Enhancing the experience of travelling by public transport

Enhancing the experience of travelling by public transport

Buringa, J.

Vermeeren, A.P.O.S. (mentor)
Jepma, E.J. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

2015-09-25

The project’s goal is to develop a product which will enhance the experience of travelling by public transport. In order to reach this goal use has been made of a combination of the brand driven innovation design method, the design for emotion method and the LEAN start-up method. The first phase of the process focuses mainly on the analysis of the targeted user. A set of methods were applied in order to gain deeper insights on the needs of users. The following user research methods were used to unearth pragmatic needs as well as aspirations and latent needs of users during travelling by public transport: In the ‘DESTEP analysis’ a broad analysis of macro factors is done regarding the demographic , economic, social, technological ecological and politics factors which are important for the target group and their matching product markets. For the ‘Quantitative research’ people were asked through an online questionnaire to share their opinion and experiences about travelling by public transport. The method was used to gain a broad and inspiring range of insights about public transport. In the ‘ Ethnographic research’ people who were travelling by public transport were observed in order to see what routines they have and what challenges they are facing. In the ‘Qualitative research’ a traveler was shadowed and interviewed in order to gain more insights about their habits and to talk about their personal opinion regarding travelling by public transport. Overall, insights were gathered about what exactly travelling by public transport means to people and what problems and opportunities could be leveraged from that. Based on those findings three design directions for future products were generated: Relax time: “How to ensure that travelling by public transport can become a moment to recharge yourself?” The challenge with this direction is to make travelling by public transport a moment to relax instead of physically and mentally tiring like it is now. Productive time: “How to achieve professional progress during travelling by public transport?” The challenge with this design direction is to make travelling by public transport an opportunity to accomplish goals instead of a waste of time. Controlled time: “How to ensure that the experience of travelling by public transport fits your work/relax mood?” This design direction is a mix of the first two design directions. The main challenge is to make public transport an opportunity to feel empowered and do whatever you want/ need to do. The project continued with the further elaboration of the design direction ‘Controlled time’. As mentioned before this direction is a mix of the first two design direction, this direction showed the most potential to come up with an innovative product. In the second phase of the project, ideas were generated in a creative brainstorm session. Two ideas were tested and validated through the LEAN-method: ‘Transformer suitcase’ and ‘Hangzone’. Simple prototypes were built and tested by potential users. After evaluating, the Hangzone proved to be the most promising idea direction and will be refined in concept refinement phase. In the concept refinement phase there is describe to what the product mustcomply, regarding the product experience, ergonomics and other requirements. After this several concepts are designed. Ultimately, a choice had to be made between ‘the Fisherman chair’ concept and ‘the foldable Box’ concept. The Box concept showed most potential therefore, there is chosen to continue to develop this concept further in the last phase. In the last phase, the box concept (a the stool/swing combination) is further elaborated. There have been made technical calculations, which clearly showed the weak spots in the design. With these calculations, a material could be chosen which is strong enough to make sure that also the weak points in the product can handle the forces. In this case aluminum 6005 is chosen, this material is often used in ladders. After defining the material, the production process could be defined for the different parts of the product. With the knowledge about the features, the material and the production process an estimation can be made of the cost price and the retail price. The retail price of the stool/swing combination which can be used while travelling by public transport amounts to 39.95 EUR. In the last part of the report the focus was on proofing the functional concept as well as the marketing mix for the new product. Within the marketing mix the distribution channels, the packaging, the price and the promotion of the product were defined.

public transport
stool
swing
travelling
working/relaxing

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:07f61b1f-6334-45c3-90b9-807d31665e46

2016-09-25

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Buringa, J.