Interview with Participant
Interviewer:  Thank you for being part of the study, and agreeing to be recorded. How did you feel overall about the watch? #00:00:18-6# 
Participant:  Well I don’t really know; it was kind of mixed. It was good in the aspect that it has fitness apps on it, but it just seemed like an extension of my phone, and it was a bit annoying something when you got a notification through the watch but you had to go onto your phone to use it.  #00:00:36-9# 
Interviewer:  Yeah #00:00:38-6# 
Participant:  That was a bit annoying. And, the screen, it’s too small to do something’s, and it’s too big because it gets in the way sometimes. It’s good in some aspects and it’s not that good in others. #00:00:52-6# 
Interviewer:  Do you think that if there was more functionality built into the watch so that you could do things without having to go to your phone then that would be useful? #00:01:00-2# 
Participant:  Yeah, it’s kind of there with like voice recognition on text messages, but when I try to actually speak to it to reply to a text it didn’t understand what I was saying; which is partly my fault because I would speak too fast to it but it didn’t seem to work that well. And on things like Instagram it’s so small that you can’t actually see the photo so you had to go onto your phone to use it, and on the BBC News and Guardian App it only showed you one story, and it didn’t seem to scroll very well - I think it’s just the optimization of the Apps that’s probably not there for the watch yet. #00:01:37-5# 
Interviewer: The reason we chose the watch was so that you could hopefully quickly enter an area and leave a response. Did you feel like you were able to do that or did you feel like it was slow and cumbersome? #00:01:52-9# 
Participant: Well, when I first got it and I walked past the [somewhere] I pressed ‘move onto phone’ and it worked but then I think it was by Wednesday the actual App on the watch didn’t work - when you’d walk past somewhere and you’d get a notification, and I pressed ‘handover to phone’ the App seemed to crash for some reason. The screen went dull and it has a spinning wheel, and it didn’t actually move over to your phone, and then when you tried to go onto your phone and do it manually, I think it must’ve been stuck in communication with the phone and it didn’t seem to work that well. So you have to restart the whole thing and do it again, and it did work after that but just sometimes on the watch it didn’t seem to work that well.  #00:02:31-2# 
Interviewer: Did you feel that just using the watch to answer the questions you could put across the views that you wanted to put across, or did you feel constrained or limited by the options that were available? #00:02:42-2# 
Participant: It’s a bit constricted I think; because usually when I wanted to say something I’d have to scroll all the way to bottom and press ‘something else’ because I think some of the categories there, things that I wanted to say, weren’t in the categories, so I had to go to somewhere else and that’s when it seemed to crash a bit.  #00:03:01-2# 
Interviewer: Okay. Do you feel like you were able to leave more comments because you could leave them quicker? #00:03:20-8# 
Participant: Yeah yeah yeah. I mean I don’t know whether they went through or not because the Internet on my phone isn’t very good, but, when I walked up and down the promenade I left loads and loads and it was actually quite useful, as if people go out and actually use it. If there’s litter somewhere, you can actually say, but you can do it multiple times in different places, and that’s quite helpful sometimes.  #00:03:45-4# 
Interviewer: Do you think it’ll be quite useful to emphasise more that you can leave comments wherever you want, rather than just in the notification areas? #00:03:51-3# 
Participant: Yeah. #00:03:53-4# 
Interviewer: Did you feel like you were only meant to leave comments where you received notifications but not everywhere? #00:03:59-5# 
Participant: If I wanted to leave a comment somewhere, when I walked back from a meeting, down on the promenade there was a load of rubbish but I couldn’t because the App on the watch wasn’t working, I couldn’t leave the notification there so I had to go to the nearest beacon and put it there, which was a bit annoying sometimes. Obviously it was quite close, but, if it was really far away then it wouldn’t make any sense. #00:04:26-3# 
Interviewer: Yeah, that’s a good point. #00:04:26-3# 
Interviewer: Did you feel like you were able to communicate your points through the App, or did you feel like you had to make it quicker or not really communicate what you wanted to do because you were using a watch rather than a phone? #00:04:38-9# 
Participant: Oh no, I actually thought it was quite good because it just said ‘leave your comment’ and you could just type whatever and there wasn’t any cap, so you could just say whatever you wanted which was quite good. I think on some Apps that are like that, I’m trying to think of some that are the same, TripAdvisor kind of the same, where you leave comments, but you’re constrained a lot, but whereas on that, you can literally write whatever you want, which was quite helpful. #00:05:01-0# 
