Designing Future of E-Bikes

Interaction Design | UX Design

OVERVIEW

Introduction
Imagine cruising down a sun-drenched street, the wind whipping through your hair, while your e-bike intelligently navigates traffic. This isn't a scene from a movie; it's the future Ford is creating with its new electric, semi-autonomous e-bikes.

Here's the exciting part: these e-bikes won't just be eco-friendly, they'll integrate Level 3 autonomy, blurring the lines between human control and intelligent assistance. But achieving this seamless Human-AI interaction requires a delicate design dance. Let's delve into the design process behind this revolutionary e-bike, where user experience takes center stage as we explore the intricate world of Level 3 autonomy on two wheels.
The Problem
Level 3 autonomy on an e-bike is similar to a captivating game of chess between rider and machine. The rider, as the grandmaster, makes strategic decisions, while the AI, akin to a skilled opponent, anticipates and adapts to unexpected situations. But unlike chess, a single misstep on the road can have real consequences.

Our design challenge was to create an interface that facilitates clear communication and strategic collaboration between rider and AI for a safe and enjoyable journey.
Our Solution
The BikeLink Pro elevates safety for everyone on the road through a meticulously designed human-machine interface. This innovative system prioritizes clear communication, ensuring riders receive crucial information without feeling overwhelmed. Finally, the semi-autonomous features act as a supportive partner, providing timely alerts and seamlessly intervening in critical moments.
My Role(s):
UX Designer
Duration:
Sep '23 - Dec '23
Methods:
Guerrilla Research
User Interviews
Secondary Research
Task Analysis
Conceptualization
Physical and Digital Prototyping
Pitch & Presentation
Team:
Kay Qiu
Rachel Sadeh
How might we design the interface to seamlessly transition between rider control and AI intervention, ensuring the rider is always aware of the system's actions and maintains trust?

RESEARCH

Guerrilla Research
Our research started with guerrilla research to gain valuable insights into how people in the city experience riding e-bikes. Our interview questions focused on understanding how often they use e-bikes, their perceptions of safety, any frustrations they encounter, how they interact with e-bike apps and their preferences.
Findings from Guerrilla Research
User Interviews
Given the constrained timeline of the project, we conducted interviews with two seasoned e-bike riders, each boasting over five years of experience, to glean insights into their usage patterns and specific needs. Their input yielded valuable information that significantly influenced our design direction.
Findings from User Interviews.
Key Findings and Insights
Safety Paramount

User concerns about safety on the road emphasized the need for robust safety features. Collision detection and avoidance systems became a top priority.

Effortless Ascents

E-bikes were mostly used for their ability to tame city's hilly landscape. This reinforced our focus on incorporating a powerful and adjustable pedal-assist system, empowering riders to choose their level of assistance and conquer inclines with ease.

Helmet Usage

The varying perspectives on helmet usage raised important safety considerations. While helmet availability was questioned, the consensus was that riders often forego wearing helmets. This highlights an opportunity for promoting helmet usage and ensuring rider safety.

Security Concerns

Theft emerged as a significant concern due to the high cost of e-bikes. This highlighted the need for effective security features and guidance on secure bike storage.

DESIGN + EVALUATION

Task Analysis
Before beginning our design process, we first conducted a task analysis to identify opportunities for interactions. The process was necessary to break down each task involved in riding autonomous e-bikes. We created multiple user flows which helped us to pinpoint instances to embed AI intervention combined with human control to enhance safety, and efficiency and reduce cognitive load.
We then categorized these tasks based on priority levels which assisted us in allocating resources effectively when designing the interface. 
  • Critical Tasks: Initiating bike operation, engaging emergency braking, powering down, charging, and monitoring battery status.
  • Medium Priority Tasks: Locating your bike, activating turn signals, alerting bystanders, navigation assistance, autonomous features, adjusting speed, checking current speed, selecting ride modes, and securing the bike when parked.
  • Lower-Priority Tasks: Accessing support services, monitoring distance traveled, activating walk mode, utilizing hill assistance, and tracking fitness metrics.
Prioritizing Tasks using the Bull's Eye Diagram.
After establishing task priorities for e-bike users, we employed feature mapping to discern the input and output options required, aligning them with the respective task priorities. This approach provided a clear framework for our designs, enabling us to visualize the mapped features on the e-bike interface effectively.
Feature Mapping based on prioritized tasks.
Sketching
The sketching session emerged as one of the most extensive phases during the design of this project. Balancing the specified requirements for aspects and features with insights from our user research proved challenging, presenting a common corporate scenario where company goals clash with user research findings. We began sketching out different ideas to incorporate the requirements of this project along with the user research findings as coherently as possible. White-boarding proved to be the superior method for this task, allowing us to swiftly jot down ideas, make quick adjustments, and iterate on our sketches without consuming excessive time.
Sketching the Physical Interface.
Sketching the Dashboard Screens.
Sketching the Mobile Interface.
Sketching
Iteration 1: From concept to creation
Iteration 2: Refining the craft

Stay Tuned. Coming Soon!

Thanks for stopping by!
Designed with passion and dreams. Tested by aliens (they loved it) :)
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gnemade51@gmail.com