TRANSPLANT MILLENNIALS
Understanding differences and similarities between American and non-American Millennials
THE CHALLENGE
Inspired by the published Strauss & Howe generational attributes, we have sought to understand if Transplant Millennials and American millennials share common attributes, or differ fundamentally.
THE OUTCOME
We conducted 20 interviews with Transplant Millennials from 17 different countries, analyzed the results and each presented 3 different ideas at the end of the project. We interviewed 20 international Millennials in order to understand various aspects of their lives, values and motivations by using generative research methods. At the end of the project, we presented business and design opportunities derived from our insights and research findings.
CONSIDERATIONS
1. The core traits of US Millennials: Special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, achieving. These are the traits we will compare our findings to.
2. Taking into consideration that the demographic of our interviewees consisted of Art Center Students, this research' is skewed toward this sub demographic. Art Center is known for attracting individuals that are creative, driven, and hard working. Therefore, the data that was collected during this research has to be looked at under this lens.
Interviews
We conducted 20 interviews with Transplanted Millennials from 17 different countries who are currently living in Greater Los Angeles Area. In these interviews, we used Collage and Image Deck as our research tools in order to understand deep emotions, thoughts, motivations and values.
1- Image Deck:
We used image deck to know their point of view about their generation. We first planned on using the image deck to ask these three questions:
How do you see yourself? How do you see the world? How the world sees you?
These questions didn't give us good results, therefore we changed them to:
How do you see your generation back home?
How do you see Americans of the same generation?
2- Collage:
For the collage task, our interviewees were asked to divide a page into 2 parts. On the left side, they had to show their life in their own country and on the right side their life in the US.
This collage was exceptionally beautiful and meant so much to our interviewee that she asked to have it afterward. Left side: India, Right side: USA
Left side: Saudi Arabia , Right Side: USA
Left side: Iran , Right Side: USA
Analysis and Conclusions
The 3 areas that were the focus of our research and analysis are the values instilled through nurturance, public events witnessed during adolescence, and Missions given by elders as they come of age.
Insights & opportunities
At the end of this project, each of us had to translate the insights we gathered form the research into 3 ideas that would address the needs and desires of Transplant Millennials.
Idea 1: Mama’s Meal
Insight:
- No time for cooking, therefore have less healthy diet.
- Great variety of food in the US but they don’t taste like home.
- Not all spices and ingredients are available i the US.
What if they could access home-cooked food of their country in a convenient and affordable way?
The Idea:
A food delivery service that empowers women who are looking for an additional source of money to use their cooking skills to provide authentic food of their country for those who really miss the taste of home.
Mama’s meal main values:
- Cooks don’t need to have a large menu or cook everyday. They can adapt it to their schedule and what ingredients they have available.
- Cooks can offer weekly plans. This means that users would subscribe and get certain foods from a specific cook every week. This feature is especially great for students.
- This service is more affordable than restaurant’s foods yet it creates job opportunities for many who don’t have the time or training that is needed to work at a restaurant.
- Finally, it can allow many immigrant families to not only make additional income, but also let others get a sense of their authentic food.
Idea 2: Ride companion
Insight:
- Transplant Millennials’ social life is limited to their work/study environment. They like to meet new people.
- Inconvenient and expensive public transportation, especially because of the long rides and traffic (the research was done in LA).
- Need more accessible and affordable services.
What if we could meet new people on our way to get to our destination?
The Idea:
A ride sharing service that makes it fun to meet new people on longer rides based on riders’ mood. So, once the ETA of the ride is longer than 15 minutes, the rider is asked if they would like to have a ride companion. If they say yes, they will have to pick 3 emojis that best show their mood out of 10 emojis that are shown to them on the screen . The app finds a co-rider with similar mood so they can have a better experience together (see the sketches below to see how it works).
Ride companion main values:
- Gamified and fun experience breaks the awkwardness that strangers feel when they are in close proximity of one another or when they want to initiate conversation for the first time.
- One of the hardest things for people to do is to describe or introduce themselves in a few words. This takes the hard work out of the process and makes it easy for people to be authentic and real without spending too much time thinking.
- This service shows that it is absolutely ok to one day be “energetic climber who loves to travel and party” and another day be “tired and need quiet time”.
- Ride companion is more affordable than ordering a taxi individually (update: at the time of this idea, co-riding services like Uber pool didn’t exist).
- Finally, it is more safe and affordable than going on a date and spending a lot of money only to find that you are not interested in each other at all. It is as if you get a quick teaser of the other person and decide how you want to proceed next - whether it is friendship, date or never seeing each other again.
Idea 3: Today
Insight:
- Dealing with a lot of stress and pressure due to: challenges of adjusting to a new society and new rules, concerns about immigration status and if they will be able to stay in the US or not, parents expectations, being away from family and friends.
- Punctuality matters so much in the US and with so much work and responsibility, time management is very hard.
- Not seeking help for mental health due to embarrassment or a feeling of weakness, high costs, and/or being unaware that they need it.
What if we could have a fun tool that would allow us to both manage our time and our stress?
The Idea:
Today is a planner app that helps people better manage their day-to-day while becoming more mindful about how they are living their life and get guidance and surprises and help whenever needed.
How it works:
Everyday, “Today” wakes you up and in order to stop the alarm your need to rate your yesterday based on a few factors. This allows you to reflect on your life and be more mindful of what went well and what didn’t. Based on your answers and sleep pattern, the app will assign a color to that day (for example red for a stressful day). It will also offer you coupons, gifts, videos, guidance and connect you with available therapists in your area. Moreover, you can see an overview of your days in the calendar section of the app. At the end of the month, season or year, you can export your calendar as art and order a print of it or just download it.
On Today, you can set reminders and create your To Do List for your “Tomorrow”. While the app does a lot to manage and reflect on your day-to-day, the interaction is quite simple. The home page is for “Today”, when you swipe right you can “Yesterday” and rate it, and when you swipe left, you can plan your tomorrow. By swiping down you can see your calendar and by swiping up you can take a picture for the day (each day you can only take one picture which be later added to that day of your calendar).
One year of emotions printed as art! The “big Picture” of your life.
Inspiration and thoughts behind “Today”:
- Apart from social media, one of the apps that people use everyday, is alarm clock. Also, there is a very clear connection between time and stress. That’s we wanted to have the app to be a simple alarm
- The business model is based on partnerships and swags. Partnerships can be with mental health specialists and discounts/coupons can be with a diverse range of businesses in food, travel, sports, entertainment and etc.
- The “big picture” prints can be designed in many formats and the design above is just one example. We can even offer a version with the year’s colors overlaying a photo that the user uploads.