Friday, July 22, 2005

Day8-22nd July >>Presentations & Documents<<

Today we tried to setup a video link with friends at Copenhagen

Business School, Denmark...Due to unpredictable bandwidth, we had to

resort to transfering the files after shooting the presentation first



Here are the Presentation Videos

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/part1.MP4 (123 MB)

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/part2.MP4 (57 MB)

(3 more parts to come!)



More videos:

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/part3.MP4 (199 MB)

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/part4.MP4 (31 MB)

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/part5.MP4 (64 MB)

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/part6.MP4 (27 MB)

The video gets choppy towards the end because we had battery trouble.



Other docs are at

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/Process.doc

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/affinity.JPG

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/affinity.ppt

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/cultural.JPG



If you have trouble downloading the ppt, try this

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~anirudha/ahci/affinity.zip



Meanwhile, we will try to reschedule the

live feedback sessions.

Day8-21st July


Day8-21st July, originally uploaded by fourfirefoxes.

*Day8-21st July*



Finished the affinity model after a long day and short span of the morning

of the next day!

Day 7- 20th July


Day 7- 20th July, originally uploaded by fourfirefoxes.

*Day 7- 20th July*



Shahid and Susheel went and met the RTO official Mr. Pednekar



Finished all the interpretations and started with the affinity model and

model consolidation.

Day 6 -19th July


Day 6 -19th July, originally uploaded by fourfirefoxes.

*Day6-19th July*



Mooshir and Vimal went to the RTO (Regional Transport Office) at Wadala to

meet an official who was not available. So they interviewed another rickshaw

driver who was there to get his passing done, which is done annually. Anil

Sharma wanted to be junior artist in Bollywood but ended-up driving

autorickshaws for the last 15 years.



*Top Insights*



- Most of the drivers don't know to write English, while the forms are

in English

- As the autorickshaws are open vehicles theft of fixtures are common

- Traffic Police bully and fine drivers that are not from the same

area

- Lack of small change results in the driver loosing a few bucks



Saikat, Uttaran and John went to Victoria Terminus and Church Gate

stations. They first met a passenger who regularly (twice a week) travels by

taxi to and from the railway station. We also met two students who had come

to Bombay for the first time and had some interesting experiences to share.



*Top Insights*



- Only gets into a metered cab

- Takes a cab rather than a bus for the luggage

- They trust the meter and not the driver

- The passenger may not be aware of being cheated when new to the

place

- First timer have a need to know routes and destinations



Susheel and Shahid interviewed a passenger who uses a group of known taxi

drivers to take only his goods to his stationary shop. A lot of trust is

built between the driver and the passenger in this case as there is no one

who goes with the goods and the driver delivers the goods right at his shop.



*Top Insights*



Regular passengers and taxi drivers develop lot of trust between them



Taxi drivers can get some extra fare while taking co-passengers



A long journey can be boring for the passenger



Drivers tend to take advantage of the passenger's predicament

Day5-18th July


Day5-18th July, originally uploaded by fourfirefoxes.

Day5-18th July



More Interpretation of the remaining interviews



Focus



- Do passengers prefer rickshaws from stands? Have the drivers ever

cheated them? If yes then how? When do passengers prefer prefixed amount and

why?



- What do drivers do to get more passengers? What do drivers do when

they find something left over by the passengers? What is the procedure for

RTO passing? Why don't drivers join the union even when they offer benefits?

What do they do to attract passengers?

Day4-15th July


Day4-15th July, originally uploaded by fourfirefoxes.

*Day4-15th July*



Interpretation led to more insights in the form of:



Driving for hire is taken as a temporary job. There are those who have done

a lot of other job and have at last taken this up. Then there are those who

have taken up driving as their first job. There are a lot of trust issues

that the system lacks to address. But the meter also acts, as a trust factor

the passenger may not trust the driver but trusts the meter.

Day3-14th July


Day3-14th July, originally uploaded by fourfirefoxes.

