Through a series of primary research detailed below, including field observations, interviews and surveys, we decided to design a electrical bike for this project.

Field Visits

I first visited several bike shops in Atlanta to understand the general bike types, learn about the current market and where standards were currently held, as well as experience browsing for a bike from the user's side. We also observed people's bike purchasing process and how people choose bike to reflect on their needs and styles. I familiarized myself with a product and market I had little experience with. This information aids in the organization of my observations.

Observation

I observed commuters in multiple metro areas in Atlanta. From early morning to early afternoon, I took note of the gear, tendencies, and potential troubles of the biking commuters. After we observed the interactions between the users and their bikes, along with the city environment and drivers on the road. We identified four main barriers that prevent people from using a bicycle. These barriers create a lot of tensions during the daily commute.We pivoted from focusing on area.

Interviews & Affinity Mapping

I conducted multiple interviews to better understand people that commute by bike, and noted the different relationships each person had with objects, places, or other people that stemmed from riding their bike.

We synthesized our results using affinity mapping and gained the following insights:

• People still prefer buying bikes in the store and test the bike size and quality in person. People are generally reluctant to make large purchases like buying bikes online, such purchases require careful research beforehand. Plus, buying bike online cause big shipping fee and the require buyer the effort on assembly,
• People get frustrated when find out their bike get knocked down (lack of kickstand and pedestrian traffic).
• When parking, bike pedals always get caught in other bikes
• Bike comes with a basket is not a style for everyone. In fact, city commuters needs storage for backpack and groceries. Biker who carries multiple items must balance them with the bike.
• Student who bikes around campus doesn't wear helmet because it is annoying and gets in the way on campus.
• Roadbike can cause back pain from the posture

As a result, we decided to design a electric bike with a multitude of features, each tackling different aspects of design problems indicated from user research

Detailed Online Survey

I conducted a survey of 232 people who do and do not have a bike in order to see trends within different groups and here is our main findings in the survery

The survey also provided us with rich data for our persona creation, which is detailed below.

Value Proposition Canvas

In addition to interviews and surveys, our group also created a value map to display the area of need, want, and fear for bike users. This allows me to gather insights into the design opportunities in the experience of the commuter.

We picked the top 4 components to consider for our bike design:

• Exertion
• Easy to Maintain
• Equality
• Less Effort

Persona

We created the following personas based on the data we gathered in our interviews and surveys. Since we want to encourage more people to commute by bike, we created two personas who commute by bike, or commute by other transportation.

Customer expectation

We created the following coustomer expectation based on the persona we gathered in our interviews and surveys.

Visual Brand Language

We created the following coustomer expectation based on the persona we gathered in our interviews and surveys.

Ideation

In order to encourage divergent and creative thinking, we decided to sketch out design ideas individually before coming together and presenting our ideas to the group. Each group member referred back to the user needs we identified in the research stage to make sure that the solutions we came up with addressed at least part of our users' needs. Below are some of our individual sketches.

Form Studies

Form studies give a tangible interaction with physical planes and dimensions of the bike. This helps me to understand the contour of the bike before the CAD modeling process.