Welcome to Train Tracked!
Here you will find info related to our project!
Get to know the project members below:
We are developing a product for 18 to 45 year-old business-oriented subway commuters whose time is flexible but valuable. When the sole responsibility of a commuter is to travel to work quickly and easily, crowds and unpredictable wait-times can be frustrating. Whether time is spent waiting underground for the train to arrive or standing amongst a crowd in the traincar without room to read or do work, that time is wasted. We want commuters to know when a train is coming and exactly how many people are on it, so that they can travel the way they want to.
TrainTracked is a phone application that notifies its users of the arrival times of NYC subway trains and the number of people on said trains. It gathers its information through a smart device located within every subway car that counts the number of cellular devices in the car using wifi-sniffers and low energy bluetooth. It is important to note that we are still researching whether this product is a viable solution to the problems that surfaced during customer interviews. We are going to continue our interviews to discover other problems that our customer segment may face. Because the current problem is obvious, its solution may be difficult to conclude. Therefore, if further research shows that solving a different problem is more viable, we will pivot toward a new product that we can develop within the semester.
After researching the success of subway solutions, we realized that partnering with the MTA is a project inhibitor. We thought we were developing a product that served the customer segment of 18-45 year old business-oriented subway commuters; however, TrainTracked was a smart device that we would have to sell to the MTA. In consequence, we decided to pivot toward another, less obvious problem that surfaced during our longer customer interviews.
We settled on the idea of a Smart Business Card. When investigating the pains of 18-45 year old business people, we heard complaints about paperwork disorganization and networking hardships. We wanted to come up with a solution that eliminated paper and organized files online for our customers all while focusing on the basis of networking.
The Smart Business Card is a metal business card that stores all of the business information that you want to store on it: this ranges from contact information to full resumes and website links. This way, when you go to a conference, career fair, or any networking event: meeting people is quick and easy, the Smart Business Card keeps track of all of the information for you.
How does it work? Upon purchasing the Smart Business Card, you get an identification code to an online Account. You use that ID to create a personal profile. Store all of the information you want on your business card onto the profile. Through your account, you will also have acess to a system that organizes all of the contacts you connect with. Every time someone taps their business card against your phone, a folder is created with the date. Within the folder, there is another folder with the person's name - click on that folder to access all of the info they want to share with you!
Click here to see our kickstarter!
Click here to see our research!
Click here to see our interview results!
Check out the website for our first iteration here!
Check out the website for our second iteration here!