*Day3-14th July*



With an extended focus in mind we went into 3 groups



We (Vimal, Uttaran and Mooshir) went to Hiranandani Gardens, an affluent

locale near Powai, quite close to our campus. There we interviewed two

autorickshaw drivers who were quite a contrast. One was Sudesh, just 10 days

as a driver; and the other was Om Prakash Pandey who has been driving his

autorickshaw for about 5 years.



*Top Insights*



- Driving is often considered a temporary job

- Driving gives him a way to 'bring home the bacon' daily

- Novice drivers often forget to put on the meter



Saikat met a driver in the campus who was on his way to Thane, a suburb of

Bombay. Indrajeet is from West Bengal (another state) and has been in Bombay

for the past 5 years with his family which is a joint family including his

brother's. He came to be come a taxi driver after having done many other

jobs.



*Top Insights*



- Meters could be tampered with easily and gotten away with

- Government regulates the number of taxis by the issue of badges

- Regular clients contact the driver through mobile

- Self owned Taxi business offers more freedom than any other service



Shahid and Susheel went to Kanjur Marg railway station and met Motiram who

had been driving his autorickshaw for 15 years. He was very open to share

the intricacies and the hardships of his work. His family members work in a

cottage industry, making 'papad' to support themselves. One of his sons is

handicapped. He finds it more sensible to buy vegetables for Rs.10 than to

buy snacks. He was skeptical about card system of payment. Earns Rs.350 per

day. He doesn't have lunch, daily.



*Top Insights*



- Lost and found items have no means to be returned

- Lack of employment opportunities leads to taking up driving even at

a later stage in life

- Rickshaw is not considered safe by the drivers to keep valuable

documents

- There is no accountability of the rickshaws at the stands

P7120093.JPG


P7120093.JPG, originally uploaded by fourfirefoxes.

*Day2-13th July*



*Interpretation and Extended focus from top Insights*



* *



- Many taxis are rented out to the driver by an owner.

- Meters are of different types, and both mechanical and electronic.

- Drivers frequent certain areas to pick-up passengers.



Focus



Stage 2



* *



- How does the exchange of taxi happen between the owner and the

driver? How is the fuel managed between the owner and the driver? What are

the different types of meters, who decides which one to use and why? Demand

and supply of the service of taxi and its implications?



- What are the concerns of the owner for the taxi usage and the

accountability of the driver?* *

Day1-12th July
We split into two teams; team one went to Dadar Railway Station, and the other to Victoria Terminus Railway Station. Both these station are the busiest in Bombay.
Team One:
At Dadar we encountered a long queue of Taxis that waited for passengers right outside the station. We went to the end of the queue so as to spend more time talking to the drivers before their turn come.
Two major interviews were done of:

Umesh,23, Satara, Bachelor. Had started driving just two months back

Top Insights
Driver prefers the meter to be outside as it makes passengers feel that driver cannot tamper with it.
New drivers cannot take people to places that they don’t know of.
The owner is mainly concerned about the usage of fuel and distance travelled

And
Rajesh, 30, In Mumbai with Family. 10Years in this business


Top Insights
Considering Bombay city meter usage is more appropriate in case of traffic, diversions & delays rather that prefixed fares.
Accounting is done is various ways like filling-up the fuel to ¾ the capacity

Team Two:
This was our first contextual so we were nervous as to how to go about doing it. The focus was to interview a taxi driver in the fort area, which is central Bombay. On reaching the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus we decided that we would target taxis coming out of the station. To add to it once we reached there it started raining heavily and hence we decided of boarding a taxi to some place and start the interview in the taxi.

Top Insights
Lack of employment is compulsion for taking-up this profession
Passengers demand entertainment on long journeys

Thursday, July 21, 2005

1.JPG


1.JPG, originally uploaded by fourfirefoxes.

Hello all, this blog is a post of the happenings at the HCI course at

IDC, IIT Bombay.



Prof. Anirudha Joshi takes this course presently as an elective for

the VC2004 batch.

Course participants are Mooshir, Shahid, Uttran, Susheel, Saikat,

Vimal and John.