Pivot

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Pivot

• Nathan Nichols
• Kristian J. Hammond
• Larry Birnbaum
• Lisa Gandy

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There are useful online services we can provide
to real-world shoppers through the ubiquitous
cellphone.
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Pivot is a system that allows real-world shoppers
to quickly and easily access useful information
and services surrounding a product using their
cellphone.
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Pivot

• Problem
• Pivot
• Deployment
• Architecture
• Future

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Online shopping

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

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Problem

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

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Script

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

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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

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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

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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

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Experiment

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

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Results

• Desktop
• Participants took an average of four minutes
• iPhone
• iPhone owners took five and a half minutes
• Non-iPhone 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.

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No one is going to spend five minutes comparison
shopping with their cellphone in the middle of a
store.
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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.
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Mobile experience can be improved, but not enough.
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Best-case scenario is still too slow.
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Pivot

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

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Pivot takes 15 seconds
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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

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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.
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Deployment

• iPhone optimized webpage
• Four types of products
• Books
• Videogames
• CDs
• DVDs

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Books

• Amazon prices, buying options
• Barnes Noble prices, buying options
• Synopsis
• Customer reviews
• Professional reviews
• Recommendations

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Videogames

• Amazon prices, buying options
• Best Buy prices, buying options
• Watch trailer
• Customer reviews
• Professional reviews
• Recommendations

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CDs

• Amazon prices, buying options
• Best Buy prices, buying options
• Sample tracks, purchase through iTunes
• Synopsis
• Customer reviews
• Professional reviews
• Recommendations

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CDs

• Amazon prices, buying options
• Best Buy prices, buying options
• Sample tracks, purchase through iTunes
• Synopsis
• Facebook
• Customer reviews
• Professional reviews
• Recommendations

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CDs

• Amazon prices, buying options
• Best Buy prices, buying options, locations
• Sample tracks, purchase through iTunes
• Synopsis
• Facebook
• Customer reviews
• Professional reviews
• Recommendations

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DVDs

• Amazon prices, buying options
• Best Buy prices, buying options, locations
• Watch trailer
• One-click add to NetFlix
• Facebook
• Customer reviews
• Professional reviews
• Recommendations

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DVDs

• Amazon prices, buying options
• Best Buy prices, buying options, locations
• Watch trailer
• One-click add to NetFlix
• Facebook
• Customer reviews
• Professional reviews
• Recommendations

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Architecture

• Loosely coupled client/server model
• Server is Python program running on machine at
  Northwestern University
• First client is iPhone-optimized web app
• http//www.PivotApp.com/
• Im happy to talk details

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Architecture Overview

• Get unique product identifier onto phone client
• Lookup type of product and basic information
• Based on type of product, access a variety of
  sources in parallel

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Pivot scales smoothly.
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Client
Server
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Near Future

• Native clients
• l-d barcode decoding is hard
• User feedback

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Middle Future

• Expand supported items
• Clothes
• Wine
• Over-the-counter medicine
• More social network integration

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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 wont work
• Instruction manuals, recipes, to-do lists,
  restaurants...

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Acknowledgements

• John Otto and Adam Shaw
• Audience

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Questions?
ndnichols_at_gmail.com
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