Research
03 Competitive Analysis
Goals
We had several goals in conducting a competitive analysis of experience collection websites:
- Identify available services that encourage group experience collection.
- Find features that users expect when collecting and sharing experiences.
- Find gaps that present opportunities for a new website.
Results
To start our competitive analysis, we brainstormed on all the different types of experience collection websites available. We came up with five main groups (notes) and we structure our findings around these groups.
Travel Journals
Travel journals are usually stand alone websites that are not connected to other events in a person's life. They are not meant to live beyond that specific travel experience. Furthermore, they are meant for usually just a single traveller to document their experience, not a group.
Experience Reviews
Sites such as yelp.com and amazong.com do a great job informing customers and consumers about experiences with a variety of products. However, these are based on utility and do not really capture sentimental and emotional aspects that are key to memory sharing and reflecting.
Photo Repositories
Sites such as Flickr and services like Picassa miss the storytelling aspect that is key to the recounting of a past experience.
Journals and Blogs
Journals and blogs do allow for the storytelling aspect which is great but they are disconnected oftentimes from specific aspects of the experience, such as sounds, photos, and other people.
Social Networking Sites
Social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace perform the closest function to what we would like to design. They are great at connecting people but with these site the main unit is the individual, not the group. You can construct groups within these sites, but they are not meant really to share experiences easily and then to further make a physical artifact.