Interviewer: Do you normally participate in these kind of things; like making people aware of rubbish and giving your opinions or is this.. #00:05:10-0# 
Participant: Well through the Youth Council I do, but, before Youth Council I’ve never once emailed the council about anything. I mean my parents do a lot because we got loads of those notices on the lampposts about stuff - they used to do it, but I’ve never really said anything about anything.  #00:05:25-7# 
Interviewer: Do you think that if you had something like this on your phone, rather than on the watch, you’d be more likely to do it in the future? #00:05:31-4# 
Participant: Yeah, I definitely. I think it’s just easier on your phone. I think it was good to have the watch at the start, and it’s good that when you pass a beacon it buzzes and pings, that’s good, but I think in the long run it’s just better to have the phone because it’s just more easy to type and it’s just more useful on the phone.  #00:05:51-3# 
Interviewer: Do you think the small screen of the watch contained it a lot? #00:05:51-5# 
Participant: Yeah, it did. I mean, like I said, it was good in some aspects and bad in others. It was good that it’s portable, and if you forget your phone but you’ve still got the watch, but, in the long run it’s just easier to have a phone, and I like the watch now I have it, but if I never had it, I don’t see the point in having one - if that makes sense. Like, I didn’t realise that I needed it, until I had it, but now that I haven’t got it, I don’t think it’s any easier. I don’t think that makes sense. #00:06:23-5# 
Interviewer: Yeah, that makes sense. That’s perfect. Do you think that being able to feel your wrist vibrate and quickly look at your wrist and see what the notification was, for example, when you’re using ChangeExplorer you can see straight away that you’ve entered an area. Do you think that was useful in how you interacted with the App? #00:06:40-4# 
Participant: Yeah, yeah it was. One time I was late and forgot where I was, and it pinged where I was and then I actually realised ‘ohhh, I’m at the wrong place, late’, so it was useful for that. But the problem was sometimes when I walked past one beacon, it sent me a notification for all of them, and then it just went ping, ping, ping loads, which was, it only did it like, three or four time, but it seemed a bit weird how it seemed to notify me on all of those at once, even though I was only stood at one. #00:07:06-3# 
Interviewer: Yep, that’s a bug with the App - something we need to get fixed.  #00:07:08-6# 
Interviewer: In the future, would you rather have a watch and a phone, or just a phone by itself? #00:07:16-3# 
Participant: I think once the App that you have on your phone have been optimised for the watch, I definitely have both, but I think until stuff has been optimised, I would rather just have the phone I think.  #00:07:28-4# 
Interviewer: Was there any part of the App that you struggled with or got frustrated with? You talked about it crashing and the multiple notifications. #00:07:35-2# 
Participant: Yeah, I think one thing was if I didn’t walk past somewhere, and I wanted to leave a notification, like, if I wasn’t anywhere near the [soemwhere] but I wanted to say something about the [soemwhere], I’d have to go onto the map, which I don’t know whether, but it used up my data which, when I looked at my e-bill, I think it had took quite a large proportion of my data when I was outside the house, not on wifi, and because I through on the App, it would have a list of all the beacons, but you had to go onto the map, so I think if it would be better if it was a list of all the beacons and you could just pick, because I think on the map my phone is really bad for 4G, and it was really really slow when I wasn’t on wifi and I had to zoom in and click on it, so I think it would be better if there was just a list of all the beacons, and you could click on it and leave a comment that was instead. #00:08:24-5# 
Interviewer: [Offers reimbursement for data] #00:08:32-2# 
Interviewer: Did you feel like you wanted to leave comments when you receive notifications or that it was interesting that you got a notification but you didn’t want to leave a comment? #00:09:01-5# 
Participant: When I first got it, being honest, I thought I haven’t got anything to say, but when it gave me a notification, it made me think about things that I wanted, and then when I was going to submit something, I thought “do I actually need to say anything?” but then ideas actually came into my head, which was surprising that I’d do that, but I think the only problem with that is if you have a lot of people using it, by the end of it, I think was saying stuff that I just wanted, not that was actually the problem in the first place. But I think when it gave me a notification, it defiantly made me think about things, because I thought the [soemwhere] was fine, but then when it gave me a notification I was realising “ohh no, it’s covered in green algae on the top” and there’s litter everywhere; it kind of made you think about the local area more.  
