The Xochi Experiment
Connecting digital nomads and locals in Mexico City
Inspired by the prompt “Migration and Digital Nomadism”, this service design project focuses on digital nomadism in Mexico City and its impacts on the local community. Our team ran generative research, ideated a design response, ran evaluative research, and presented a final concept.
The Xochi Experiment is an in-person experience that connects digital nomads and local residents through scavenger hunts, cooking, dining, and deep conversations.
Client
University of Washington MHCI+D Course
Duration
10 weeks
(Sep. - Dec. ‘22)
My Role
Generative Research
Evaluative Research
Service Design
Team
2 UX Researchers (me)
2 Designers
Table of Contents
Problem Space • Generative Research • Design Response • Evaluative Research • Final Concept
Problem Space
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Mexico City is a major hub impacted by digital nomadism from the United States:
5.3 million Americans flew into Mexico in the first half of 2022, nearly 1 million more than the same period in 2019 (CNN).
The number of digital nomads in CDMX grew 125% in 2021 and another 65% in the first half of 2022 (Mexico News Daily)
Local residents and businesses are being pushed out as a result of digital nomads with higher income and corporations hoping to make a profit off them:
Roughly one in three CDMX residents moved in the first half of 2022. 60% of them cited increased rents as the reason (Mexico Daily Post).
A family Torta sandwich shop in the Roma neighborhood was evicted after 54 years in business as the landlord chose to redevelop their property into luxury apartments (CNN)
Figure 1: A protest in Mexico City against gentrification on November 17, 2022. (Mexico Daily Post)
My Contribution: To better understand the problem space, I led secondary research by organizing a central database where our team collected notes, then facilitated a synthesis session to find the most pertinent findings to frame our problem space.
Digital nomadism is on the rise, spurred on by increase in remote work due to the pandemic. We focused on digital nomadism in Mexico City (CDMX), one of the largest hubs for American digital nomads.
What is a digital nomad? A person who has a location-independent, technology-enabled lifestyle that allows them to travel and work remotely.
What is CDMX? CDMX is the abbreviation for Mexico City, Ciudad de México in Spanish.
Generative Research
From our secondary research, we identified that gentrification was a huge problem caused by digital nomadism in CDMX. I initiated a discussion to scope the focus of our work and how we could have the most impact. We focused on a grassroots movement, as opposed to affecting local policy, because:
We hypothesized that direct connections would decrease polarization and stereotyping between groups
We had to work around the constraint of not having connections with CDMX’s local government
My Contribution: After our team decided on a generative research methodology, I put together the research plan by creating the format, formalizing the research objective and centralizing questions across group members.
Hypothesis
Meaningful connections between digital nomads and local community members in Mexico City will spur mutual understanding and care for each other’s well-being
Research Approach
We wanted to hear directly from community members in CDMX to understand how they feel about the rise of digital nomadism in CDMX and how they interpret meaningful connections between the groups. We chose a cultural probe so we could design activities that give us more contextual information and help participants open up about a potentially sensitive topic. Our central research question was:
How do digital nomads and local community members in Mexico City make meaningful connections with each other, if at all?
Methodology: Cultural Probe + Semi-Structured Interview
What is a cultural probe? It consists of prompts, questions and instructions along with artifacts for recording thoughts and feelings.
Participants: 3 CDMX locals, 1 CDMX digital nomad
Research Synthesis
My Contribution: I led a research affinitization session to identify our key findings. I focused our affinitization around the theme of ‘meaningful connections’, to ensure we answered our central research question. Additionally, I had my team members attribute quotes to their respective participant to reduce interpretation bias.
