Observing Service Design

Downtown Austin has seen a surge of electric-powered scooters and startups looking to monetize them. After the launch of Lime and Bird during SXSW 2018, it was difficult to miss them scattered around. I was reminded of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

After a few days of observing other riders and asking people what their experiences were, I took the plunge. Today I was running slightly late so I used that as an excuse.

Although I have never rode a scooter, I have used Austin’s B-Cycle — a service that rents out bikes that you undock from stations around the city through an app. I was comfortable with the format so it wasn’t a giant leap.

With Bird, signup was easy. I was ready to ride in 5 minutes. To unlock a scooter you simply scan a QR code using the camera on your smartphone. The first scooter I scanned immediately told me it needed a repair and I was unable to unlock it. By the end of the day I had tried 5 scooters and was only successful with 2.

Although there are kinks that need to be ironed out, overall my experience was a good one. My afterthought was that it would be an interesting user experience case to study.

This is a journal entry for a User Experience Design Immersive course at General Assembly.