Personas, user stories and storyboards

Project Introduction

We decided to focus our project on an issue many electric scooter users face every day; parking and charging. We concluded there is a need for custom-made parking spaces explicitly designed for electric scooters, whether owned by private individuals or rental companies such as Lime or Voi. We mainly chose this idea since we live in the city and have all seen or even experienced the issues with not being able to park e-scooters. In this case, the consequences of poor parking results in littered sidewalks in the cities and disturbances for cars, bicycles or pedestrians in general.

When researching earlier studies or ideas on the same or similar subjects, we found a conference paper where the issues with electric scooter parking were discussed [1]. Among these issues was the topic of how poor infrastructure influences the possibilities of electric parking scooters. An idea of what “smart parking” could mean was also included in the conference, with descriptions and visual representations as well as sketches for what they could look like in real life. The parking space in the conference paper was built with four spots for electric scooters with a battery charging system. This particular paper also discusses the need for these parking modules specifically for students who move between university buildings in the cities. The need to save time and battery while looking for potential parking spots could also be reduced, according to the text.

The second research we found related to our project work was a study based in Portland where they observed whether legal parking with e-scooters was successful or not [2]. The authors discuss how individuals found difficulties with parking lawfully or in fitting ways, despite the extensive parking regulations for e-scooters in Portland. Furthermore, the idea for cities, governments or such to look over their regulations for e-scooters was evident in the text. According to the authors, there is an issue with encouraging electric scooter users to use bicycle lanes but not bicycle parking spots. In relation to our project idea, this was also a study that reinforced the need for more availability and improvement of parking spaces for e-scooters.

In regards to products that are related to our project idea on the market, there are, for example, locks made for bicycles primarily. A lock solves the securing issue for the scooters. The problem with securing them to another object, using a utility to tie them, as an example, still remains. Bicycle stands are primarily not intended for electric scooters, which limits the availability of potential parking spaces. When doing our research, we did let it inspire us since our idea is to both contain, perhaps even charge and secure the scooters safely. Another related product on the market is the Bikeep bike parking station, where the idea is, very much like the product concept in the conference paper [1], to lock your transportation device without having to bring your own physical lock. This is, in other words, a form of smart parking but explicitly made for bikes and not scooters.

Personas

We decided to create three different personas based on three different kinds of people we consider potential target audiences. The first one is the regular user of their own scooter. This persona already has a system for how to use their own scooter but still has gripes which a solution to our problem statement could solve. The second persona has tried using a rental scooter once but has since come to dislike electric scooters in all their forms. One of the reasons for this is how people park their scooters quite disorderly on the streets and in the way of others. The third persona is one who regularly uses electric scooters out of convenience, mainly in terms of maintenance, but also because of the parking possibilities where you do not have to prepare anything but can park whenever and wherever you want.

These personas, as mentioned, all could benefit from a solution to the parking problem with electric scooters, which is why they were chosen. Other possible personas we might introduce later are:

• A persona that needs the scooter for short-haul shopping trips
• A persona that would like to be able to use the scooter they own more over their bike
• … and potentially more

A potential consideration regarding these personas is that they are all similar. It might have been beneficial to include more diverse personas, such as a more comprehensive array of ages, races, backgrounds and more. Covering students is also something that would likely benefit the personas as well. Due to time constraints, however, we decided to stick to these three personas as they cover most of what we are aiming at while being diverse enough regarding their wishes regarding scooter usage, both for themselves and others.

Another potential point of improvement is to include the people who are likely involved in this product. For example, if the solution is to create a parking stall, these stalls need to be placed somewhere, likely at different stores and other public destinations. As such, the owners of these destinations would also technically be part of our target group.

User stories

The Optimal User

As a daily scooter user, I want to be able to safely park my scooter outside a store because I do not like my electric scooter to get stolen.

The Sceptical Person of Electric Scooters

As a sceptic of scooter use, I want people to park them correctly because I hate when they are thrown everywhere.

The Scooter Renter

As a scooter renter, I want it to be more precise where I can park because I do not particularly appreciate getting fined for parking in an invalid spot.

Discussion

The user stories we have come up with will help us understand the needs of our potential customers and those who might be interested in our product but not going to use it. For example, if we look at “The Optimal User”, we can see that parking availability is one of the main problems we have defined.

