Revolutionizing the way you move around the city - Developing the success pipeline for Divvy
May - Aug 2022 | IIT Institute of Design (Academic Project) | Team of five (Alex, Kevin, Pranjal, Yonghak and Myself - Consumer Researcher)
The challenge was to help Divvy understand the mental models and behaviors of existing and potential customers so that Divvy could improve its services and expand its current customer base.
Divvy - Chicagoland’s bike share system across Chicago and Evanston. Racks of bikes are made available at Divvy stations throughout Chicago city. Divvy currently operates on 16,500 bicycles and 800 stations in 2021.
90% of Divvy riders are annual subscribers. And with a total of $17 million in new funding this year and next, CDOT is installing 100 miles of new and upgraded bike lanes in 2021 and 2022.
Project Overview
Challenge (The Problem)
Divvy as a brand is not sustainable by the company or users alone, but through collaboration with all stakeholders, including the urban context of Chicago. By understanding the current experiences of Divvy users, we identified areas for improvement and worked towards enhancing the user experience to promote more frequent usage.
Solution (How?)
How might we improve the customer satisfaction of Divvy users while broadening the user spectrum and uplifting profitability?
As a group of design consultants, of Codes_ consultancy, we provided a range of insights that led to actionable solutions developed from a series of research methods. The end deliverable was packaged into a request for a proposal plan.
Our Approach
Divvy as a brand is not sustainable by the company or users alone, but through collaboration with all stakeholders, including the urban context of Chicago.
By understanding the current experiences of Divvy users, we identified areas for improvement and worked towards enhancing the user experience to promote more frequent usage.
Research
What we saw.
Our research in the US revealed customers find it difficult to use the bikes and are not completely satisfied with the experience.
We utilized diverse research methods, including surveys, interviews, and field research, to figure out the underlying user needs that could not be found only by secondary research.
Hover for more 👇🏼
What we heard.
Building Divvy as an inclusivity-centric service
It would be beneficial for Divvy, because a significant portion of its one-time users are travelers, and international travelers are expected to return to Chicago after the pandemic.
Divvy as End-to-End mobility experience provider
Based on our observations, we also found that the end-to-end experience provided by Divvy service is currently not meeting users' satisfaction due to a disconnected and choppy ride experience. A critical issue that we have identified is the navigation feature, which is causing inconvenience and frustration for users.
What we know.
We need to position our core users into three different types, using Divvy at least annually. Main objective needs to be to increase membership profits and induce annual users to subscribe to Divvy plans for the best benefit.
What Divvy should work towards!
Divvy doesn’t support the entire journey.
Create a seamless end-to-end ride experience.
In order to address the issue of disconnected ride experience and improve user satisfaction, we recommend either revamping Divvy's current navigation function or collaborating with state-of-the-art navigation apps such as Google Maps.
Divvy's service primarily targets the average American audience.
Work towards an inclusivity-centric service/ecosystem
By implementing an inclusive service design that caters to various ethnic groups, Divvy can reinforce its service features and gain support from this prominent customer segment. By accommodating diverse groups, Divvy can access new customer segments such as riders with children, seniors, and others, which are potential growth areas for the company.
Scroll for some user quotes 👇🏼
Strategic Direction
We believe that developing new services that prioritize sustainability and address the needs of Divvy riders presents an opportunity for growth and engagement with our customers.
As the conclusion of our research, we derived three directions for 'End-to-End Ride Experience' and 'Inclusive User Experience', respectively. These two aspects embody the solutions for the diverse user claims for current service and suggest future paths to improve Divvy's user perception as a more holistic and inclusive brand.
To build a seamless end-to-end ride experience -
To shift towards an inclusive user experience -
Feedback and Remarks
“Overall, this was an excellent presentation and example of research-driven storytelling done right! Fantastic insights, a great area of focus, and a rich area of exploration for Divvy. Hope this makes its way into your portfolio and you consider sharing some of your learnings with folks over at Divvy!”
- Prof: Mark Micheli
For more information feel free to contact me 💬