Memorial Union

We chose to conduct our ethnographic study at Memorial Union for a variety of reasons:

• It's large, with multiple floors and a relatively complicated layout.
• It serves a variety of purposes and attracts people of all types and ages.
• There are periodic surges of people, as most events take place on the hour or half-hour.
• Because the events come in bunches, people tend to come in waves. This helped us understand how the robot might handle large groups of people, many of whom are in a hurry.
• The front entrance opens into a spacious lobby, a good setting for a robot. Currently there is a map and help desk, so we were able to observe different methods visitors use to find directions.