The Qikspace project was started as a need to understand how people really interact today, in order to
solve a need of more efficient virtual interactions. The founder had planned
to pursue a PhD in contextual relevance as it relates to human interactions.
After exploring the existing research in the area and discussing the endeavor
with some top universities, he decided instead to hire his own, researchers, scientists and assistants
to
explore the subject independently.
The research found that people prefer to interact with people directly rather than
organizations or groups. The research also revealed how we remember the
interactions, and that if the information is categorized into common memory
patterns — 3 groups of 3 — a user could access billions of pieces of information
rather than hundreds or thousands.
Investigating the mechanisms by which we interact with others, and the
commonalities of these interactions, they found the traditional methods did not
facilitate complete interactions. This was mainly due to the cost and capabilities
of previous technologies; mobile devices greatly enhanced these integrated
capabilities. When this research was undertaken in 2011, mobile devices were
not expected to possess these capabilities, but the technology arrived because of
user desires.
The next step was designing interaction tools that were intuitive to users. This
process required extensive field-testing of concepts and designs. A final part of
the research was to identify what the users found useful in the concept, and how
it could be scaled for the differing needs of the user base. After this exhaustive
process, there was the challenge of fitting this technically complex solution to
specific users’ needs, and configuring it to run on a mobile platform. Last but not
least, there was the step of building a brand concept and comprehensive
branding message. “Be more productive, find everything!”