Interviewer: Did you feel that you were thinking about the local area more even when you didn’t receive a notification? #00:09:48-6# 
Participant: Yeah. Like when I left the house I trying to find things to make comments about - so it made me think a lot more than I actually thought it would. #00:00:04-3# 
Interviewer: Do you feel like the App raised your awareness to changes in the area, so things that were planned, obviously the App didn’t tell you what was planned, but, did you feel you were more in touch with what might change? #00:10:18-0# 
Participant: Yeah, I think if I didn’t have it then I never would’ve known that there was a Arts and Craft Fair or something at the [somewhere]. I didn’t know that was there, but then because I got a notification about the [soemwhere], I walked down and I didn’t realise that was there, and it made me think a lot more; when I got a notification about stuff I would Google it to see what was going to happen, and then it bought up events and stuff that I didn’t even know there on. There doesn’t seem to be any advertising anywhere about these events, so it actually made me Google them and find them out. #00:10:51-1# 
Interviewer: Would you like that kind of thing to be built into the App? So that you got notified about exactly what was happening? #00:10:57-2# 
Participant: Yeah, I think that would help, because I don’t really know much about events in the local area but if it was tired to the beacons, and when you walked past it gave you a calendar week of upcoming things then it would actually be quite helpful. #00:11:12-3# 
Interviewer: Or photos of what was going to happen? #00:11:12-3# 
Participant: Yeah yeah. #00:11:18-1# 
Interviewer: So I guess the App, at the moment, is based upon problem that you are currently facing in the area. Do you think it would be good if it were asking you to speculate about problems that you might encounter if things were to change? #00:11:27-2# 
Participant: Yeah. I think it would help. But there was another thing, when it gave you a notification about the beacon; were those beacons randomly selected or was there actually things going to happen there? #00:11:39-9# 
Interviewer: So, the placement of the beacons is based upon, in [somewhere], some of them were points of interest, but along the seafront they were places that we were looking for your opinion on - such as the [somewhere] and [somewhere]. #00:11:56-2# 
Participant: Yeah, I think it would help if.. I think it’s probably a lot to have on an Apple Watch but I think it would be easier if it had information about, not just events but what the council plan to do, because on the promenade one, there was lots of building going on but I didn’t know what the building was actually about. So maybe if it say mundane things, like “ohh, they’re resurfacing the road at the skate park”, I think that would probably help. #00:12:19-3# 
Interviewer: So you just got a notification and you knew that something was changing, but you had no idea what? Okay, that makes sense. How did you feel about the number of notification you got and the placement of the areas? #00:12:25-9# 
Participant: Well I mean, for me, it was quite good because most of them, well, a lot of them, were in [somewhere], but when I looked at the map, because my dad lives in [somewhere] but mum lives in [somewhere], and when I went to Killingworth there was none, and I think on the outer-areas of [soemwhere] area, there wasn’t any notifications at all, but I think it [somewhere] there was a lot which was good, it’s not a bad thing, but I think it would help if there were more in the area. #00:12:52-3# 
Interviewer: More of a spread around..? Yeah. Did you find annoying at any times when you were walking down, and your watch was going off all the time? #00:13:02-1# 
Participant: When it gave me a notification for all of them it wasn’t annoying because it was just like a ping, but it was helpful when it actually told you things, but I think when it sent them all at once, it was a bit annoying, but, it wasn’t really annoying at all, because I got loads of notifications anyway, so I don’t really mind notifications. #00:13:19-8# 
Interviewer: That’s good. So would you say the App was useful in prompting you to reflect on the areas you were in and improvements you’d like to see? #00:13:31-4# 
Participant: When it send pings about stuff, it just made me think about what I’d actually want to be there, because everyone in [somewhere] hates what they’ve done with the [soemwhere], how they’ve just left it without anything, and then I think if everyone in [somewhere] had that App, and when they walked past the [somewhere] and it pinged “what do you want to see here?” I think everyone would submit something saying “do something with the [somewhere]”, and it would actually make the Council do something. I think that there’s probably one beacon, if it was actually put out, one beacon in every local area that everyone wanted to do something with, but because they haven’t got the App, they don’t feel that they can talk to the Council, without the App I don’t know how I’d go about complaining, well, not complaining, but telling them to do something with the [soemwhere]. I don’t know how I’d do that. But because I had the App, it made me, it was a channel it could tell them through what I wanted to do. #00:14:21-7# 
