Varberg Energi
The Project
In this design brief, my team and I were assigned to create a IoT-solution with a purpose to make Varberg feel like a smarter city. My roles for this project was User Research and Evaluation.
Duration: 1 month
Methods: Quantative, Qualitative Interviews, Workshop, User Stories, Storyboards and Stakeholder Mapping.
Tools: Figma, Illustrator, Google Jamboard
Context
The challenge for this group project was to find something specific to design, as we had freedom to design any IoT solution that would make the city of Varberg feel like a smarter city. Through brainstorming and desktop research we chose to focus on public transport and sustainability. The final concept became an e-bike locker that relies on an mobile application to use it.
Research
The research was initiated by sending out a survey to residents of Varberg to learn about their transportation habits. With the findings from our quantative research I designed a interview template/guide for semi-constructed interviews with potential end-users.
Analysis
With the qualitative data that was collected, a thematic coding was done using Google Jamboard. Key themes that we identified through the analysis was Safety, Security, Time, Enviroment and Health. These themes and their coherrent codes led to a new research question "How can IoT-products be designed to promote cycling?".
Ideation
For the ideation phase I conducted a workshop using the 6-3-5 method with 7 participants, which use bikes in their everyday commute. The goal of the workshop was to generate new ideas and have a discussion about everyones ideas, this way we could learn what goals the user have during their commute and hear what perspective they have on commute.
We then used the material collected from the workshop with the commuters and defined 5 concepts that we would use for a workshop with our stakeholders. The stakeholders then gave feedback on what was feasible and what ideas that were perticulary interesting for them through a business perspective.
Concept
Our concept was created from analysing the data from our interviews and insights from our workshops. The designed concept was a storage & charging solution for e-bike batteries and related assecories for commuters. The problem that our concept aimed to solve was to safely store your e-bike battery while the user was commuting whilst having the comfort to be able to charge it.
Evaluation
I conducted early evaluation with users using storyboards to communicate different interactions with unlocking the e-bike lockers. The evaluation resulted in chosing which way to interact with unlocking the lockers, which was solemly using the app. The reasoning was that it required less technology and would work better with users that have broken screens on their mobile devices.
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Reflection
In this project I learned how to conduct workshops remotely with both users and stakeholders and learning principals and the importance of participatory design. I gained experience in emphasizing and meeting users needs while also take stakeholders interests into account.