IDEO, a global design consultancy creating impact through design, took their experiment known as Free Time to the streets in San Francisco. They created a “free time” ticket dispenser that hands out 10-minute increments of free time in the form of printed tickets. This is a study of basic prototyping and why it is so important to test out products or services on the real world before taking them out into the market, if at all possible. An interesting viral characteristic of the Free Time study, was that once a few passengers on the train witnessed other’s taking free time tickets, they couldn’t resist the opportunity to play. In some cases, those who initially snubbed their noses to it and did not want to be involved, changed their minds after seeing others warm up to it.
Here is what happened when they took the dispenser onto the Caltrain ride back to San Francisco.
