Process Book - LIAM SMITH ID Class of 2020

PROCESS BOOK   1

LIAM SMITH
ID Class of 2020

Process Book

PROCESS BOOK                              2

Chapter 1 / Research

 4      Conjectures
                                                                 About Me
 5      Interview with Yujin Park

 6      Survey

 7      What is Cycling Safety

 8      Self-Observation                I am an avid cyclist and wanted to focus on
                                        some aspect of cycling lifestyle for my thesis.
 9      Market Research                 When the possibility of safety came up as a
                                        direction, I sprung at the chance. As someone
                                        who was personally involved in an incident, and
Chapter 2 / Transition                  knows many cyclists who have been affected,
                                        the community aspect of this sport was a key
 11     Why Strava                      motivator throughout the project.

 12     Iteration 1 and How it Failed

Chapter 3 / Checkpoint

 15     Revisions

 17     Logo Iteration

 18     User Journey

 20     Photography

 22     Contact

PROCESS BOOK   3

Chapter 1
Research

PROCESS BOOK                                4

      Early Conjectures

Before conducting any meaningful research,
I created four sketch concepts based on the
overarching research categories of Focus, Science
and Technology, Business, and Arts. These early
ideas helped inform the direction I wanted to
steer the project by helping indicate what seemed
most important to focus my efforts on.

Despite no obvious connection, the Arts section
proved most formative to the final product
because of its focus on the emotions of victims,
feelings of powerlessness felt by many cyclists,
and the community aspect of the category.

The four concepts can be found in their entirety
on the Design Thesis Website.

PROCESS BOOK   5

Interview with Yujin Park

In September of 2019, I had the privilege of
interviewing Yujin Park, a City Planning PhD
candidate at Knowlton School of Architecture. Her
research is focused on urban mobility.

One study she conducted was focused around
cyclists and how often they take detours and
why. This information proved critical to my own
project and helped inform the different questions
I should ask in my own research.

The full 18 minute interview and transcript can
be found on the Design Thesis Website.

“In terms of safety there is not only the physical
environment, but also how peers view cycling that are
important concerns when addressing safety.” - Yujin Park

PROCESS BOOK                                   6

                     Peer Survey

I received responses from a total of 35 cyclists.
While most of the results were predictable, there
were a few surprises. The results breakdown can
be found at left.

Many riders regularly experience dangerous
encounters with traffic. This drastically increases
the likelihood of a dangerous crash.

The most surprising response was that a
significant minority of those surveyed felt that
other cyclists were dangerous. I did not know it at
that time, but the idea of a verification system for
safe riders, eventually evolved into Checkpoint.

PROCESS BOOK   7

What is Cycling Safety

Through my research, I found most products
on the market already fell into three categories:
Infrastructure, Preventing a Collision, and the
Aftermath of a Collision.

The main flashpoint is the interaction between
traffic and cyclists on the road. The differential
in speed between cars, bikes, and pedestrians
makes it hard to navigate for all parties.

Oftentimes, a collision is avoidable if the cyclist
is aware of their surroundings but this requires
a level of awareness not everyone can maintain.
This would become the main focus of my thesis.

PROCESS BOOK                                 8

                               Self Observation

1. Be Active           As an insider in the community, I could leverage
                       my own experiences and techniques to help
                       inform less experienced riders.

                       My main takeaways from this were the importance

2. Flow with Traffic   of always being active in my environment. It
                       is tempting to listen to music, but this can
                       be distracting and reduce your awareness of
                       approaching traffic.

3. Be Predictable      It is also crucial to ride in the lane, not in the
                       shoulder or sidewalk. Riding in traffic makes it
                       impossible for a car to squeeze you off the road.
                       The majority of accidents occur when a bike
                       enters the road from the sidewalk since it is much
                       harder for a driver to spot you.

                       A final observation was the importance of being
                       predictable with your movements and signaling.
                       Ride in a manner that traffic can understand and
                       react to accordingly.

PROCESS BOOK          9

Market Research

Once again, I was able to leverage my connections
within the industry to get a better picture of the    “We have a strong desire to
current market and cover my bases. I wanted to

                                                      help, but we are concerned
make sure I didn’t miss any information because
of that very insider position.

I interviewed several local bike shops in the
Columbus area to discuss whether they would be
willing to teach new customers safety information,
                                                      that customers will be
or even issue a proto-certification.

