Week 6 - Navigating the Maze of Ideas

This week marked a significant stride forward as we delved into the development, centered around the creation of a rational shopping assistant app.

Our initial steps involved brainstorming potential solutions to our fundamental question "How might we" framework: How might we help people make rational and informed decisions when shopping online? The outcomes of our brainstorming session were systematically categorized into three groups: solutions deemed feasible for implementation, those not considered viable, and "surpriseing".

In a bid to draw inspiration and insights, we turned our attention to two existing apps - the BIT app, a digital wallet facilitating money transactions, and the WOLT app, a versatile food delivery service . By scrutinizing these apps, we identified the values they offered to their users and subsequently delineated the values we aspire our shopping assistant app to embody, including accessibility and speed, user-friendly interface, order history, customization features for end users, and game experience.

A pivotal aspect of our progress involved elucidating the user journey with the introduction of the "perfect assistant." This core feature of our app is designed to furnish users with comprehensive information and feedback pertinent to the viability of their intended purchase. The perfect assistant factors in various considerations, such as the user's financial situation, past expenses, interests, wish list, and more. The culmination of these factors is presented to the user through a rational index scale. Users can interact with this scale, delving into a detailed breakdown of parameters and utilizing the provided recommendation to make an informed decision.

In order to streamline our efforts and provide a visual representation of our project's trajectory, we crafted a timeline outlining the key milestones in our development process. Additionally, we constructed a scenario to illustrate the functionality of our app. This scenario revolves around a young girl who stumbles upon an exclusive discount for a jacket on Instagram. Utilizing our app, she checks the rationality of this purchase and is presented with a rational index scale, indicating that the jacket is not a particularly judicious choice for her.