Cy.Co
Reimagining Urban E-bike Services in the UK.
Sep 2022 - Oct 2022
Context
Post Pandemic, there has been a 20% increase in new cyclists in London. Most new users are using shared e-bikes for rental as personal e-bikes are expensive, prone to theft, and difficult to maintain. Whilst Transport of London aims to drastically increase the number of cyclists for greater sustainability and personal wellbeing, the lack of maintenance services and incentive for bike ownership are still in short supply.
Brief
A two part project. First part is case study research and analysis on an existing e-bike service in London to identify service opportunities. Second part is to design a service concept by reimagining future scenarios and problems.
Outcome
A service concept for a problem that might arise in electric bike businesses in the UK.
Role
Role
Researcher
Service Designer
Key Methods
Trend analysis, service safari, story telling, scenario building
Partner
RCA
Future Labs
Tutor
Nicolás Rebolledo Bustamante
Duration / Type
6 weeks
Group project
Market Research
To understand how e-bike services emerged into the last-mile bike rental market, we drew a timeline on the history of bike rental services in London, specifically looking into the problems and solutions the services have had in the past and until now. This helped us to identify trends to create insights and analysis, which will aid with future scenerio building later on.
In the past 10 years, London has been following the lead of many other major cities around the world by gradually adding shared e-bikes to existing fleets as users demands more efficient last mile transit solutions. However, we found that many of these rental companies ran our of business, due to:
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1. Over saturation in the market
2. Vandalism and abuse
3. Consumer Fatigue
4. Lack of funding
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With these existing problems, we questioned how do businesses thrive amongst their competitors, what factors attracts new users and why do people return to their service?
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To understand the selling point of a service, it was important for us to hear existing users' opinions. We sent out an online survey questionnaire and received 100 respondents from Londoners, who are of various age groups and occupation.
Out of the 5 categories we asked survey respondents to rate, Human Forest stood out against its competitors. As an leading service in the market, we decided to conduct a case study research and analysis on Human Forest, in order to better understand the business model, value proposition and systems within an e-bike service.
Service Analysis - Human Forest
HumanForest is a start-up founded in late 2020 with £1.3 million crowdfunding from public investors.
In less than a year, the company valuation accounted unto £32 million making it a leader amongst its competitors.
Branding:
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Human Forest's brand direction is sustainability and their selling point is the 10 minutes free ride everyday with a rewards programme.
Business Model:
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Main revenue comes from partnerships with organisations. Although it's an mobility company, it's also an advertising firm that markets sustainability related products. However, sustainability of Human Forest is questionable.
Service Framework:
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Human Forest partners with Wunder Mobility which is a Tech company and mobility domain to source e-bikes and provide technologies to deliver its core services. In other words, they are essentially a white label company.
App Testing:​
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The app was simple and easy to use. Whilst they offer affiliate links on app, it does not hinder user experience.
Service Safari:​
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We tested the bikes to see why Human Forest is popular, it is comfortable, but with several flaws as listed in insights.
Human Forest Analysis Summary:
User Research
To uncover people's experiences, problems, behaviour and opinions, a survey and service safari is not sufficient. In addition, we conducted 10 Human Forest user interviews to learn more about user's needs and pain points and summarised our insights into an archetype map, persona, and user journey map,
Archetypes - Hypothesis​
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Majority of users of all e-bike rental services are "Travel Improvisors", who is looking for a quick way of transport for their immediate travel needs, but not spending too much on an uber. Human Forest's main target user is however someone who looks for sustainable ways of travel, not just to reduce road pollution, but for personal wellbeing as well.
Persona - Results​
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This is Sophie, a persona based on our user interview results, in which only a third of users are interested in eco-friendly services, but all of them are using Human Forest due to the 10 minutes free ride. In general, users of e-bike rentals are of middle class background, and enjoys physical exercises. Sophie has developed a routine to cycle to work.
User Journey​
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As Sophie uses Human Forest bikes, her cycling experience is often filled with ups and downs even when she's riding on smooth flat grounds. Issues below often occurs:
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Bike condition: occasionally she finds bike in dirty or broken conditions sitting for days without maintenance.
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Parking spot: due to borough regulations, she has to park in specific areas which are difficult to navigate.
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Unable to find a bike: unlike many other services, Human Forest doesn't have the most amount of fleets.
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Bad weather: on rainy and cold days, she has to take public transport, which often causes longer commute.​
Insights & Opportunities
Key Insights:
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New E-bike companies white labels products and has a clear business model to achieve long term stability and growth.
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Majority of their user base are middle class and lives in central London, where the market for e-bikes are flooded.
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Maintenance is an expensive issue for companies and poor bike condition worsens user experiences.
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No. of cyclists in London are expected to increase as new cycling lanes are being built, but owning e-bike is expensive.
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Convenience and cost values more than sustainability in customer's perspective.
Opportunities: (bikes)
Reflecting on these insights and gap areas, we came up with potential opportunities for Human Forest as well as service ideas for the second part of the project:
1. Circular and renewable energy: use solar power to charge phone to reinforce the company's green goal
2. Seat adjustment: improve riding experience.
3. Standardized Maintenance: are necessary to ensure safety and brand reputation.
4. In-app navigation: maps and precise location tracking to enhance user experience.
Future of Human Forest is to continue to focus on environmental sustainability, but also on personal wellbeing. They should raise and build awareness on living a healthy lifestyle by cycling to increase user base. Through this, they'll need better bike maintenance and R&D to improve bikes performance and user experience.
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Opportunities: (Cyclists)
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One of the key question that we asked is why do people rent bikes rather than riding their own bikes?
