the same household also creates a void which makes people want to connect more socially.
Criteria #3: Impact
Help individuals adjust quicker to new routines, while giving them needed space for ‘me’ time, professional time, and bonding time with friends and family
Sense of social connection to meaningful experiences even though there is physical blockage with individuals of other households. Together Alone.
Criteria #4: Timeliness
Solution to be launched through small-scale pilot with a simple digitally-enabled platform allowing for front-end calendar creation and syncing, and manual back-end curation and listing of virtual experiences. Can be done as soon as 1.5 month time.
Scale-up version will require a more seamless backend integration with better automated pulling of experiences/ partnerships (could also be crowdsourced from user base) and fine-tuned user front-end interface based on pilot. Target to launch within 3 months from pilot phase.
Criteria #5: Systems Thinking
Globally, there are many acts of human generosity ranging from celebrity musicians like Yoyo Ma tweeting recordings of himself playing the cello, free Chinese pop music concerts, free YouTube airing of Phantom of the Opera, museums offering free virtual tours, and many more.
We can connect all these acts of human generosity from various distinct individuals and groups across industries/ sectors/ countries to integrate with the platform, allowing people to easily fit to their calendars and to invite friends/ family to join, or do it on their own.