'PONS' Mobility Solution

Client:

NEVS AB

Industry:

Autonomous Mobility

Start:

February 1, 2020

Start:

February 1, 2020

End:

November 30, 2021

End:

November 30, 2021

Duration:

21 Months

Duration:

21 Months

Close to 2 years spent at NEVS Trollhättan, was when I got to work closely with electric and autonomous vehicles, cities, and services, to shape mobility for a sustainable and exciting future.

- Worked in teams (from 2 to 4 teammates) as well as individually.

- Followed a company-wide Scaled Agile (SAFe) framework.

Organisation challenge:

Create use-case scenarios, service types, and deployment strategies for the new autonomous ride sharing vehicle technology.

User challenge:

Autonomous rides are still very new to common public and naturally skeptical too. It is inevitable to overcome these barriers for the service to succeed.

Close to 2 years spent at NEVS Trollhättan, was when I got to work closely with electric and autonomous vehicles, cities, and services, to shape mobility for a sustainable and exciting future.

- Worked in teams (from 2 to 4 teammates) as well as individually.

- Followed a company-wide Scaled Agile (SAFe) framework.

Organisation challenge:

Create use-case scenarios, service types, and deployment strategies for the new autonomous ride sharing vehicle technology.

User challenge:

Autonomous rides are still very new to common public and naturally skeptical too. It is inevitable to overcome these barriers for the service to succeed.

Building Use Case Scenarios

During my first three months at NEVS, I worked with the Business Modelling team and a User Strategist to create use-case scenarios for the autonomous vehicle Sango, whose prototype was already in development. Our task was to expand the concept and identify additional opportunities and situations where PONS could function as a complete mobility solution - essentially taking a top-down approach.

What we did:

  • Brainstormed ideas.

  • Studied journey types, user groups, needs, service areas, and time-of-day patterns.

  • Identified potential service areas for PONS, outlining the rationale and possible partners.

  • Categorized service types.

  • Held discussions with potential business partners and pitched PONS.

  • Collected feedback and presented it to the Mobility Solutions team.

Challenge I faced:

The top-down approach was new to me as a designer, and I initially struggled to justify our direction.

How I overcame it:

Through thorough design research, I analyzed the autonomous vehicle and identified user groups, service opportunities, and partnership models. This helped me clearly communicate the changes needed in the vehicle to create a better user experience, ultimately convincing product and function owners.

Service Design

After completing my previous task, I joined the design team to support the development of the service itself. Coming from the Business Modelling (BM) team, I acted as a bridge between the two groups, providing BM insights whenever needed.

What we did:

  • Co-facilitated an internal Customer Journey workshop to:

    • Identify journey types and user needs

    • Understand user experiences at each stage

    • Reframe previously created personas

  • Engaged with stakeholders and back-end teams to understand their requirements.

  • Created a Service Blueprint by stitching the end-to-end service together.

  • Identified gaps between service needs, vehicle modes (picture below), and the capabilities of the current prototype.

  • Defined edge case,including emergencies as well as vehicle, system, and operator actions, while representing user needs in inter-team discussions.

UX/UI for Digital Assets

From the Service Blueprint, we had identified what digital assets would be required to complete a successful ride. As a natural progression, I was involved in the development of UX for those digital assets. The first task was to redesign-

1. Fleet Management Web App

What we did:

- Worked with the fleet managers and others involved to create a complete Information Flow.

- Created separate information flows for 'sunny day' cases, maintenance, emergency, and other edge cases.

- Mapped the Fleet Web App system to identify which entity interacts with the app in what way.

- After that we started with wireframing.

- Low to high fidelity prototypes.

- User testing and feedback at each stage of development.

2. End-User Mobile App

What we did:

Analyzed the previous app version and identified key insights to integrate into the redesign.

- Stripped the app down to its fundamentals, questioning every element and repeatedly asking “Why?”

- Explored new mobility app directions (e.g., starting with passenger count or ride type instead of map location) and iterated on several concepts.

- Evaluated ideas using defined parameters such as step count and clarity of information.

- Selected the most optimal concept and began wireframing.

Cyclic & Co-dependent Design Framework

The team developed a Cyclic & Co-dependent Design Framework to ensure that any updates made in one stage would automatically inform and align all previously created materials, keeping everything consistently up to date.

Information Blueprint

It is essentially a part of the service blueprint, zoomed in at the different touchpoints. An Information blueprint gives the overall picture of the user journey separated into different events, their thoughts and desired experiences. Further, on the touchpoint level, it shows how the different touchpoints interplay with each other, what information they show to the user, and how long each touchpoint is going to be.

To see the picture bigger, click here.

The information blueprint, as reference material, was appreciated by the people across different teams.

Retrospection

My two years at NEVS had their ups and downs, but they gave me the chance to wear many hats as a mobility designer. I learned to zoom out to understand the full PONS mobility ecosystem and zoom in to details like the color of a single button.

NEVS allowed me to apply what I learned in my education while also giving me space to grow and develop new skills. And along the way, I met wonderful people and made a few great friends.

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