University of Twente Student Theses
Guidelines to optimise the Ebike charging experience
Hepburn, Peter (2023) Guidelines to optimise the Ebike charging experience.
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| Abstract: | With the rapid growth of the Electric bicycle (Ebike) market, traditional bicycles are gradually being superseded. Originally designed to cater for less-abled individuals and the older population, Ebikes are now widely adopted by users of all ages due to their many advantages including: increased comfort, power, speed, and convenience. However, despite recent developments in battery technology and overall Ebike design, the charging system has often been overlooked resulting in a process which is often perceived as a burden. Recognizing the need for improvement in this area, Giant, a leading manufacturer of Ebikes, aims to enhance the charging system and its integration with their products. By focusing on improving the user experience, Giant seeks to maintain its competitive advantage and provide a more enjoyable, intuitive, and friendly riding experience for its consumers. This research aimed to understand how to design a product offering an improved user experience (UX). Typically, the success of products is evaluated through user testing after a physical prototype has been produced as within literature there is a lack of tools to predict and optimise UX during the early stages of design. This research proposed developing current technology through the study of user experience and user behaviour to generate initial guidelines. The guidelines were then further developed through research which gathered inspiration from different markets. With further refined guidelines, a new predictive design approach to quantify and compare UX components was proposed and used. By focusing on quantifying the physical and mental workloads different ideated procedures could be compared and the best one selected to achieve optimal UX. Finally based on the optimised ideated concept a redesign of an Electric bicycle (Ebike) charging system was undertaken and assessed to determine whether there had been a significant improvement in the UX. This was evaluated using different measurable components of UX; Usability Metric for UX (UMUX) and emo-cards. The newly designed Ebike charging system created as part of this research demonstrated a significant improvement to the overall UX with a much smaller variance. With this approach, final guidelines and recommendations were proposed for Giant to implement a charging system which transforms the way chargers are perceived and used. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | Giant Europe B.V., Lelystad, Netherlands |
| Faculty: | ET: Engineering Technology |
| Subject: | 02 science and culture in general, 52 mechanical engineering |
| Programme: | Industrial Design Engineering MSc (66955) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/94965 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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