U-cycl
1
Discovery
Biking is an excellent way for most people to get from one place to another. It is incredibly cost effective, low impact on the environment, and improves individual health. However, there are considerable hurdles for many newcomers to cycling, from finding the right bike to knowing the right routes to take through an environment. This project hoped to remedy these hurdles via an informed online platform.
During the discovery phase, I observed biking environments and conducted semi-structured interviews with bike shop owners and cyclists. Initially, I had planned to include a comprehensive bike maintenance component in the application. However, after consulting with bike technicians, it became evident that this would make the mobile app too complex and inconvenient for users. As a result, we decided it would be more effective to focus on connecting users with these experts rather than trying to include everything in the app. This was a significant finding from the discovery phase.
2
Ideation & Brief
Since it was evident from the beginning that the project would be a mobile application, the focus of ideation was primarily on user experience and user journeys. This approach was crucial in identifying opportunities for expansion and refining the design
Brief
This stage initially focused on identifying features and determining how they could align with a compelling user experience. I received feedback from multiple stakeholders throughout this process, which helped refine the product framing.
3
Prototyping & testing
Fostering Ease and Community Around Bike Ownership
Considering environmental factors was crucial during the development of this application. Real-time location was especially important for platform users, as it enabled them to navigate uploaded routes and accurately find bike shop locations based on their own location. Consequently, extensive field testing was conducted, making use of the enhanced capabilities of no-code functionalities (i.e. real-time location upload).
4
Design Output
The output of this platform was a native application published to the Appstore and the Google Play Store.
While it had limited logic, it was a viable MVP for testing out the product that worked across platforms. Below are the Appstore assets from the live application listing.
5
reflection
This was my very first launched application, making it very special to me. Unfortunately, it broke almost immediately on Android and shortly after malfunctioned on iOS. This experience quickly taught me the challenges of maintaining a live application. Although the limitation was ultimately due to the software I used for the launch (something I am remedying today), I am still amazed that today a designer can successfully launched a native application without writing a single line of code. This realization completely shifted my perspective and set me on the path that led to my current specialization of design x no code.