At the 2019 DC Service Jam, our team of design thinkers spent 48 hours exploring a new wave of micro-mobility taking over our city streets: The Electric Scooter.
Wait - before you keep reading, what is Service Design? Is that just another word for UX?
Similar. But not exactly.
Think of the last time you went to the D.M.V. Or what about when you got a haircut. Or maybe you took a cycling class? These are services. And we experience them everyday.
Service Design certainly benchmarks itself on good User Experience principles (and even CX) but oftentimes our notion of UX is relegated to the digital space whereas Service Design goes a step beyond the screen and into our lives. It looks at problems from an interdisciplinary lens, which is why the success of it is directly proportional to the players involved and the perspectives they bring.
Ok great, now back to the Jam. Who was on our team?
To pay homage to how this is typically carried out in the real world, our team consisted of a group of cross-functional players:
1 product manager, 1 developer, 2 graphic artists, and 1 UX designer
How did we approach this?
Let’s get started!
First, we conducted a mindmapping session that helped us visualize all the components and stakeholders related to our topic. Mindmapping keeps us focused on all the different parts of a system that ought to be considered before any problems can be addressed.
One mistake I made early on in my design career was thinking that once I’ve read everything there was to read or learn for a project, it meant I was ready to design.
But it only meant I was ready to start asking questions.
“Start with people, not the solution.”
We came up with some questions in preparation for our field research. We made sure to keep them open-ended to allow the qualitative data to help guide us.
Can you walk us through how you reserved a scooter today?
What factors were involved when you decided to rent a scooter?
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
How would you define downtime on a scooter?
What’s on the agenda for today?
What was your view of scooters before today? Have those views changed?
What do you think about wearing helmets while riding a scooter?
What other modes of transportation do you normally use?
Ethnography on 3 … 2 …
“We’re a group of friends visiting from Cincinnati. Honestly, we don’t have an agenda for the day, we just saw these scooters on the ground and thought it would be a fun way to see D.C. ”
“This is my first time on one of these things. I saw it outside our hotel and downloaded the app to use it. It was pretty simple. The one my girlfriend found didn’t work though so it seems hit or miss.”
“We’re from Boston. We love how easy is to to stop for a cup of coffee and keep your scooter but pause the payment.”
“I don’t know how I feel about scooters yet. You know these companies make their money from user data but they’re not transparent about it. I would rather just ride my bike. No one is tracking my bike.”
“Are you guys going to ask me for money?”
“My mother was injured once by a scooter so I have no interest in riding one.”
“I live in Virginia. Even when I come to the city, I’m more comfortable in my own car where I have privacy. ”
Sense-what?!
Yeah, that’s what I thought too. The term has cognitive psychology underpinnings (“a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections in order to anticipate trajectories and act effectively" (Klein, Moon, et al, 2006), but as it relates to design, Sensemamaking allows us to make meaning out of the data to identify connections and frame situations from the user’s point of view.
“Design never becomes effortless, but the process of design becomes fluid and amorphous as the designer becomes more reflective.”
Some insights we gathered about the Electric Scooter:
— Convenience beats safety.
— Those that lack an agenda are more likely to ‘Scoot.
— Locals prefer familiarity (metro/bus/car) whereas tourists are more open to trying out Scooters.
— Weather plays a large role in the decision to ‘Scoot.
— The confidence people place on which mode of transportation they choose hinges on their past experiences.
— Riders typically find a scooter on the ground first, then download the app, not the other way around. No heavy brand loyalty.
And that’s when sh** got real.
Out of the 18 people we saw on Electric Scooters, we noticed only one was wearing a helmet. A quick Google search later and we were surprised by the staggering number of scooter-related accidents quickly on the rise in cities across the United States, now totaling over 1,500. Injuries like broken bones, bumps, bruises, and even brain bleeds.
And sadly, the first death came last fall here in Washington D.C. when a 20-year-old man was hit by a car in Dupont Circle while riding a Lime scooter.
“It was a freezing night—my hands were numb, my toes icy—but I’d wanted to call her, my college roommate, on the way home from work, so I took a scooter instead of a subway. I figured I could jam my wireless headphones in, talk, and ride. Before you ask: No, I was not wearing a helmet, and yes, it was winter-dark at 7 o’clock.”
UCLA Study
“UCLA researchers studied 249 patients who were brought into two Southern California emergency departments from 2017 - 2018. A third of those patients were brought to the hospitals via ambulance.”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/366593/what-safety-risks-do-electric-scooters-pose
