I chose the area for the pilot project of TreeCycle in the city of Manchester, England, because I saw that there was no online e-bike rental platform yet. For my own target market, I chose university students with an age range of 18-35 years because Manchester is famous as a student city. Therefore, I did user research on university students in Manchester. The research I did included interviews to find out the participants' habits in using public transportation, and a survey to see their purchasing behavior and awareness of the environment.
The interview is conducted to 11 people with the following questions:
As for the survey, I used Google Survey as the platform to conduct it. There are about 50 people who responded to the survey. The questions on the survey are:
Are you a university student?
How do you commute to study/work at the university/workplace daily?
What is/are the main factor(s) that you consider for your ‘transport option’?
How much do you spend on transport monthly?
1. 0-10 pound/month; 2. 11-20pound/month; 3. 21-30 pound/month; 4. 31-40 pound/month; 5. More than 40 pound/month
What would be the main reason that you want to use the bike in Manchester?
A) How interested would you be in using an e-bike for your daily commute? > Ranking 1-10
B) What makes you ride or rent a bike over other transports? _______________________
C) How motivated would you be to use an e-bike for your transportation if you know that you could contribute for environmental purposes? > Ranking 1-10
D) If you knew that the more you cycle the more trees get planted would you feel incentivized to use an e-bike for your daily transportation? > Ranking 1-10
E) Score yourself, how much you are conscious for the environment / eco-friendly concern > Ranking 1-10
What would interest you the most, if you could collect and get it after biking/renting an e-bike?
Shopping discount
Restaurant discount
Donation to environmental NGOs, charity organizations
Receive trees for planting
Exchange to rewards/gifts
Convert to the discount for the next use
Others: ___
From the user research above, I then created a user persona. User personas are typical users whose interests and behaviors mirror the demands of a larger group of people (Faller, 2019).
Figure 1, User persona for TreeCycle app (generated by author)
From understanding the users’ needs and interests, I then conducted ideation using the Opposite Thinking method to figure out the details of the product and the features that I want to add to the app that will become the differentiator (value proposition) from other bike rental platforms.
TreeCycle’s Ideation: Opposite Thinking method
Figure 2, TreeCycle’s Ideation using Opposite Thinking method
After knowing the features that will exist in the app from the ideation stage, I then created a user flow journey to know how will the user experience the app based on those features. A User Journey Map is “a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal.” (Gibbons, 2018).
Figure 3, User Journey Map of TreeCycle
After knowing the features that will exist in the app and the user’s journey, I then created a user flow to know where to start creating the prototype. A user flow is a chart or diagram that depicts the steps a user will take to perform a task in an application. To create intuitive design products, product teams create user flows that offer the relevant information to users at the right moment and allow users to execute desired tasks in as few steps as feasible (ProductPlan).
Figure 4, User Flow of TreeCycle app
After deciding the user flow when using the app, the following is the prototype of TreeCycle app: (full prototype preview click here)
The challenge of this second rapid ideation is how to make products that are really needed by users based on the results of user research. I already have some features in mind such as providing health records based on the user’s cycling journey history but apparently, it wasn't desired by the user based on the interview that I conducted. In terms of time management, it was also hard to finish the project on time because I chose to do user research. Therefore, I wasn't able to use another platform to build the prototype as planned after completing RI1. I stuck to using Figma because I am already familiar with the features. I hope that on another occasion I can work on a project that is done in a team so that I can try some other tools and also share experiences and different perspectives from other people in completing an app development project.
Faller, Patrick. (2019). Putting Personas to Work in UX Design: What They Are and Why They’re Important. XD Ideas [online]. Available at: https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/process/user-research/putting-personas-to-work-in-ux-design/ (Accessed: 18/12/2021)
Gibbons, Sarah. (2018). Journey Mapping 101. Nielsen Norman Group [online]. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/ (Accessed: 18/12/2021)
ProductPlan. ‘User Flow: What is User Flow?’ [online]. Available at: https://www.productplan.com/glossary/user-flow/. (Accessed: 18/12/2021)
18 / 12 / 21
Sarah Shafira Novianti
GDO710 Development Practice
MA User Experience Design, Falmouth University
Figure 1. User persona for TreeCycle app image by the author.
Figure 2. TreeCycle’s Ideation using Opposite Thinking method app table by the author.
Figure 3. User Journey Map of TreeCycle table by the author.
Figure 4. User Flow of TreeCycle app image by the author.