Interviewer: So you’d be more likely to leave a comment using the App than you would to get home and write an email to someone or, use a website? #00:14:31-5# 
Participant: Yeah, because it’s not hard, it’s just an email, I don’t really have time sometimes, but with the App you just handoff to the phone and just type it, and it’s fast, and it’s easier, and it also feel more colloquial, because it’s not all formal; in an email I feel like sometimes with the Council, because it’s a government institution, if you don’t, it’s probably not true, but I feel if you don’t write the email properly, they’re not going to reply to you. But with the App, you can just type whatever you want, and it doesn’t have to be like “Dear Sir/Madame” and you don’t have to put “yours faithfully” on the end, you can just type it and it straight to them.  #00:15:08-2# 
Interviewer: Cool. What kind of acknowledgment do you think you’d like to receive from the council that they had received your comments? #00:15:14-3# 
Participant: I think, maybe, as soon as you submit the comment,  I don’t know how you’d do it, but maybe if as soon as someone reviewed it and read it, it would say “your comment has been read” so you know that someone has read it, and then I think the comments were justifiable, if it’s actually related to the area then someone would reply to you within a couple of days with something like “we’ve considered your comment and here’s what were planning to do” or something. I think that would be good. But I think the thing is, because it’s so easy to tell something, I think maybe if it was rolled out some people would just type rubbish into it, which is probably problematic. I think because it’s just a trial, I could tell that there wasn’t that much validation on the entered text, because it didn’t capitalise words after the full stops - some people would just type whatever they wanted and it wouldn’t validate what they were actually saying. #00:16:08-3# 
Interviewer: Okay #00:16:09-9# 
Participant: I know some people that would probably just use it as a way to rant at the Council, which is probably not what it should be used for.  #00:16:17-1# 
Interviewer: Yeah. So if you got a reply, you said you’d like it to be quite a detailed reply saying “thank you for your comments, here’s what we’ll do” in repose to it. #00:16:27-4# 
Participant: Yeah, I think people probably don’t really care as much as I do, but I’d actually want to, if I sent a comment about the [somewhere], and they said thank you for your reply, here’s what we’re going to do, I’d actually want to know everything, what they were going to do, and the timescale, and how much it would cost, because I’m quite interested in the that because it’s the local area, but I think some people might not really want that much detail. But, I don’t know, it would depend on the seriousness of the comment I guess, but I’d probably want quite a lot of information. #00:16:54-5# 
Interviewer: Do you think it make you engage in other ways? Do you think that through this interaction with the App you might be tempted to go to meetings and get more involved? #00:17:07-5# 
Participant: Yeah. I can’t remember how my mum got this, but the council gave planning permission for an old people’s home which was behind my house and it blocked everyone’s sea view, and we were all really angry about it, and, I think if the App was there then, everyone would know about it a lot earlier. I mean, there was a meeting about it, but there was a meeting about it whilst they were laying the foundations, which didn’t seem particularly right. So i think if people knew something was happening, then it’s not that people would just be all defensive, like “this is my sea view and I want it”, but they’d be a lot more discussion with the Council because I think everyone was rather aggrieved about how they just sold the plot of land away, and there was allocations of corruption. If there was more discussion, I think people would be okay with things happening, because I think everyone, where I live, it’s old people so they all get really angry all the time, but in terms of the local area, if it was just - they don’t mind things happening, they just don’t get told about it, because I don’t know what the Council actually does. Apparently they’re building on the second carpark, but I don’t know what they’re building, I don’t know who is buying it, and I don’t know when it’s going to be completed, and I don’t have any idea about it, but apparently it’s already gone ahead and the building company is already planning what they’re going to build, but I don’t know what it is, and, everyone on my street is getting angry about it because they don’t know what it is. If there were just a way to communicate a lot easier, I Think it would also help with a lot of tension because people don’t really like the Council because they’ve - it sounds really petty but everyone just gets really angry over really small things, and if there was just a way to communicate, it would help a lot of people to deal with things that were happening. #00:18:48-4# 
