We set out to find what fears people have when they are planning to travel to a new place. We wanted to understand their thinking, hopes, and even if they planned their visits. After traveling to hostels, hotels and airports in Copenhagen, our conclusion from our user research was finding out not much planning was done and local (non-tourist) interesting places to go was top on everyones list; we came across a tourist in Copenhagen Downtown Hostel, Kevin said "I just want to be invited to someones backyard", to him this meant he had met someone who felt comfortable enough to invite him into their home.
This is where Backyard was created:
Backyard.
Is a service that connects tourists to locals instantly by allowing tourists to ask questions through a series of networked devices around the city or from their mobile phone, and allowing them to "meet a local" available from a pool of experienced locals.
A great way to promote tourism within cities, by a self-sufficient, people operated network. It would allow cities to track big-data on users and actual places of interest. This information could then be used to promote certain areas as well as working with local services to promote co-creation amongst the local businesses.
A project concept with Theresea Stewart and Alessandro Spazzoli at CIID (Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design).
