You Need To Become The Consumer

As soon as I heard about Matterport I thought it was a great idea. I loved the dollhouse feature and pretty much everything about it visually. The software paired with the camera created some unbelievably detailed 360 tours. But I couldn’t understand the real need for the hotspots element.

For those that are unfamiliar, Matterport is a piece of software that creates stunning 360 tours - I mean S T U N N I N G.
It takes all the rooms that you photograph and creates this model-like version of the entire building, a dollhouse effect. It then allows you to do all sorts within the digital space. Measure distances, touch particular areas for more information etc.

It was that feature I couldn’t understand. What was the real need to add text to a 360 tour? As a creator I could see it as an opportunity to add more words, but I didn’t get what the consumer would gain from this… until I was the consumer.

Recently, I was looking for a specific smartphone repair shop in my local area; having come across their website I had a quick read through and thought I had all of the information I needed. Wait - they have a 360 tour of the place?!
Having been into the physical shop a few times I didn’t really need to have a look around it, but they had just had a revamp so thought I would take a look around.

Suddenly, I was the consumer of a 360. I was truly a potential customer looking around the shop. After being blown away by the quality of Matterport I started reading all of the hotspots that they had included in the tour. That’s when I noticed how useful they were! Suddenly I was getting great bitesize pieces of information about the shop as I walked around it. Due to it being very visual, all the information was relevant to the area in the shop it was in too!

What I’ve learned here is if I don’t understand a new product, I need to not only put myself in their shoes, but also become them. You can never fully understand how a product is consumed until you are the consumer.