Interviewer: So, do you think that the current methods of communication that they use, letters on lampposts, and send you letters through the post, and put adverts in newspapers. Do you think they’re effective or do you people don’t look at them or understand what they are? #00:19:03-3# 
Participant: I think the [somewhere] News, which everyone uses as Cat Litter, so, no one actually reads that, so I’ve never read a Council advert in the paper because it just gets thrown in the bin straight away. And then on the lampposts, when they’ve built certain things people will have torn them down, cos they get angry about it, which then stops everyone else from knowing about it, and the letters, I think it’s just a massive waste of paper - I mean, the amount of trees the must cut down to make all those things I think it would just help if it was all done through technology - it’d just be a lot easier.  #00:19:30-9# 
Interviewer: Yeah. So when you left a comment about a place, would you like to receive an email back, or would you like it to be in the App, or what kind of shape do you think the reply should take? #00:19:43-4# 
Participant: I think I would be okay with getting a notification through the App saying “thank you for your comment”, but I think quite old people would want an email because I think if you’re quite old, and it’s your first time with technology, they quite like emails, so it’d probably be better for them to get an email, but I think young people they would, I only really read my emails when the Council send me something, I wouldn’t go and check it afterwards, but old people probably would, but I just want something just generic saying “thank you for your comments” through the App, and that’s all I’d really want. Just to know that it’s actually sent. #00:20:14-3# 
Interviewer: Do you think that you’d be up for using newer methods of media, so instead of getting sent a long document, you might prefer a video or photographs or some timeline or, something that’s different to a really long document. #00:20:31-8# 
Participant: I think maybe, sometimes - it depends on the situation I think. Sometimes a long document is necessary but other times, picture probably are better. If it’s something short, you might as well send the document, but if it’s something massive, like a big project, I don’t really know. I guess it would depend on the situation. #00:20:55-9# 
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. Did you feel like you had to look out for things, like, feel you were being very critical of places, or did you only submit if you felt strongly about something? How did you manage that? #00:21:15-2# 
Participant: I think at the start I only submitted if I felt strongly about something, but when I realised it’s just easier, and you can do it fast, I wasn’t picking really small, petty things, but I was defiantly more likely to just comment on a lot more things near the end, because I was just getting used to it. #00:21:33-8# 
Interviewer: Do you think being able to put across how strongly you felt about something might be useful? #00:21:38-3# 
Participant: Yeah, if you could have something. Like, when you submitted a comment, if you had a rating how serious it is, or something, I don’t know, if you had a scale you could select or stars, or something, I don’t know. I think sometimes if people were submitted things that weren’t really that important they’d just put it on one out of ten, I don’t know, and then it would probably help the Council because they would deal with the more serious things first, and then they’d go down the order. So they’d probably like, if someone were to spot litter, they’d just put it at one or two, but if it was, I don’t know, something collapsed, you’d put it at ten, and it’d be a lot easier.  #00:22:14-2# 
Interviewer: Do you think that the options, obviously there were only two options; would you like to see more of them, and them being a bit more customised, so that if you did say “Id like to change it for old people” you’ve got categories that are more appropriate for improvements for old people, or do you feel that it was good that when you picked the first one, the second were always the same? Did you get a familiarity with the App? #00:22:43-7# 
Participant: I think because it was on the watch it was a bit hard to do that, on the fitness bit, you have to enter your information, maybe if, I don’t know how much work it would be, maybe if you had a profile and it said what your age was, because I think I’m not that likely to comment something to improve something for someone else. I know it sounds really bad, but like, if I walk past something that’s going to affect old people, I’m not going to submit a comment about that. So maybe if you had a profile that said your age, then you submitted something, you’re very likely to say about your age group and your category, so it might be a bit faster to do it that way I think.  #00:23:22-3# 
