Week 1 ---- Researching on Expats in the Netherlands

Focus group: International Students

Users

Collection

Staatsbosbeheer

Vien Diagram
Analyze the differences and commons between users and me

My Assumptions:

1.Majority of the ppl from my users live in the cities.
2.A lot of my users are away from their family and taking a journey alone in this new country.
3.Ppl of my users want to make friends with other Expats (especially those from the same cultural background).
4.My users often feel not involved cuz they are living in a different environment aside from their own country, (culturally, geometrically, etc.)
5.Ppl from my user group is new to this country and wants to know more about Dutch culture.
6. Part of my user group do not like nature/usually don't go to nature;

My questions:

1. Are they familiar with the natural culture of the Netherlands?
2. How often do they go to nature / like to hang out in nature?
3. What do they usually do in the natural environment?
4. What do they expect of nature?

As ____, I want to____. So that____.

As an international student, I am from another country and still new to the Netherlands,
I want to know more people and make new friends with the other Expats who are having similar problems as theirs.
So that I don’t feel lonely at this pandemic time.

As an international student,
I want to not get too far from the city but do some exercise and close to nature at the same time.
So that I could find a way to run without contact with too many people.

Further Servey


1. What do you do every day? apart from the study do you go to the park sometimes?
2. Are you familiar with natural areas in the Netherland?
3. When and where do you usually have the desire of going to nature?
4. How do you usually find nature places? What tool do you use?
5. Do you have any problems or barriers when searching for a place to go?

Analysed Result:

Overall, My assumption and questions at the beginning of the research stage got revised, confirmed, and answered.
Most of the international students do know the natural beauty of the Netherlands but have not experienced it much, or have only played in city parks.
There are two main reasons: some people are new to the Netherlands and haven't had time to experience it yet. Some people are so busy with their studies that they have no time to travel. They only have the time to go to the park once in a while.

This result inspires me with some ideas:
design an interface that tells general knowledge of the natural beauty of the Netherlands for users who are new to this country
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make users who feel lonely in a foreign country feel amiable/be cared of.

The clock of Knolling---Staatsbosbeheer provides nature routes that are best to visit at different times.

Feedback/Feedforward:

Feedback/Feedforward:

Further research:
I found interesting in a longer timeline, which is in seasons. Therefore, I also did research on which routes are best to visit that Staatrsbosbeheer provides.
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some samples I could reference for my design

Analyzed activities, length, location, title, and what's special of the sample routes:

As a result, Staatsbosbeheer is a website that manages and provides people with 273,000 hectares of nature routes in the Netherlands. People can find suitable routes for themselves by screening the address range, distance length, different activities, and time provided by the website. But the site is currently only available in Dutch which is not suitable for international students.
To sum up, although the website provides a large number of resources and different screening mechanisms, many places are not applicable to international students, and the screening mechanism is somewhat cumbersome and repetitive. In order to better conform to the user experience of international students, it is better to first exclude those who have specialized customer groups (such as children and families), then, provide an internationally commoned language, and then simplify the screening mechanism as possible.

Recorded user flows according to user stories: