Social design
Skillcycle Utrecht
To create a proof of concept for a bike kitchen in Utrecht, as well as creating a guidebook which allows others to start their own bike kitchens. The project aims to use bikes to help reskill people while striving towards a more sustainable society.
My Role
UX designer/researcher
Duration
4 weeks
Tools
Figma, Miro, Makerspace
Utrecht University PhD research Dirk Ploos van Amstel and Arjen van Ree of Project O challenged my team to, through iterative design, create a proof of concept of a bike kitchen in Utrecht aimed towards teaching university aged students to repair their own bikes, with a result of less waste and greater sustainability. With little to no prior research, it was up to my team and I to research the current situation, as well as possible implementations. Additionally, we were asked to document our findings in a guidebook, enabling others to start their own bike kitchen.
Skillcycle is a blueprint that uses bikes to help individuals reskill towards the goal of a self sufficient and sustainable community. It consists of different elements. A full sized prototype of a movable bike kitchen, a guidebook that gives step by step instructions to begin your own bike kitchen, a website prototype for appointments and various community building prototypes.
Research
Research consisted of an initial exploration into academic papers provided by the client, along with an analysis of the biking situation in Utrecht. We identified the need for both a mobile and a set bike kitchen location, ideally being located at or near the Utrecht science park.
In the spirit of iterative design, we held our own bike kitchen with students of the university, a valuable exercise that gave meaningful insights into the challenges and pain points we would face when creating our own bike kitchen.
Together with my team I held a co-design session with students to explore their own knowledge of sustainability and prior experiences surrounding fixing their own bikes. The aim of the session was to allow participants to dream up creative solutions and then integrate these into the real world situation. Designing together with our target audience helped ensure their voice, needs and requirements were respected all throughout the project.
Design
As the primary objective of this project was to create a proof of concept, the design part of this project revolved around creating physical prototypes with which to test our assumptions. As the concept of a bike kitchen is quite abstract, using physical prototypes in testing gave participants a real world example of what to expect, which in turned provided us with valuable feedback.
Our guidebook and research booklet combined to create the proof of concept of the feasibility of creating a bike kitchen in Utrecht. Combined with the various prototypes produced, it gave the client a solid foundation to begin the Utrecht bike kitchen, a project that was continued on by a following group of students.
The project resulted in the following deliverables to the client
A guidebook to start your own bike kitchen
A booklet containing our research results
A full sized physical prototype of a mobile bike kitchen
Two prototype boxes explaining the process and the end result
A full website prototype explaining the project and allowing participants to sign up
A list of physical prototypes to engage and reward participants
