City mobility, a wicked problem
The Design Thinking process is a user-centered approach which theoretically enables us to resolve any kind of wicked problem. Challenge accepted! Let’s practice it on a very broad & hot topic: city mobility.
The brief
As the relationship between metropolis and rural areas is transforming, moving around the city has also witnessed transformation over the past years.
A huge variety of alternatives have emerged in the transportation field. At the same time, the streets have become a playground for exercise. These changes lead to an important question: “How Might We organize the variety of people navigating the streets to provide a more efficient and cleaner city?”.
We have been through the Design Thinking Process trying to answer this challenge. Within a period of… 🥁…7 days!
The research process
The research process focused on the users needs, goals, behaviors, motivations and pain points. 3 tools were used during this phase:
- The secondary research in collecting data from the web.
- The quantitative research conducted via an online survey.
- The qualitative research with 5 interviews.
The secondary research
We have retained 3 main data points from the secondary research :
- The number of cyclists. Libération published that 70K bike users were visibly active in Paris on last June 1st.
- The number of cycling accidents, that reached 919 in 2020, increasing by +35% vs LY, according to Cnews.
- Among those 919 accidents, 8 deaths have been reported, increasing by +100% vs LY.
The survey
The survey that we conducted among 95 people has highlighted that :
- Walk is considered as the most pleasant mean of transport with 81% of respondents. Followed by…. the bicycle with 48% of respondents.
- The first alternative mode of transport, commuters would like to use is the bicycle with 31% respondents.
- The 3 biggest reasons that stop commuters to use an alternative mode of transport:
- Risk of road accident (37% respondents)
2. Price concern (30% respondents)
3. Infrastructure issues (29% respondents)
The interview
3 of the interviews were conducted in person versus 2 online. 3 quotes caught our attention as the most insightful:
“Myself before I was doing whatever, I was not following rules, now I really respect traffic line, signs, because I saw multiple accidents, I could see 1 accident per week.“
“We have to share the street with so many different types of vehicles, with different speed.”
“I take smaller roads that may be less fast, but that are less dangerous.”
Key findings
Basically, what we saw from the affinity diagram is that :
- Users are ready for a city without cars
- Outdoor transport (e.g. cycling, walking) are associated with a more delightful experience (vs tube)
- But the top 1 obstacle for cycling is the fear of road accident;
- And rules, infrastructure and congestion are mentioned as key causes for fear of road accident.
Meet Hélène, our primary persona
The persona is a representation of the users based off of the research findings specified earlier.
Hélène’s journey map
Here is a typical day in the life of Hélène when she needs to go to work:
- First : Hélène checks the weather conditions, the weather is good
- She starts her journey happy
- During her journey, she makes sure to follow the traffic rules.
- Then another bike user crosses the road while traffic light is red for him. She was able to brake on time and avoids having an accident
- Hélène, tries to calm down and finishes her bike journey.
- She arrives on time at the destination — FINALLY after so many twists.
The problem statement
The user research has allowed us to identify that there is a major safety problem & draw the following conclusions that:
- People navigating the city don’t respect traffic rules
- The infrastructure is not adapted enough for bike use
- The city is congested
Among the different opportunities for design, such as the infrastructure enhancement, the control or the decongest, in the end of our analysis, it was clear that users like Helene have the biggest need for education options/opportunities.
And we ended the defining stage with the proper statement of our problem:
Regular cyclists who live in congested cities such as Paris need a way to cycle to work safely because they are concerned about having an accident with other road users.
Our solution
After many brainstorming sessions, we came with this idea of a governmental app. As this solution is considered as a pilot project, we agreed on restraining the geographical scope to Paris. The app will be…
- …dedicated to cyclists
- …promoting digital training to raise awareness & educate about the cycling rules
- …offering an incentive to boost engagement which is actually a discount on a Veligo subscription.
Veli-what ?
Paris is already demonstrating a strong commitment to promoting commuting via electric bicycles. The Ile-de-France region rolled out the world’s largest electric bicycle rental program, called Veligo (read more here).
The concept? Give the opportunity to test-drive and find out what riding a e-bike is all about ! And when your subscription ends, if you enjoyed the experience you can buy your own e-bike from a specialized retailer and make it one of your regular means of transport (source: Veligo).
And guess what? Since safety is also their priority, they provide optional training where you’ll learn the rules and get tips for safe riding (source: Veligo).
Not bad, huh ? Do you see the synergy ?
Lo-fi prototype
We created lo-fidelity wireframes to represent the happy path:
- Download & open the app
- Create an account
- Watch & learn
- Take the test
- Get the offer
Concept testing
We have conducted 3concept testing sessions to confirm the concept idea. Does this governmental app answer to the problem identified ? Overall, all the users liked the idea and approved the concept.
The “Oh yes!” feedbacks:
“I loved the financial incentive”
“I will think of the situations I saw in the training when I am on my bike”
The “I would use it, but…” feedbacks:
“..I would make it an ongoing education process with regular content and test
“….I would make it more fun using gamification.”
“….what financial incentive would you offer to cyclists who are not using Veligo ?”
“…It would depend on the content material”
Summary
Our mission was to find a way to organize the variety of people navigating the streets to provide a more efficient and cleaner city.
Through our research, we identified a design opportunity to help everyday cyclists. Their main problem is the risk of road accident. Why? One explanation mentioned by our persona and hypothesis we decided to follow is that road users don’t follow the rules.
We ideated on a solution that could help cyclists better follow rules: a digital training and test for cyclists, that educate and sensitize them about the importance of following rules.
Through testing our concept with 3 users we identified that users would be interested in using the solution, with some caveats.
Next steps
- Refine the prototype based on users’ feedback and retest: e.g. create continuous content that is tailored to users profile, and shared via App notifications, with an opportunity to retest yourself regularly and improve your score.
- Create a scale-up strategy: if our pilot is Veligo, how do we extend this pilot to include all cyclists, what financial incentive.
- As we become confident in the concept, move to a high-fidelity prototype and test for usability
- Further build the solution: QR code for badge, possibility to digitalize tickets given by the police etc. Other problems in the eco-system must be addressed in parallel (e.g, police presence to enforce rules).
Thanks for reading this story, hope you enjoyed it :)
