Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Economic model of auto drivers

The information was gathered from the drivers of Yelahanka.

Most of the drivers hire the autos on per day basis.
150 - rent
200 - gas
50 - oil

If there is any repairs then the amount being spent on the repair decides whether the auto guy pays it or the owner. Only if the cost exceeds 100 does the owner pay for the repair.

Income per day depends on area of work and also the kind of customers. Also income varies everyday. To generalize, they take around Rs. 100 back home everyday.

When I discussed the project with them the response was pretty positive. The service is wholly for the auto drivers and works on the fact that they are an information base. So the owners of the autos might not be involved and no commission goes to them. But this area still needs to be worked on because the model in the city is probably different from what happens in Yelahanka.

If the auto drivers become a part of the network then they can earn points on every call and at the end of the month their points could be added and converted in certain sum of money.

This works as a strength for my brief as this is giving them an additional source of income instead of an alternative source of income. This service works without altering their current profession.

...

To see whether people actually want a service like this, I publicized the service. This is just an attempt to know the reactions of the people and doesn't have any commercial value attached to it.

The first step was to identify the people who might want to avail these facilities and the places where this service might come handy.
  • hotels - travel desks
  • Airport - eateries
  • Taxis
  • Auto rickshaws


The tools used were posters and tent cards which gave basic information of the service so that people can know what this service is about.



What will validate this project is if people call up reading the poster or if we get a positive response from the people sitting on these respective desks where these posters have been out.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Final Project

OBJECTIVE
To create a network of auto drivers as solution providers / informers of directions and traffic levels around the city.

SPECIFICATIONS
- instant service
-Callers should be connected to auto drivers of respective areas by an operator directly.
-Attractive packages for potential businesses that might be interested in investing in such a service


SCENARIO
"I am new to Bangalore. I am standing at Cafe Coffee Day in Yelahanka New Town. Can you tel me how do I get to Monte carlo apartments,"

- new - probably doesn't know the local language
-unfamiliar with directions
- specific area - only Yelahanka New town auto drivers
- auto service can be offered

"I am at lavelle road. i thought there was a straight road to richmond hotel. but there is a one way now. can you tel me the shortest possible way to richmond hotel now. "

- knows about bangalore
- kannada might be an option
-richmond hotel famous-more auto drivers

"im stuck in a traffic jam near CKP. i need to catch a train from Majestic railway station in 20 mins. can you arrange for an auto immediately."

-area specific
- auto service- urgent
-difficult accessibility - traffic jam

"im calling from richmond circle. i need to get to the airport in an hour. can you tel me which way to take so i find least traffic"

- traffic information
- urgent
- check all possible options


"i need to go to brigade road from yelahanka new town. can u tell which bus to take and which is the closest bus stop i can get down at."

-might or might not be rgion speific
- can provode auto service at bus stand
-might involvo talking to auto drivers of two areas


STAKEHOLDERS
-radio stations - for them it is advertising and another service to provide.
-auto manufacturers - a new business venture
-auto owners - more business
-telecom companies - monetary gain and advertising
-businesses being recommended - more business
-customer membership - pay a membership and avail this facility any time of the day

USERS
-just comes
-regular officers
-people traveling
-emergencies

LOOP HOLES
-do i want to encourage talking while driving
-how reliable are auto drivers
-how to track wrong information


+immediate tracking down of where hte caller is situated
+instant service
+language consideration - if the caller doesn't speak the language of the driver then the message needs to be translated fisrt.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Final Brief

Objective
to come with a design of a curtain to avoid the problem of putting and outsourcing of curtain rings.

Specifications
  • it should be within the cost range of Rs. 150- 200
  • easily washable
  • should be applicable to all kinds of fabrics
  • should have the scope of a variety or aesthetic elements

SWOT Analysis'
Strength- it is quite flexible and opens a lot of windows for design solutions

Weakness-it might need more labourers as division of work and newer skills might be required
- because of a low price range it might restrict the variety of materials that can be used

Opportunity-it is an opportunity to introduce a completely new style of curtains in the market

Threat-it might need a lot of research and a lot of 'trial and error' might be needed considering
the specifications.

Brief... What is it??

Before i got a feedback on whatever i did, i had no idea how a brief actually supposed to be. my brief was quite detailed and informal whereas a brief is way more precise and formal.

I chose to write a brief of the design of curtains where you have stitched loops and you don't need to put curtain rings.



so my approach towards the brief was to identify why such kind of a modification would have been required.
  • to avoid the hassle of putting curtain rings
  • no need to take out the curtain rod out of the brackets
  • outsourcing from different places at the manufacturing level
  • division of work is difficult because work needs to be done on the same piece of cloth
then i thot of what could be the constraints in making such a product
  • the length of curtain might affect the difficulty of drawing it
  • the thickness of the material is very important while making such curtains
  • the success of the loops also depends on the kind of curtain rod being used

The Fiction

We were all pretty confused as to what needed to be done for this film. I mean in the fiction where would the element of that place come in and how fictitious it could be. Then finally we were told that the place can just be an inspiration and we could spin a story around that.

Coming to a Concept
All five days of our stay, we kind of focused on these women working in the center and it was quite obvious that these women are very happy with their work and many of them had gone out to exhibitions and classes because of the work they do. so we came up with this entire discussion of how we think that education today is the basis of any survival or livelihood, but how these women without being educated and just sticking to their craft have also found a tool to move foward and grow.

Location
The railway track- the tracks made a sought of physical as well as mental boundaries for the women in the village. The train that often passes through is the only way of seeing the outside world. So it was the mast appropriate place to show how women who have always longed to go out of their boundary finally does that using her craft. At the same time the entire track was covered in red sand which went quite well with this entire village , Sandor.

Storyline
there is a girl who spends a lot of time on the railway track playing around thinking, watching trains pass by. She never crosses the railway track and always stays on her side of the world. She often comes across these alphabets written on the red sand but she doesn't know what do they mean. So every time she erases those alphabets and makes her own embroidery designs there , and sits and thinks for hours together. Until one day when she finally decides not to erase the alphabets and connect them to make designs and while doing this unknowingly she crosses the tracks.

Shooting
shooting this was a little difficult because it was a very busy railway crossing. We used our normal digital cameras and a lot of times we had to restart the entire short because something or the other kept coming in between. So we took each scene from two angles so that we could see which one would work better as this was a place where shooting for a long time wasn't possible.


Editing
this time we were mor femiliar with the software but It was much more difficult because we had to decide what to cut out without disturbing the flow of the narrative. It was a different experience editting this time because this time the trasitions were different. We had to be careful of what to play for what time. so there was a ot learnt while editing. A lot more than cutting and putting transitions. I actually realize how important editting is.

Feedback
In the movie we need to work on a lot of things. They couldn't really make any sense out of it whereas movie should always be self explanatory.
  • we need to be more focused, as in we had a lot of element telling their own story at the same time.
  • also the concept was really far fetched and it neede to be more direct and clear.
  • it did not communicate anything.
  • it cannot be used as a source of information about that place.(infact this is something i didn't even think of while making the film that even this fiction would finally be used as a resource )
  • the perspective was very wrong. if left and right of the trach played such an important role in the movie then they should have been defined very clearly.
Suggestions
we could work a little more on the drawings that the girl made on the ground.