AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

This project, carried out for the Dutch startup company Spaac, is a graduation project at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, at the technical university Delft. The assignment consists of three parts. Firstly, research investigates the user needs in urban individual transportation and people’s perception of the role of the electric bicycle in this urban individual transportation. Secondly, a concept for a product service system is designed, based on the research to enhance the user experience of the electric bicycle for the target group of Spaac. Finally, a strategy for further development and implementation of this concept is created for Spaac. In the analysis the current behaviour and desires of people in urban transportation are indentified and the barriers in the adoptioin of the electric bicycle are investigated. This analysis phase consists of desk research (Chapter 2), an internal analysis of the client (Chapter 3), an external analysis of the E-bike market (Chapter 4), and a user research (Chapter 5). This analysis indicates an important distinction within the target group of Spaac. While some people prefer to always take the same means of transportation, other people have an array of options to choose from and do so on a daily basis. This means both types of users have different demands to a transportation solution and a single solution might not satisfy both user groups. Important values and desires in urban individual transportation, identified in the research, are the reduction of social interaction during traveling, the reduction of distractions and unnecessary stimuli in order to have a quiet and peacefull moment in the busy city life. Finally, the increase of intuitive behaviour by reducing cognitive effort is found as an important value. The main identified barriers for the adoption of innovation, like the electric bicycle or a new PSS, are affordability and availability. During the analysis phase, trends and developments are found in the electric bike market but also in society in general. Important opportunities are the increasing amount of smart technologies in the bicycle industry and the growing sharing economy. The final concept (Chapter 9), Spaac Sharing Pro, is designed to solve the adoption barriers of the electric bicycle as well as to improve the user experience in urban individual transportation. This system is based on the trend of peer to peer product sharing and serves both users who prefer to have one means of transportation for the majority of their journeys, as well as those who prefer to use different modes whenever they please. Via smart products and an online platform the owner of an electric bicycle and a renter are connected to each other, connected to the bicycle and connected to the brand of Spaac. The owner of the bicycle is granted a discount during purchase, which has to be paid back by renting out the bicycle on Spaac’s online sharing platform. The revenue of renting will go directly to Spaac. This means the owner has a high amount of access to the bicycle…