Urban agility: E-bike concept based on contextual user research

Urban agility: E-bike concept based on contextual user research

Van Mourik, K.A.Y.

Kuipers, H. (mentor)
Silvester, S. (mentor)
Beella, S.K. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

Design for Interaction

2013-07-03

Qwic is a Dutch company producing electric two-wheelers. Despite of rapid success and growth over the last years they do not reach their intended urban target group. Therefore Qwic needs to innovate their current electric bicylces (e-bikes). This eventually led to the following graduation assignment: Design the new Qwic e-bike for the 25-50 years old urban commuter. In order to do this the whole project was split up in four steps. Step 1, Analysis: Based on a broad analysis of the urban mobility domain and Qwic as a company with their current products, the following main conclusions can be drawn: • 1 Current e-bikes are regarded by urban consumers as traditional bicycles and because of this they are considered too expensive. • 2 E-bikes are mainly used by 65+ consumers. This has created the image that they are just for people with reduced physical capabilities. These two conclusions justify a redesign of the current e-bike concept. Qwic would be the perfect local player to initiate this redesign. But in order to do this they should transform their supplier driven development into a more user-centred product development. Step 2, Research: Subsequently to the analysis phase an extensive user research was conducted. Exploring the context, experiences and wishes of urban professionals. Based on this research the following two main conclusions can be drawn: • 1 The urban e-bike should play a more active role within the intangible, mental experiences of the urban professional travelling in the city. An e-bike should utilize the possibilities that electric products offer. • 2 The urban e-bike should fit the lifestyle of its users. The fact that an e-bike is an advanced product should not result in a complex, inconvenient user experience. Besides these two general insights a range of contextual themes and concrete findings were identified backing up these conclusions. These themes and findings form more tangible inspiration sources for concept development and are eleboratly presented within this report. Step 3, Envision: The research findings led to the insight that the current relationship between the urban professional and his e-bike is rather contradicting. On one side the product offers a liberating, attractive empowerment, while on the other side the e-bike causes a lot of hassle within everyday urban life. Because of this contradiction the e-bike remains merely an attractive proposition that eventually leads to a tense and disharmonious relationship with its owner. Based on this insight the following design vision is formulated: “I want people to feel liberated from everyday life boundaries and to move within the city with great ease and simplicity in order to taste the vividness of urban life to the fullest.” This vision is the first step towards the development of the new urban e-bike design. Step 4, Design: In order to achieve the formulated design vision, the new product should embody a set of specific qualities. By the determination of these qualities an important next step is taken in order to translate the design vision into a design brief. Then, combining the outcome of the research with the design brief and the capabilities of Qwic, it can be concluded that the emphasis of this project should be on redesigning the current urban e-bike. Developing new interaction qualities that improve the current situation. An elaborate product redesign rather than a complete product innovation. Eventually the research insights, design vision and design brief led to the development of a new e-bike concept: The urbangility e-bike. This concept is an improved redesign on the following topics: • Robust and distinctive aesthetics fit the context and the wishes of the urban professional. Communicating that it is not just an normal bicycle but a honest e-bike. • The fluent and carefree battery offers a hassle free interaction of charging, placing and securing the battery. • Intuitive e-controls ensure an agile riding style. • A smartphone application encourages sporty riding and to explore their urban environment. • Flexible and personal options make it possible to customize the urbangility e-bike to fit different subgroups of urban professionals. The proposed urbangility concept is also evaluated together with urban professionals. It received positive feedback on its fundamental design characteristics. Yet, the evaluation also indicated a range of details that needed to be optimized. Therefore it was decided to further develop the battery design. The battery seemed to be the most innovative feature of the new concept, with great effect on the eventual user experience. Therefore one extra step was taken towards a more detailed design proposal for the urbangility battery. Making it more fluent and carefree to use within the urban professionals user context.

e-bike
context mapping
urban commuting

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b5cf5271-2a94-4171-bc13-133550a88cf1

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2013 Van Mourik, K.A.Y.