Wanderer
Yanfei Chen
Wanderer, which is an APP about exploring stories in the city. This project encourages people to step into the physical environment and discover the stories around them as they walk around the city, exploring more details of life in the city.
Problem Statement
When people enter an unfamiliar environment and are required to stay in it for an extended period of time, when people return after a long period of time away from their original habitat, or when they are forced into social isolation for an extended period of time in the context of the current pandemic, people speak of some degree of active or passive disconnection from their local community environment. Long-term disconnection from the surrounding environment can have a negative impact on people’s mental health, and feelings of isolation can be heightened. How to create communication and connection through connecting with people or physical places is something I want to consider.
What we are making：
Based on the results of the research, the main solution could be an app that could be a guide for different generations to engage with the community both physically and online. The app is able to provide the function for each generation to explore the community/city based on their requirements.
Who we are making for：
My main focus is to design for the local people in their city or community that they will stay there for a long time. Here, I want the users to be able to build up more connections with the physical place they are living and the other residents they might meet. As s result, my target user group is local citizens.
Why we are making：
When people enter a new community, not knowing their surroundings can often lead them into a state of self-imposed isolation that is magnified even more in an epidemic environment. And even when social activities exist in the local community, younger generations who need to work don’t have the time and energy to participate. And current community event participants are overly motivated by incentive mechanisms, thus triggering many neighborhood comparisons and disputes that defeat the original purpose. In the long run, their sense of integration into the environment will be weakened and they will gradually lose their connection to their surroundings. In this project, I hope to help people understand each other and integrate into the area through storytelling.
