Cyclists sharing the road with drivers is cause for concern. In 2020, 806 cyclists were killed in a collision with a vehicle (National Safety Council). Beginners and experienced riders alike are fearful of riding near vehicle traffic. To ease their concern, Onward has created a crowd-sourced grading system for all roads. This new system should make route planning and navigation a safer experience.
Role: UI/UX Designer and Researcher from concept to delivery
Responsibilities: User research, wireframing, prototyping, designing, and iterating.
Completed: February 2023
The Problem
Many cyclists have a difficult time finding safe roads to ride to their destination. Other apps suggest routes, but users have no idea how safe those roads are for biking until they try for themselves, potentially leading them into a dangerous situation.
The Goal
Onward strives to be the most trusted tool to help cyclists find and follow safe routes to their destination by using a crowd sourced road scoring system.
Pain Points
Safety
Sites that label roads with bike infrastructure (like Google Maps) only showcase where a bike lane is present. There’s no mention of how safe the road is for bike travel.
Route Planning
Many tools that help cyclists plan their route give them the most reasonable route. However, users who are cycling in new places have no idea how safe a route might be, making changes to the route extremely difficult.
Community Input
Strava, a popular tracking app for cyclists, shows community heat maps. These maps show users what routes are most traveled by cyclists, but there’s no community guidance or input to improve these routes.
Personas
Mia
Age: 27
Education: Bachelor’s degree
Hometown: Portland, OR
Family: Lives with sister
Occupation: Grad student
Quick commute
Safe roads
Few interactions with fast moving car traffic
Goals
Inadequate bike lanes
Busy roads
Feels unsafe to explore outside of normal route
Frustrations
Mia is going to grad school in Portland, OR. She gets to her campus the same way everyday because she knows the route well, and it’s safe. She wants to feel safe to venture off her main route and explore her surrounding neighborhood.
Don
Age: 67
Education: High school
Hometown: Spring Hill, FL
Family: Married
Occupation: Retired
Use bike for everyday needs
Travel safely to nearby appointments
Goals
It’s hard to find safe roads to bike on
I don’t like biking on the sidewalk
Frustrations
Don mounts his phone on the handlebars and uses guided instructions to travel from his house to his appointments. Often he is forced to use the sidewalk as there is no bike accommodation in the street. He would like to find safer roads to bike on.
Use Cases
Goal: Explore her neighborhood safely by bike
Mia
Goal: Travel by bike to appointments near his house
Don
Lo-Fidelity Concept
Insights and Updates
50% of research participants requested more information on the Give Scores screen so all users could score based on the same criteria. It was determined that each grade should have a short description and photo example of a real world street matching the rating.
Insight from Research
A concise, yet comprehensive guide was added as an overlay on top of the Give Scores screen. If the user would like to see a real world street example, they simply click on a ranking.
Update
Insight from Research
All research participants noted how important riding stats were to them. This feature alone is enough reason for cyclists to use apps like Strava or Komoot.
Update
Allowing users the ability to sort their stats by week, month, or year, and miles or kilometers was a small change that gave a big impact.
Mockups
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Click to view the hi-fidelity prototype
Responsive Web Design
Onward is mainly designed to be used an app,yet there is some limited functionality on web as well. This new home page demonstrates Onward’s usefulness before potential users make the choice to download on the App Store or Google Play.
Design Kit
Summary
Key Features
The main feature that makes Onward stand out from the competition is the crowdsourced grading system that can be applied to each road. Users will be able to use this system to help fellow cyclists, hopefully resulting in a reduction in bicycle collisions with automobiles.
In order to make this app useful in a variety of ways, the app not only helps users see the safety of roads on their route, but allows them to plan and save routes, as well as keep track of user stats and activities across weeks, months, and years.
Equality Considerations
Onward was born out of bike safety, for all users alike. Many roads in the United States are only safe when an experienced rider is on the saddle. With the help of Onward’s crowdsourced grades, all users can be safe on the roadways. Whether a cyclist with little experience, or a user of mobility scooters, Onward makes all the difference.