Pivot Nathan Nichols Kristian J Hammond Larry Birnbaum

Pivot Nathan Nichols Kristian J. Hammond Larry Birnbaum Lisa Gandy 1

There are useful online services we can provide to real-world shoppers through the ubiquitous cellphone. 2

Pivot is a system that allows realworld shoppers to quickly and easily access useful information and services surrounding a product using their cellphone. 3

Pivot - Problem - Pivot - Deployment - Architecture - Future 4

Online shopping - Online shopping is huge - Established script: - Go to large webpage (Amazon, Google, etc. ) - Type in box - Click on link - Read - Loop 5

Problem - People are (becoming) used to this - Allows people to gather an incredible amount of information - Assumptions 6

Script - Go to large webpage (Amazon, Google, etc. ) - Type in box - Click on link - Read - Loop 7

Assumptions - Launching browser and navigating to portal pages is easy - Selecting textfields and entering text is easy - Selecting links is easy - Reading is easy - Looping is easy 8

On Desktops ✓ Launching browser and navigating to portal pages is easy ✓ Selecting textfields and entering text is easy ✓ Selecting links is easy ✓ Reading is easy ✓ Looping is easy 9

On Cellphones Launching browser and navigating to portal pages is easy Selecting textfields and entering text is easy Selecting links is easy Reading is easy Looping is easy 10

Experiment - Small and informal - Four participants, two i. Phone owners and two cellphone users, all frequent computer users - Each participant performed the same task twice, once on the i. Phone and once on a desktop - Task was to find variety of information about music CD - Prices from Amazon, Best Buy, i. Tunes - Reviews from Amazon, Metacritic 11

Results - Desktop - - Participants took an average of four minutes i. Phone - - i. Phone owners took five and a half minutes Non-i. Phone owners took seven and ten minutes Even with specific goals and the best mobile-browsing experience available, it took experienced users almost 50% longer to find the same information on a mobile device. 12

No one is going to spend five minutes comparison shopping with their cellphone in the middle of a store. 13

There is loads of useful information available online, but that information is currently unavailable to real-world shoppers because it is too slow and too painful to access. 14

Mobile experience can be improved, but not enough. 15

Best-case scenario is still too slow. 16

Pivot - Change the script - New script: - Input product identifier (UPC code, ISBN number) - Receive information and services - Run Pivot Use information and services No loop 17

Pivot takes 15 seconds 18

Different scripts for different needs - Desktop - - Seated, leisure activity Millions of items Brick and mortar store - Standing, in a hurry/in the way - Tens or hundreds of items 19

When users are out and about in the world, some of the information about a product now is much more interesting than all of the information about a product five and a half minutes from now. 20

Deployment - i. Phone optimized webpage - Four types of products: - Books - Videogames - CDs - DVDs 21

Books - Amazon prices, buying options - Barnes & Noble prices, buying options - Synopsis - Customer reviews - Professional reviews - Recommendations 22

Videogames - Amazon prices, buying options - Best Buy prices, buying options - Watch trailer - Customer reviews - Professional reviews - Recommendations 23

CDs - Amazon prices, buying options - Best Buy prices, buying options - Sample tracks, purchase through i. Tunes - Synopsis - Customer reviews - Professional reviews - Recommendations 24

CDs - Amazon prices, buying options - Best Buy prices, buying options - Sample tracks, purchase through i. Tunes - Synopsis - Facebook - Customer reviews - Professional reviews - Recommendations 25

CDs - Amazon prices, buying options - Best Buy prices, buying options, locations - Sample tracks, purchase through i. Tunes - Synopsis - Facebook - Customer reviews - Professional reviews 26

DVDs - Amazon prices, buying options - Best Buy prices, buying options, locations - Watch trailer - One-click add to Net. Flix - Facebook - Customer reviews - Professional reviews - Recommendations 27

DVDs - Amazon prices, buying options - Best Buy prices, buying options, locations - Watch trailer - One-click add to Net. Flix - Facebook - Customer reviews - Professional reviews - Recommendations 28

Architecture - Loosely coupled client/server model - Server is Python program running on machine at Northwestern University - First client is i. Phone-optimized web app - http: //www. Pivot. App. com/ - I’m happy to talk details 29

Architecture Overview 1. Get unique product identifier onto phone client 2. Lookup type of product and basic information 3. Based on type of product, access a variety of sources in parallel 30

Pivot scales smoothly. 31

Near Future - Native clients - l-d barcode decoding is hard - User feedback 33

Middle Future - Expand supported items - Wine - Clothes Over-the-counter medicine More social network integration 34

Further Future - Everyone has a powerful, always on, always connected device - Internet has loads of useful information and services - Web 2. 0 makes this easier - How can we connect the device and information/services in real-world interactions - “Desktop experience” won’t work - Instruction manuals, recipes, to-do lists, restaurants. . . 35

Acknowledgements - John Otto and Adam Shaw - Audience 36

Questions? ndnichols@gmail. com 37