Designing mobility for coming generations

Client: Drive Sweden

Role: SxD, UX Designer

Year: 2020

The project

Mobility is not solely moving from A to B. It is an experience often taken for granted in the complex world of our everyday life. A change is needed. In freedom and sustainability, linear and circular, as well owning and sharing, there are tensions increasing the complexity of new forms of mobility. In this project, I designed the service and interaction of O'mama - a mobility concept that challenges current multimodal mobility standards.

Problem

Even though efforts regarding more sustainable mobility has been made, there is still an existing car-centric focus related to how people move. Let'ss shift focus, and shed light on the future of mobility: today’s adolescents.

Solution

In this project the team designed a multimodal mobility service with focus on resilience and adaptability in order to tackle unexpected events and situations.

Contribution

The project deliverables including insights and service concept was then communicated to municipalities around Sweden to be used in coming mobility projects.

Main obstacle

The obstacle that enquired most in my growth as a designer was the enabling of letting people learn over time without interfering with their core values and needs. This required me to be aware of, and switch between, being a guide in questions related to simulator mechanics without enforcing my own thoughts on how people communicate. A practical tip for fellow design colleagues when presenting a new tool or method for users is to make room for learning. This means planning actual sessions before introducing what you want from a project perspective.

Understanding futures by world creation

One thing is for certain, and that is that things will change. New regulations considering our planet may turn current industries up-side-down, natural forces may further highlight our lack of care. By looking at today's world, potential futures can be generated and designed for - hence increasing the pressure on design to be sustainable.

Adapting, whatever the situation

Whether it is a storm overflooding the planned path, or a person without drivers license, the service must be able to support people in their mobility patterns. Some are taller, some shorter. Some need assistance, some do not. Some are allowed faster than others, and the list goes on.

Expert interviews, virtual walkthroughs and talks

Mobility does indeed include several actors from different fields. We have the typical person using the service, but also stakeholders and actors in form of bus companies, city planners and transport management. Talking with a selected few would not help us - we needed to go big in order to make sense of the affected ecosystem, and where to make impact.

Prototyping for knowledge

By designing a prototype which mimicked the most used digital travel planner in Skåne, we could write scenarios based on interview findings to let people talk even more about experiences from travelling routines in general, and the use of the digital travel planner specifically. By doing so, the design team could enhance their picture of the current travel experience and thereby generate a greater understanding for the context and its characteristics.