Leisure Cycling Assistant
Project Logistics
Timeline
2 weeks
My Role
Product Manager
UX Designer
Our Team
Odelia Hoey
Shefali Verma
Project Overview
Many people across the U.S. are picking up a bicycle again for the first time in years due to the closure of gyms and other indoors activities and in effort to avoid public transportation during the pandemic. These new bike riders have more than fitness on the brain, using cycling as a leisure, social, and family friendly activity. Existing cycling apps are geared primarily toward “serious” riders and don’t address this new market’s needs.
Scope of Work
Our Goal
We set out to learn more about the increased interest in cycling and understand if there were opportunities to improve leisure rider experience. We believe bike riding is for everyone, and we wanted to create an app, called Kickstand, to help leisure cyclists plan their bike route before and during the ride, to encourage them to get outdoors.
Partner Opportunity
In order to accomplish this goal we would like to partner with Strava, an existing activity tracking app that caters to over 50 million fitness enthusiasts. Through what they call Strava Metro, Strava provides cities and urban planners with rich cycling data to help cities plan for the future. By partnering with Kickstand, Strava would have access to previously uncultured leisure ride activities, enriching their data offering.
The Challenge
More and more people are picking up a bicycle again after many years, and are unsure where to go based on their varying route requirements. As a result, this keeps leisure bicyclists from exploring new paths and creating new memories with their family.
How might we help leisure bicyclists discover new routes that are suitable for their activity goals and family’s needs?
Understanding the Market
To help us understand the market opportunity and where Strava can create additional value, we assessed the products in the market that are geared towards cyclists.
Competitive apps in the cycling market focused on activity tracking, competitive and training features, syncing with other apps and wearables, and social engagement.
Understanding the Users
We interviewed 5 participants from our target audience in order to understand how they currently go about planning bike rides and what their frustrations were. From these interviews, we learned that….
Leisure cyclists are spending an excessive amount of time planning their bike route, using a disparate source of information to piece together a plan.
They rely on Google Maps, Street View, and recommendations, yet still are unsure if the route they chose will meet their needs. Google maps provides the quickest way to get to a destination, however leisure cyclists are more interested in the scenic path, the safest path, and the path that will take them to a great brunch spot.
Designed by Freepik
User Research Insights
We determined common themes about our target audience by pulling information directly from interviews. We learned that leisure cyclists:
Route Goals
Want to choose their route based on their activity goals and preferences.
Safety
Want to be separated from cars to feel safe.
Nearby Amenities
Are concerned about the availability of nearby facilities and points of interest.
Our Target User
We gathered the themes and insights found from the user interviews to visualize a persona that embodies our target audience.
Meet Benjamin, an active, young father of two children, who is looking to find bike routes that are kid friendly and have amenities and facilities such as restrooms and snack shops near by.
Ben’s Journey
In order to understand Ben’s experience before, during and after a bike ride, we created a graph depicting his emotional experience, with highs and lows. This helped us identify the most stressful points during his journey and the opportunities to alleviate them.
Prioritized Features
To directly address the insights we derived from our user research, we prioritized a list of features that we believed we could design for the minimum viable product, or MVP.
Route Goals
Provide suggested routes based on their goals and preferences.
Safety
Allow users to filter bike paths based on path type.
Nearby Facilities
Cyclists can add nearby stops to their ride such as restrooms and bike parking.
Sketches
To jumpstart our design process, we conducted a design studio session internally, to create quick sketches in a highly time-constrained setting. This helped us get some initial ideas on paper and build on each other’s designs.
Design Iterations
With the goal of optimizing the intuitiveness and aesthetics of the design, we iterated on the app design multiple times.
Mid-Fidelity
Building upon our initial sketches from our design studio session, we proceeded to create our mid-fidelity design using Figma. These are digital, grayscale versions of the design, with the main intention of determining the size and spacing of elements as well as the text we plan to incorporate into each screen. I focused on the bike path options, selected bike path, and add to your ride screens.
Hi-Fidelity
Next, we introduced a color pallette, typography, and imagery. We branded ourselves as a family friendly app that encourages all to get outside and take advantage of good weather. We used a dark teal green as our main color to represent getting outdoors. In general, color was used minimally to ensure the main focus of the app were the bike paths themselves, depicted through imagery, language, and icons.
Test, then Test Again
In order to gain feedback from real users, we tested each design with five new participants. We gave them four tasks to complete, which a typical user would do within the app:
1) Sign in with your google account and look for bike paths in Seattle that are suitable for children.
2) Looks like any of these bike paths would meet your family’s needs. Choose a bike path and start your ride.
3) Your kids get hungry during the ride. Tack on a stop at Soundview Cafe to your ride.
4) You arrived at your destination. Please rate your bike ride and enter a comment.
The Most Difficult Tasks
Task 2) Through these usability tests we uncovered that participants had trouble finding the button to start their ride, as the gps icon was confusing and did not stand out to them. We updated the start button from the icon to the word “START”.
Task 3) Some users wanted to add stops to their route by interacting with the map view rather than using the “Add to your ride” slide up overlay. In our next iteration of the design, we will look to add interactivity to our map view to account for this.
Introducing Kickstand,
an app that provides curated cycling experiences for the leisure bike rider,
so they can spend more time enjoying their ride.
Our Features
Set Preferences
Users can filter bike paths based on location, their general goals, and their specific preferences such as distance, path type, grade, and path conditions.
Curated List of Bike Paths
Based on the user’s preferences, they will receive a refined list of bike paths that meet their needs. Along with a list of potential paths, they will see the trails on a map view.
Add Waypoints to Route
Before or during a bike ride, users can add to their ride by pulling up the overlay. Options include facilities, nearby points of interest, and food and drink. Once they select a stop and add to ride, their route will update on the map view.
Rate and Review
Once they finish their bike ride, they will be prompted to rate and review their ride by giving it a star rating, selecting route attributes and leaving comments. This information will help inform other riders and continuously keep path information up to date.
Our Features in Action
Click play to view the mobile app prototype.
Ben’s Improved Journey
With Kickstand, Benjamin’s emotional experience has dramatically improved. Now, Ben can rest assured that the ride he chooses will be safe for his family and have the amenities they need.
Next Steps
We would like to build out additional features that our users indicated they would like. Specifically, we would like to create advanced sharing, so that users can share their ride with friends and family. We also would like to add interactivity to the map view, to let riders select nearby points of interest and stops to add to their ride directly from the map, as was indicated by our second round of usability testing.
Overall, we believe there is a great opportunity here to create value for leisure riders and to help Strava expand its reach into a new market segment.
See you outside!