Tools Used: Figma, Illustrator

Project Overview

If you live in Berlin, or even another major European city, it’s pretty likely you’ve encountered TIER electric scooters, whether you’ve rented one yourself, or have simply seen them around town. TIER is a Berlin based app for electric scooter rentals. They pride themselves in being an environmentally friendly company and are carbon-neutral.

For this particular project, the following brief was provided to me to tackle over the course of four days:

To prevent accidents, the user must first pass an intoxication test before being allowed to ride
the scooter.

The Problem

TIER electric scooter rentals are an easy, popular and environmentally friendly way to commute in large cities. Users do not always feel safe, but they are not currently stopped from operating scooters while they are intoxicated leading to an increase in potential accidents.

How might we add a feature to the TIER app to prove sobriety prior to scooter rental so everyone is safer on the road?

There were also a few other considerations to take into account when coming up with a solution:

• How might we implement a sobriety test?

• What types of tests are most accurate?

• What about people who fail the test?

Research

I started my research by conducting a survey to find out a bit more about existing TIER users. It was important to find out more information about the users to have a better idea of practical solutions for implementing a sobriety test. The survey covered the following questions to gain more insight into our users:

• Who is the user?

• What are their safety concerns?

• How and when do they use this service?

• Would checking sobriety change their usage?

TIER users predominantly user electric scooters for fun or quick trips.

The results of the survey showed that 100% of users surveyed don’t always feel safe when using electric scooters. This showed me that adding a new safety feature could potentially help users feel safer when using TIER.

Some of the common safety concerns users encounter include the following:

• Reckless people on bikes/scooters

• Cars

• Road conditions

• Weather

• Navigation issues

• Intoxication

For the most part, users said an intoxication test would have no impact on their current usage of TIER. A few people said they would use the app less because they would fail an intoxication test, but do we really want these people on the road?

Hypothesis

By adding a sobriety test to the TIER app, we can make the following assumptions:

• Fewer intoxicated users will be on the road

• We will reduce the number of accidents involving electric scooters

• Other safety issues will be easier to navigate

If someone is sober, it is more likely they’ll be able to handle road conditions or getting lost than they would if they were intoxicated.

Solution

Taking the above considerations into account, I did some research and brainstorming about different sobriety test methods, and conducted a quick guerrilla survey to find out what types of tests users felt were most accurate, and their general opinions about sobriety tests. The different testing options considered included:

• An in-app logic/math test

• A phone call with a representative who would assess the user’s sobriety

• A video call with a representative who would conduct field sobriety testing

• Simply confirming “I am sober” in the app

• A breathalyser test attached to the scooter that would measure the user’s blood alcohol content (BAC)

The results of the survey were overwhelmingly supportive of a breathalyser test due to it being scientifically proven, accurate, and not subjective like some of the other options. Users pointed out that some people are able to act more sober than they are, therefore they may be able to “pass” one of the other types of tests.

As seen in the photo to the right, the technology for a contactless breathalyser test already exists on the market. The example shown is a breathalyser bike lock developed by Japanese company, KOOWHO. It works to measure a user’s blood alcohol content when the user blows into a mouthpiece. Approximately 10 seconds later the results are sent via bluetooth to the user’s phone. If the user is below the BAC limit, the lock is released. If the user fails the BAC test, the lock does not open and the user is informed they are unable to operate a bike. A similar test could be implemented on electric scooters by mounting a breathlyser device to the handlebars of the scooter.

Another option that I wanted to consider for the solving the issue of safe scooter usage is, what happens to users who fail the sobriety test? These people may still need to get home, and I wanted to provide an alternative to using a scooter while intoxicated.

Hi-Fi Prototype

The hi-fi prototype illustrates the user flow with the addition of a sobriety test to pass prior to rental. This flow includes the following screens:

1. User opens app and the splash screen loads.

2. A map of the scooters in the nearby area is shown on the screen, allowing the user to find a scooter to ride.

3. Once a user selects an individual scooter, they are presented with the scooter details, along with a button to start their ride.

4. Instead of immediately beginning their ride, a user must now complete a sobriety test. Once they hit the “ok” button, they are given instructions for blowing into the breathalyser to measure blood alcohol content.

5. If the user passes the test, they are notified on screen that they have passed and are ready to begin their ride.

6. Alternatively, if the user fails the sobriety test, the user is notified that they have failed the test and are asked if they would like help getting to their destination.

7. If the user selects yes, they are given options for alternative modes of transport.

8. If the user selects no, they are told they can try to user TIER again when they are sober.

Next Steps

Additional testing is an obvious next step for this project. How would intoxicated people interact with this app? Would the instructions be clear to them? What changes would need to be made?

Another next step is to consider what would happen if the breathalyser test were to malfunction and how this could be added to the user flow.

At this point, the safe transportation links are not functional, but additional next step would be adding functionality to these links.

Conclusion

Ultimately, we can’t solve all the safety concerns users have when renting electric scooters, but if we can prevent accidents by requiring sobriety, the roads will be a safer place for everyone.