Mosa - Design Research

2024
Sustainable Ventures Design

Simple, secure, smart - accelerating bike parking solutions.

Mosa’s smart dock allows easy access to secure bike parking, with a simple retrofit solution to standard sheffield stands. Their smart docks provide heavyweight locks with banking-level encryption, operated through an app.

We worked with Mosa to validate their existing solution through user research, and maximise impact during their pilot trial at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. We completed field research and on-street interviews with local cyclists and potential users to understand their motivations for using the smart dock, and their opinion of different features.

From our user research, we discovered that trust was a huge element for new users trying the Mosa dock for the first time. Based on insights gathered from our user research, we generated ideas on ways to capture initial curiosity, both on-site and online, and best demonstrate the system’s high-level security.

We explored a variety of solutions, from clear messaging to mock-ups of eye-catching installations. These ideas were taken on by the Mosa team, presented to QEOP and informed the final signage solution.

The Mosa app is used primarily to lock and unlock the smart dock, but from our user insights, we helped Mosa refine and rebuild the primary user journey and explore additional use-cases.

We challenged the need for a completely functioning map as the landing page - instead of overcomplicating the landing page, we suggested restricting functionality to that of the key goal, finding nearby docks. We also discussed how the app could be more user friendly, by framing units in a more human-centred way (minutes to walk rather than distance).

Emily Mae Brown