The current situation for users who own their scooters is that there is no easy way to park them safely since there is almost no way to secure your scooter. Some ways could be tried, but most of these methods include a bike lock or another locking mechanism that does not exist on the market. Therefore there is a need for a new type of lock which could accommodate scooter users in a better way. Another problem for these users is that there needs to be a better way of finding where you can park your scooter, which could easily be solved with an app that can list all of the verified electric scooter parking stations around.

When it comes to the user group of people who rent a scooter, their main concern is where they are allowed to park them. Some implementations of maps where you are allowed to park are popping up for some rental providers. However, these maps are far from getting anywhere close to good.

Since the recent changes in Sweden, where many municipalities have implemented rules to restrict where you are allowed to park your scooter, these rules have prevented people from understanding where they can and can not park. The restrictions were implemented because people parked anywhere, and because of this, they could be found just thrown around on the streets. As a result, people started getting annoyed at these scooters blocking their way and generally looking like a mess which triggered some people even to go as far as to throw the scooters in lakes and rivers. Municipalities then had to fish up vast amounts of them from various water sources [3].

So “The Optimal User” points out one of the main concerns from the questionnaire we sent out to different types of networks, which in the end, pointed out to be parking concerns. Other concerns that also came up during our questionnaire were the people who disliked the improper parking of rental scooters. Therefore one of the user stories we created is focused on “The Sceptical Person of Electric Scooters”. While making the user story for this group, we focused on their responses and considered what they thought was the biggest problem with electric scooters and some suggestions for solutions. Some of the solutions for the sceptical group was our user story we called “The Scooter Renter”. Many people who rent scooters complained about their unknowledge of where they are allowed to park their scooters. This is why we will take the possibility of navigating to some of the locks we are interested in creating.

These user stories will aid us in further developing our product by allowing us to reflect on them in any decision we make. That is, whenever we are faced with a significant design decision, these user stories will be able to act as a guideline where we can ask ourselves, “will this way of designing aid the user stories we have”. If the answer is not yes, then it is likely that what we are making is not a necessity, and we should consider if other options are more suited towards our problem. This is especially useful as the user stories are based on our original problem statement. By sticking to the defined user stories, we will be sure that we are actually solving the problem we set out to fix.

Storyboards

When creating our storyboards, we thought about what a potential user interaction in regard to our product could look like. It was therefore divided into four separate parts. It begins with the user using an electric scooter, then stopping and scouting for a parking space, getting frustrated at the poor availability of fitting parking spaces for electric scooters and finally, finding the perfect parking solution; Scootseal! The first storyboard was created in Figma, with an extension called Blush, and the other storyboard was created with unlicensed pictures in Google drawings. We chose to make the storyboards digitally since we, as a group, felt more comfortable with these programmes instead of the traditional drawings by hand.

The information that needed to be presented had to emphasize the issue of few parking spaces. In the first storyboard, a few words were used for telling the story, which is efficient from a global perspective. It is also meant to be a simple concept as a whole, and the storyboard is meant to represent how easy the user interaction is intended to be with the finished product. There is much information not provided by the storyboards, for example, the specifics behind payment, what the module looks like or how it is attached or not attached to the ground and other geographical aspects. We decided on the actual user experience or specifying the issue we are trying to solve for electric scooter users rather than technical data that can be provided afterwards. When creating our interactive prototype, we will have this in mind. The process of using ScootSeal by choosing a parking spot, leaving an electric scooter there and paying for it should be time efficient and easy for different kinds of users, whether they be technical, old or young. In other words, an inclusive product design.

References

1. N.V. Chubur ,V.V. Davydov, D.I. Nikolaev. ”Smart parking for electric scooter,” ICFNDS, AUE, Dubai, 2021, ss.532-536. [Online]. Available: https://dl-acm-org.proxy.mau.se/doi/10.1145/3508072.3508182, Accessed: 2022-11-23.
2. R. Hemphill et al, “Congested sidewalks: “The effects of the built environment on e-scooter parking compliance,” The Journal Of Transport And Land Use, vol. 15, nr. 1, ss. 481-495, Oct. 2022, doi:10.5198/jt.2022.2110.
3. M. Botsjö, “De fiskar upp elsparkcyklarna ur vattnet,” Göteborgs-Posten, 02-Sep-2019 [Online]. Available: https://www.gp.se/nyheter/g%C3%B6teborg/de-fiskar-upp-elsparkcyklarna-ur-vattnet-1.16780645. Accessed: 2022-11-24.