Designers: Christian Brandstrup Jensen, Andreas Jonsson, Marianne Have Petersen, Jonas Wenke, Bánk Horváth
The project was developed at Aalborg University Copenhagen, as part of the 2014/2015 I semester of Service Systems Design master’s program.
The project was developed at Aalborg University Copenhagen, as part of the 2014/2015 I semester of Service Systems Design master’s program.
What is Byke?
Byke connects you with local bike owners of the place you are visiting. Byke makes it possible for you to rent a bike, and
perhaps even get valuable insights on local places to see, and things to do, during your stay.
Byke is an online platform that is free and easy to use. You can access Byke from your smartphone or computer, and look for a bike that suits your exact needs. It is easy to get in touch with the local owners, and Byke will ensure your privacy and safety, both in terms of payment and insurance.
Scenario
For whom?
Our target groups contain visitors, guests and tourists on the renting/consuming side of the service, and local bike owners in Copenhagen on the providing side of the service.
Persona
Why Byke?
The nature and purpose of a stay in a foreign city will differ from person to person, and from situation to situation, but the general experience of being a visitor involves a set of specific, temporary needs. One of the biggest need for a tourist is TRANSPORTATION.
For making a service in Copenhagen regarding transportation, two basic principles stand out remarkably:
- The biking culture of Copenhagen
- The growing and popular sharing economy, like AirBnB, Couchsurfing, Uber, etc.
Considering these specificities our problem statement as a question comes to our mind:
“How can we design and implement a peer-to-peer bike sharing / bike rental service, that empowers
local bike owners and visitors to create economic and social value with and for each other?“
local bike owners and visitors to create economic and social value with and for each other?“
How can I use it?
Nowadays we can’t avoid the technological aspects in every segments of our life, and with Byke we wanted to fit into this trend, hence Byke is based on an application which connects the bike owner and the renter with each other. The digitally trackable interactions ensure the users for a safe business.
Try out our application here.
How was Byke developed?
For the design process we used Design Thinking approach, since it gives the user a path which is easy to follow, and divides the process into Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test phases. That approach helps to understand the context and possible problems in transportation, and helps to create the best of the possible solutions.
Meanwhile we did not forget the iterativeness of the process that means after every step, we investigated the results of our actions and analysed them before the next step. That has resulted sometimes the necessity of redefining or refining our direction.
The model we chose from http://designthinking.co.nz/
Empathy
• Unstructured observations
• Quick & Dirty interviews
• User journey mapping
• Card sorting with keywords
• Service safari with Bycyklen
Unstructured observation reveals possible problems, Q&D interviews and customer journey mapping unfold the thoughts and feelings of possible users, card sorting informs us about the preferences of users regarding transportation, while Service Safari shows the weak points of existing services.
Define
• Target group definition
• Problem statement
Ideate
• Brainstorming
• Sketching
Making a game in the service, challenging our assumptions, or just imagine what would our service have been in viking times is useful for our creativity, and helps us to figure out more ideas. Plus it is a good fun!
Prototype
• Sketching, wireframes and mock-ups
• Flowchart
• Experience prototype of app
Sketches helped us to develop wireframes and mock-ups, as prototyping tools.
Test
• Experience prototype
• Design scenarios
• Service blueprints
• Customer Journey Canvas
Scenarios help to understand better, how Byke develops the experience of visiting Copenhagen, while the general blueprint reveals the actions of different actors in the service.