They all were enthusiastic about the proposition;     unwilling to participate.”
but expressed concerns that new customers

                                                      - Paradise Garage
might not be as willing. Additionally, they brought
up the importance of education on what to wear
when riding to improve visibility, as many new
customers were ignorant on that topic.

PROCESS BOOK   10

Chapter 2
Transition

PROCESS BOOK   11

Why Strava

Strava is the perfect platform to improve the
safety of all road users since it already connects
thousands of athletes through the spirit of healthy
competition. It is a highly addicting social media
service that gamifies exercise.

Additionally, they have indicated a willingness
to create sub-brands with safety themes. Strava
Metro in particular is focused on the improvement
of urban cycling infrastructure.

Using my research up to this point, I created the
sub-brand Strava Checkpoint. It was centered
around utilizing the existing app and adding in
safety themed challenges.

PROCESS BOOK                                 12

Checkpoint 1.0 and How it Failed

            At the time it was presented, Checkpoint was a
            complete Strava sub-brand that introduced safety-
            themed challenges into the existing app. I did not
            know how the app would monitor if an individual
            was actually riding safely.

            There was a separate interface within the
            “Challenges” section of the app where verified
            members of the community would produce
            videos about how to be safe and tips for newer
            users on how to stay safe.

            There were new badges to denote users who had
            completed specific challenges and could display
            them in a virtual trophy case.

PROCESS BOOK   13

Continuation

This system was a failure because there was no
guarantee it would have an impact on safety. The
badges and challenges were underwhelming and
many people in the audience found it hard to
understand what the project even was. As such,
for the updated iteration, I cut the fat and really
doubled-down on the function of the system and
a more seamless integration with Strava.

The community interviews were an interesting
prospect; however, despite several scripts and
in-depth interviews they were met with poor
reception so I opted not to include them in the
next version of Checkpoint.

If I had more time, this is a feature I would like
to explore more as it reinforces the spread of
information. In two separate experiments I
conducted based on principles of concussion
protocol, information retention was significantly
stronger when disseminated by a real person
instead of a picture or text.

PROCESS BOOK   14

Chapter 3
Checkpoint

PROCESS BOOK   15

Revisions

As touched on in the previous chapter, I wanted
the integration of Checkpoint to go nearly
unnoticed. I reduced the amount of information
displayed to only a lock. It features either an up or
down arrow to indicate change in safety score.

On your user profile, the persistent safety score is
located next to your name. It is easy to locate not
only on your profile, but others as well to make
finding safe riding partners a breeze.

PROCESS BOOK                                  16

                  Continuation

Additional changes include the scaling back
of challenges to group-riding excercises and a
multiplier to safety score when in a group. This is
done using the “flyby’s” feature.

When recording a ride it will compare the route
and time of day with other users to determine if
you were alone or in a group. This encourages
community building by offering an additional
incentive to those who choose to ride in a group.

As will be explained in the user journey section,
Checkpoint is now powered exclusively by
GPS and gyroscope data from your phone.
It determines your score by monitoring how
smoothly you speed up, slow down, and corner.

The smoother you are,
the higher you’ll score.

PROCESS BOOK   17

Logo Evolution

Originally, I was designing Checkpoint as an entire
sub-brand with matching soft-goods but I steered
away from this idea very early on. The original
design was too similar to Strava Metro and I
wanted this to be distinct.

The second iteration stresses that this product
offers a new experience to traditional Strava;
however, I felt it was downplaying the importance
of Strava. I struggled to match the iconic orange
despite using corporate color assets, which I
rectified for the final iteration.

For the final iteration, I struck a happy balance
so that it is separate, but deeply connected with
the Strava ecosystem of products and services
without losing its recognizability and uniqueness.

PROCESS BOOK   18

PROCESS BOOK   19

PROCESS BOOK   20

Photography

Visual branding is very much a part of Strava so it
was critical to match the style and vibe. I worked
with real users of the app to put together a small
shoot to capture the honest personalities that
characterize the Strava brand.

PROCESS BOOK           21

Read more about my research at:

https://desis.osu.edu/seniorthesis/index.php/liam-smith/

PROCESS BOOK                             22

Thanks.   Contact

          LIAM SMITH
          liamsmith.me
                                    ID Class of 2020
                              smith.11182@osu.edu