Interviewer: Yep, that makes sense. So you don’t feel like you can leave responses on behalf of everyone rather than leave responses on behalf of you. Cool. So, at the moment, do you feel like you’re involved in the decisions made by the council, or do you feel like.. #00:23:38-5# 
Participant: Well, because I do the Youth Council I do, but before that, I kind of just let it happen - I didn’t really fell like they were. That’s not just me - they didn’t seem to consult anyone about anything. Because, like I said, I’ve never seen an advert in the newspaper, or, poster on a lampost - I’ve never really seen them.  #00:23:55-6# 
Interviewer: What would stop you from participating in decisions that are being made in your areas with a high barrier to entry - in terms of sending emails, or would it be.. What would you like to.. #00:24:11-0# 
Participant: I think it’s just accessibility to the channels. If you make it easy for people with technology, they’ll just do it, because I think everyone has a comment to make, but the more formal they have to be, and the more time they have to do, the less likely they are to do it. I think if you just make it easier for them, then everyone will do something. #00:24:30-1# 
Interviewer: Do you think the technical language that they use in these document when they’re outlining what’s going to happen makes it difficult to people to understand?] #00:24:40-7# 
 #00:24:41-6# 
Participant: Yeah. I kind of understand it because I’m here, but if I didn’t do anything with the Council, some of the language I just wouldn’t know anything, and then sometime it references, they tend to appreciate a lot of things, and I mean, that’s quite hard to understand. Instead of saying “Councilor” they go “Cllr” but that doesn’t really make any sense, so I think sometimes their language is pretty hard, but then again, it’s a Council document, so it kind of has to be like that - I don’t know how you’d get around it, but, I think getting that’s just another barrier to people doing things, because they feel like they have to understand the language, or at least use it themselves to feel like they’re going to get a response. #00:25:19-7# 
Interviewer: Do you think a lot of people might be tempted to say something, but would feel like their comment wasn’t useful, or might get ignored if they couldn’t phrase it as.. #00:25:29-3# 
Participant: Yeah. If you were going to do an email, you feel like you’d have to know everything on the topic, otherwise, you’re not going to get a response. #00:25:36-9# 
Interviewer: Do you think that the time of meetings, and the distances to these meetings where they normally discuss these things is a barrier - they normally occur during work hours.. #00:25:45-9# 
Participant: Yeah, I think if you’re going to have meetings about things in the local area, then they would have to be after work-hours, and they’d have to be close to the local area. There’s no point in having a meeting here about something that’s going to happen in Killingworth - I mean, it’s not that far away, but, people are going to think “why are you having a meeting about something that’s happening in my local area, in the Quadrant”, I mean, that’s not something that really makes sense, but then again, I don’t know where you’d actually have the meeting, because it seems a bit hard - there’s not town halls everywhere. #00:26:10-4# 
Interviewer: Do you feel that if an App like this existed, would the improvements that you’ve said, do you think that you’d use it? #00:26:24-3# 
Participant: Yeah, I think I defiantly would. I’d probably not use it as much, because obviously it was a trail, so I was purposefully tagging things, but I think if existed I would defiantly get it - I think a lot of people would as well. and obviously I wouldn’t barrage people with comments, but I’d still send quite a lot in. #00:26:43-5# 
Interviewer: Do you think if the App allowed yourself to communicate in other ways, such as with photographs, sketches, and voice memos, do you think that that would be a useful way in communicating your view? #00:26:53-4# 
Participant: Yeah. I think if there was a, if someone graffitied on a wall, instead of typing “someone graffitied on a wall”, you could take a picture of it, and then I don’t know if you could embed the location into the photo - that would probably be quite useful.  #00:27:05-8# 
Interviewer: Yeah. So if we took the features of the watch, and, made it easier to use on your phone, and.. #00:27:20-7# 
Participant: Yeah - it’s just easier on the phone. It’s helpful to have to watch, but I think if you just had all the options like sport or the ones with the categories and age groups, it would just be much easier on your phone, and then like, I’m not really that good with technology, so, I’d just much prefer it on the phone. #00:27:39-1# 
Interviewer: So it’d be good to have a list of all the places that existed, and on the phone be able to say “I want to leave a comment where I am now” rather than having to go through the map. #00:27:52-9# 
Interviewer: Well, thank you. That’s all the questions I have for you. #00:27:53-9#