This is due to:
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Cost: E-bikes are expensive to buy and it costs less to ride Human Forest bikes for short journeys.
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Theft: bike theft is very common in London especially with high value bikes such as Brompton or E-bikes.
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Parking: Finding a secure place to park is difficult, whilst they don't have to worry about this with rental bikes.
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Repairs: renting a bike would not need to take a bike to repair shop.
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Part 1 Summary:
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E-bike rental companies solves the problem of last mile commute and allows users to ride electric bikes at the lowest costs. Renting bikes are also preferred by users to avoid their own bikes at risk of theft and avoid the hassle to maintain. Moreover, rental services are widely available in Zone 1-3 London, but hard to find in less populated areas.
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As Transport For London aims to make London the "best big city for cycling", how can we do so if our sidewalks are filled with fallen e-bikes, and there's a lack of bike ownership due to cost, theft, maintenance and unpredictable weather? For part 2 of the project, we ideated and created a service concept based on the HMW below:
HMW
How might we enable more people to become an active part of London's growing cycling culture through shared usage of bikes whilst ensuring longer e-bike lifespan?
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3 key goals:
Ownership
Achieve lowest cost of owning an e-bike
Maintenance
Motivate users to maintain bike regularly with ease
Wellbeing
Enhance personal & environmental wellbeing
Part 2: Concept - Cy.Co
Approach
Part 2 is a short 2-weeks speed run on generating concepts based on our previous research and future scenario building. As we've now understood the user's opinions, to design a service, it's important to broaden our perspective on how a cycling business is ran from shop owners and workers.
Expert Research
We interviewed 5 bicycle shops that offers electric bicycles across zone 1-3 in London, these includes large retail store Decathlon in South Kensington, small shops Bike Stamford Brook and The London Cycle Workshop in Chiswick, as well as premium bike shops Phoenix Cycles and Flag Bikes in Battersea.
Insights
Retail Shops
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Pros:
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Has a designated area in store for maintenance and repair.
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Great management and services can be booked online.
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Cons:
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Extensive servicing can take up to 6 hours for one bike, which cause delay for other customers in queue.
Small Local Bike Shops:
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Pros:
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Collaborates with local businesses such as coffee shops to run community activities.
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Cons:
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Supply chain was disrupted by covid19 and many parts are still on back order.
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Repairs are dropped off or booked in person and through phone.
Premium bike shop:
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Pros:
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Staff are very skilled in e-bike and normal bike repairs.
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Great Reputation and customer loyalty.
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Cons:
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Expensive repairs and takes longer than retail shops.
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Lack of space in shop.
These stores all have different customer base, but what's in common is that they often run in trouble with repairing and servicing bikes, either from a lack of parts, unpredictable time for servicing, and lack of parking for customer's bikes. Most customers come in with simple repairs that can be done at home, but due to the lack of knowledge, they have to come to a professional and pay a fee.
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What if we can help bike shops to manage customer demands and reduce their workload on simple repairs, but to focus on extensive bike servicing that would take longer time without causing delays for other customers?
What if we can help bike owners reduce cost in the long run whilst prolonging their bike's lifespan?
Scenarios
In addition to interviewing bike shops, we needed to broaden our standing on London cycling trends, and find out what's expected to happen in the cycling scene in 5 and 10 years time. So we interviewed 2 Urban Planners who are working with local councils, and found out that although there was a rise in cyclists during the pandemic, which sparked new cycling lanes to be built, parking is still a lingering issue due to a lack of space on pedestrian sidewalks.
Moreover, when thinking of TFL's goal, it's difficult to imagine a future where cyclists are renting a Lime or Human Forest bikes rather than owning their own, as this would cause more rental bikes blocking sidewalks and resulting in a greater lack of space for personal bike parking...
Therefore, we need a solution to incentivise people to own their own bikes instead of renting, by providing low cost bikes and services such as maintenance and repair.
Concept - Cy.Co
Each of the team member came up with a service idea, in which we used an ideation method called SCAMPER to combine and subtract elements of our ideas.
As a result, we came up with Cy.Co, a potential online service that allows bike owners to share their under-utilised bikes with other people.
Service Blueprint:
The foundation of Cy.Co is bike co-ownership, in which lenders, borrowers and bike shops would collectively benefit from this service.
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Lenders: provides their unused bike to bike shop. In return, their bikes will be maintained and serviced. They will also earn credits to exchange for other products from Cy.Co partners.
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Borrowers: pay Cy.Co to borrow a bike based on their choice and availability in the bike pool. They will also receive credits each time they borrow, they could also use the credit to exchange the bike they borrowed.
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Bike shop owners: acts as a middleman between Lenders and Borrowers, but also like a petrol station for bikes. Their main service is to temporarily store bikes and repair. They earn a share of borrower's pay and Cy.Co partnerships.
Storyboards
Concept Validation
We validated our concept by looking back to our HMW and talking to some of the interviewees from Human Forest research. They liked the idea of affordable bike ownership, and efficient bike maintenance through Cy.Co. In the future, less bikes will end up in landfill and more bikes will be reused and refurbished.
However, when we went back to bike shops for validation, the owners thought that parking still remain as an issue if their shops are made to be cycling hubs.
Key Learnings
Time Management & Planning
In a short project like Cy.Co, we could've had a more flexible project timeline in the beginning to allow room for errors. We spent too much time on research, and as a result we could not fully develop our concept into a website prototype. ​
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Record & Archive
This was our first service design project at RCA, as the user interview lead for the project, using my previous product design experience, I recruited users and experts for interviews. However, I should've taken photo as evidence for those interviews.
