Our location: Niagra Falls border
We found it challenging to place our high-tech, well-off character in present-day Niagra Falls. So, building on the futuristic reference in the customer persona we were assigned, we envisioned a Niagra border in a future or alternate reality.
We did not have time to do extensive research on the local economies and socio-cultural factors on both sides of the border, so we emphasized a prominent feature: the contrast between the high-traffic, tourist-oriented Canadian side with a casino and a more subdued American side.
Building partly on the Love Canal (environmental/pollution) disaster on the American side and on our last constraint, which dealt with urban redevelopment and sustainability, we decided to create an exaggerated scenario, where the Canadian side has developed into a futuristic, corporate Las Vegas-style metropolis, while the American side has returned (by necessity or social restructuring) to simpler values.
This change created a kind of cultural tourism whereby high-tech international travelers come through the Canadian border to "download"or "go lo-fi" on the more simple, natural, and/or rustic American side. Our travelers are seeking either for novel experiences or respite from their fast-paced, futuristic life-styles. The idea of "supercharged brains" suggests a human pace of life that was not able to keep up with the lifestyle and need to be enhanced. We can imagine that this would have its toll perhaps on citizens of that world.