Directory

Application Concept

Zippy is a mobile application that works in combination with a physical bike lock to bring added functionality to bike riders. Currently there is no smart bike lock on the market that addresses problems such as stolen bikes, inefficient transition times, and more. Zippy addresses these issues by making finding, securing, and hopping on your bike... zippier.

About the User

User Description

Users of zippy will likely have at least a basic level of physical and mental fitness if they are avid bike riders. However, this isn’t guaranteed and therefore the app should account for usability for those lacking  fine motor skills. While the educational and professional background will most likely vary, the age range should be around 16-35 years old. While there are older bike riders, I believe mainly younger users would typically be more interested in the additional features that Zippy would add. The gender of the user could definitely vary as bikes are ridden and loved by all genders. Zippy would be utilized best in college towns or high traffic cities where the majority of people ride bikes regularly.

User Goals

The user wants to enhance their relationship with their bike and make the interactions that they have with it more efficient.

User Personas

Prototyping

Prior to completing paper prototyping, we learned a lot in class about the benefits of it through watching various videos and through the lectures. However, I have to admit the entire time I was listening to both I just wasn't getting it. My mind was working so fast and it wanted to implement the shadows and shiny touches because I was sure that those were pivotal to the user understanding how to use our app.

I had to slow myself down and really focus on just making a bare bones skeleton of our app in order to just get something on paper. I often times have to remind myself that others cant visualize exactly what I am, and I learned that's why this exercise is so important - to get it right before you get it too wrong.

After testing our prototype in class with many different users we got some incredible feedback. I was so excited to see people naturally use our app, but also equally excited by those that had trouble understanding as this presented my group and I with problems that we needed to solve.

The Feedback

☺ Adding a description of what the passcode is during the onboarding process
☺ Ensure that drag up menu is clear within hi-fi design
☺ Changing name of locks to “Zippys” instead of “Devices” to stay consistent
☺ Changing “notifications” to “activity”
☺ Making the address location of the bike more clear within the design
☺ Clarification of length of passcode when creating it (denoted by the blank spaces)

Final Prototype

After we had reviewed all of our feedback and made sure our final prototype would accommodate for the comments we received, we started designing. Below is the final prototype as a result. :)

Onboarding

Locator

Miscellaneous

Reflection

I came right into this class straight out of my summer internship at Cvent (click here to read about that) and I really thought I would know everything there was to know, but I was fortunately wrong. I learned so much from this class that I hadn't even known before.

It encouraged me to solve problems in different ways, to think differently about the situations, and to definitely slow down in the design process. I have always just been motivated by that end goal where I get to add the shadows, gradients, colors, etc. But it's important to have a solid, functional, working design before you get to that step to make everything pop.

That's what this class taught me more than anything. I am so proud of the work that my team and I did!

The above is the final video we had to make as part of our class. It not only details the app but also shows a walkthrough of the app as well. Hope you enjoy!

....and yes, I did use Taylor Swift's 'London Boy' instrumental for the background music.