User Persona #2

Roberto, a retired professor from Chile, is visiting San Luis Obispo for the first time. While finishing his fantastic meal at a restaurant by the creek, he catches a glimpse of an intriguing, natural‐formed canopy down by the water. He spots a clear path from the restaurant down to the creek, and eagerly begins making his way down to the canopy with his wife. Once Roberto reaches the bottom of the creek‐level steps, he becomes awed at the rays of sunshine piercing through the openings within the canopy, allowing him to peek up at the restaurant he just came from and across to the other side of the creek. His exhausted wife rests on a comfortable bench and starts to study a sign nearby. Though she does not understand English very well, she can tell that the sign and icons indicate different locations of renewable energy exhibits throughout downtown San Luis Obispo. Meanwhile, Roberto enters the canopy and discovers a trail of turned‐off LEDs lining the patterned panels. He sees a small crank nearby and immediately makes a prediction that the crank will light up the LEDs under the canopy. There is a diagram of instructions for the crank, but being a dynamic and somewhat analytical learner, Roberto grabs the crank handle and excitedly observes what happens next. He hears an extra loud splash of water and notices a water wheel by the edge of the creek turning at a consistent speed. Seconds later, the LEDs under the canopy light up and become brighter and brighter. Within a minute, a string of lights race along the walls on both sides of the creek, as if they were racing to a finish line. Roberto hears loud cheering from several people strolling down the opposite end of the creek. A couple children looking from the nearby bridge excitedly make a dash down the path toward the canopy to try the crank too. Roberto and his wife take a photograph together under the canopy with his iPhone and then step aside to relax on the bench. He notices a QR code on the sign with the site map and scans it with his iPhone. An animation quickly downloads onto the phone, clearly demonstrating the concept behind the process of using water to generate energy by turning a crank.