Figure 2: Cultural probe activity. How P3 (CDMX local) views digital nomads
Figure 2: Cultural probe activity. How P2 (CDMX local) views digital nomads. Quote says “cheaper life”
Figure 3: Cultural probe activity. How P1 (digital nomad) views CDMX locals - inspired by her local friend
Figure 4: Affinitization of themes we found in our research
Research Findings
Meaningful friendships are possible, even though animosity exists at a high level between the groups
Digital nomads and CDMX locals live and hang out in segregated neighborhoods, reducing opportunities to meet and make connections
Intimate environments and cultural and collaborative activities create prime opportunities to build relationships beyond the surface level
Design Response
Before launching into ideation, we wanted to ensure our design would not exacerbate the harm that digital nomadism causes on the local community. I facilitated a discussion on how we could translate our findings into guiding principles. The following guiding principles informed our design challenge and resulting design response.
Guiding Principles
Focus on personal connections: We recognize our limitations and choose not to address gentrification head on. Our team believes personal connection can lead to open dialogue and grassroots movements.
Bolstering small local-owned businesses: We plan to partner with small local businesses in our design by giving them the opportunity to promote their wares that are tied to the local culture.
Design Challenge
How might we encourage digital nomads and local residents to make meaningful connections while bolstering small businesses in Mexico City?
Our Proposed Response
The Xochi Experiment - a recurring community event that aims to connect digital nomads and local residents through scavenger hunts, cooking, dining, and deep conversations. Each event would take place in different neighborhoods around CDMX to get digital nomads out of their bubble and interact with local businesses they may not discover otherwise.
Figure 5: Our initial user journey map detailing how users would find their way through our experience
Evaluative Research
Research Approach
We broke down our user journey into four key touchpoints: scavenger hunt, cooking, intimate space, and conversation starters. We ran a scrappy version of each of these touchpoints in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, WA and kept the experience as close as possible to what we envisioned it to be in Mexico City.
My Contribution: I led a discussion where we narrowed down our key research questions based on what we wanted to evaluate.
Role: How is our design used by research participants? Does it match the purpose we intended?
Look & Feel: Is the design experienced by research participants as we intended?
Methodology: Prototype Testing & Semi-Structured Interview
Participants: 1 Ballard resident, 3 new to Ballard
Research Objectives:
Figure 6: Prototyping research objectives broken down by key touchpoint
Figure 7: Pictures from prototype testing
Research Findings
My Contribution: After testing, I led another round of synthesis through affinitization to identify our findings per touchpoint.
Below you can find an example of our findings for one of our touchpoints:
Touchpoint: Scavenger Hunt
Participants confirmed a need for icebreakers at the beginning of the activity
Designing collaboration into puzzles for the clues facilitates bonding
Participants desired more interaction with local stores during and after the hunt
Final Concept
Figure 8. Refined key touchpoint experiences with desired outcomes in the description. A more detailed look can be found in our presentation download below.
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Touchpoint 1: Scavenger Hunt
Include ice-breaker activity to build rapport between participants
Design more interaction with local stores & store-owners
Touchpoint 2: Cooking Activity
Local chef can serve appetizers of snacks to abate participant hunger
Touchpoint 3: Intimate Space
Ensure groups have a private space for their conversations to protect their conversations.
Touchpoint 4: Conversation Starters
Redesign local issue prompts to focus more on personal experiences
Figure 9. Final user journey map with changes incorporated from evaluative research
We presented on overview of our research and the final design response in a final presentation to the class. We also created a mock guidebook that guides local organizations on how to host The Xochi Experiment in different neighborhoods of CDMX. Download our presentation deck & mock guidebook below:
Next Steps (if we had more time):
Travel to CDMX and perform in-person research to gather accurate contextual data
Flesh out the Sign Up, Icebreaker, and Reflection touchpoints in the user journey (shown below in red)
Figure 10. Simplified user journey map with Sign Up, Icebreaker, and Reflection touchpoints highlighted
Key Learning:
Decision-making: When making decisions that come to a stalemate, it’s important to take a step back and identify what is valued in each option. Isolating those aspects and understanding which guiding principles or key findings they tie back to will help with option evaluation. It could even inspire the team to go back to the drawing board to see if another option could satisfy both criteria, which we did in our ideation phase.