UNI: A Digital Platform Designed to Create Real Connectivity
Role: Director of Research & Development
Class: Strategic Technology
Team: Dyanis DeJesus, Quentin Koopman, Jahnvi Manek, Guy Laufer, Vimvipa Poome and Grace Chen
Date: Fall 2011
Introduction
The UNI platform was designed in the fall of 2011 as part of our final project for a course entitled, Strategic Technology. The challenge we were presented with prior to developing our platform was to design an original disruptive technology. This was an extremely challenging task especially considering we only had 8 weeks to complete this assignment. Since presenting this project we have continued to see new services and products being introduced into the market that are similar to what we designed. However there has yet to be a platform that facilitates multi-user activities as seamlessly as what we have proposed.
Executive Summary
The digital landscape is rapidly evolving. With constant technological innovation and increased user adoption, our understanding of the end user's relationship with these technologies is also expanding. As the digital industry prepares for what's next we conceived UNI, as the next level of virtual platforms based on our findings of two key convergent points:
1) Change in Human Behavior:
The amount of people who use the internet and their frequency of use is increasing consistantly.
2) Evolution of the Internet:
As Internet technologies and user behavior continue to evolve, new challenges emerge for existing business and new opportunities are created.
Our goal is to design a product that will address humans' need for "connectivity." UNI accomplishes this goal by facilitating an emotional exchange achieved through a shared virtual experience between two or more people. Based on extensive research and observation UNI was developed as a future-vision of how people will utilize and interact online. Behavioral changes cause shifts in the surrounding infrastructure and our needs within it. Similar to how social networking sites disrupted the space occupied by chat, email and SMS, UNI will redefine the virtual experience in our daily lives.
Referred to by Wired Magazine as the "Great Tech War of 2012," Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon, are fighting to dominate the next phase of the digital age. These companies are expanding into each other's territories: social media, hardware and software, media, entertainment and consumption, the boarders that differentiated them from each other are now disappearing. What and how the internet provides information and services is at a turning point. With this shift the future landscape is wide open, and we believe the previous successes of the four industry giants are the pieces that tell the story of what is yet to come. This element of ambiguity, provides a window of opportunity that we can now tap into.
Problem Definition (video)
