[onion2k]

I don't think it's reasonable to assume that the company behind this app did no research into the problem. It's possible that they didn't, but it's also possible that they asked pregnant women what problems they faced and discovered that actually getting a seat by asking people doesn't work as often as we'd like to think. That would be a really interesting discovery - on the face of it the problem shouldn't exist, but maybe it actually does, and it's a big problem. Maybe women have found they've asked people and been verbally abused in response, so they're reticent about asking again in the future.

The lesson here for me, as a man who will never face the problem of not finding a seat when I'm pregnant, is that there are huge problem spaces that I have no insight in to.

This is an minimum viable product for a problem that I don't understand or have knowledge of. It won't work in every situation, and there are some huge problems to resolve in getting enough traction for it to be genuinely useful, but if this problem exists (and I'm willing to accept that it does) then I see this as a positive step forwards.

[Bartweiss]

There are, broadly, two questions here. I don't have any insight on the first, but I do on the second.

One is whether the existing solution (asking) works well. I wouldn't know, and I'm fully prepared to believe that it doesn't. The old "breaching experiments" about asking for someone's subway seat come to mind - asking for a seat while pregnant is very different from asking for one with no reason, but there's still a strong impulse against asking strangers for concessions. Add in the possibility of a hostile response, and I certainly won't be making fun of anyone for "not just talking".

But the second question is whether the solution works any better. The requirements for that are "people download the app, keep location and bluetooth on, then notice the alert and respond". That, simply put, isn't going to happen. You don't have to tell me what the product is - just knowing it's a two-sided 'market', where one side is "do all of these tasks without a reward", I can tell you that adoption will never be high enough to count on the app (unless someone enforces its use).

I don't object to someone making this app, though I'm a bit uncomfortable with them charging for a product which will work approximately never (even for charity). But it feels more like an art/awareness project than an actual tool - it's motivation to consider the problem, but I can't see any road for it to be a solution.

[problems]

I doubt you have absolutely no insight into it - you've probably given up your seat a few times. I have at least, and usually without a single word being spoken. I've witnessed it and done it dozens of times, yet I've never seen anyone get belligerent about it.

[onion2k]

I've seen a pregnant woman ask for someone to give up their seat maybe 20 times in my life. A pregnant woman probably has more experience of that situation in a week. So, while I can't think of an occasion where I've witnessed a woman asking for a seat being denied one, I have such a small amount of experience of the problem that my input is worthless.

This is a really common situation with most startup ideas. If you ask people who have no information about the problem what they think you'll get feedback that isn't worth anything. This is one of the reasons why getting good feedback is hard.

[jvvw]

You have to remember that this is a British app and we're probably not the best at things like asking for seats. As somebody who has been pregnant twice (and in the UK),I still can't really see what improvement this is over the baby on board badges. I don't think it is something I would have paid for - sometimes people just don't notice you certainly, but the chance of somebody having it installed in the same carriage seems pretty remote.

[bengale]

If people are unlikely to move when asked they're unlikely to install and app that tells them to move either.