Collectively, Rheiana and I interviewed 4 people. Edyn, Jenna, and Claire are current 1st-year students at UC Davis. Franki is a freshman at DePaul University in Chicago but spent a few summers in Davis visiting with family. We chose to interview first-year UC Davis students because they are new to Davis and would potentially be interested in our scavenger hunt app that aims to encourage people to explore and learn about downtown Davis. We interviewed Franki because they are unfamiliar with the Davis area and we wanted to get a sense of what activities they would be interested in to learn more.
Through our interviews, we learned that the UC Davis orientation does not really have a component that encourages downtown Davis exploration. Students who went downtown, did because their orientation leaders decided to take their group on their own. We also learned that most students do not know much about the history of Davis and are interested in learning more. Prior to coming here, most students only knew about the cows, eggheads, and that UC Davis is an agriculture focused school. From Franki's interview, we also learned that the surrounding community plays a big role in the college decision making process, so it is important for prospective students to get a sense of the entire city not just UC Davis.
From these interviews, we have gathered that incoming students have very limited knowledge about the town of Davis and would be interested in learning more. Additionally, an interactive scavenger hunt would introduce them to Davis places and help them acclimate to their new environment. These findings have provided evidence for the value of our scavenger hunt app and will help inform our decisions as we finalize our concept.
Interview Questions
- What did you know about Davis before coming here?
- How was your orientation experience? What worked well? What did you feel was missing?
- Do you go to downtown Davis often? If so, what are places you go to most frequently? How did you discover those places?
- How much do you know about Davis history? Are you interested in learning more about it?
- Have you ever played Pokémon Go or other scavenger hunt like video games? If so, what was your experience with them?
- Would this scavenger hunt idea be something you would be interested in ?
- When you were looking at colleges, how big did the surrounding town/community play a role in your decision?