Alentar Electric is an EV Brand that provides premium environment-friendly electric cycles.
How did it start?
Ayush and Sajal were doing good in terms of selling Electric cycles in India specially in the Vidarbha region. But they observed that they are not able to differentiate themselves from competitors and justify their premium pricing.
They wanted to increase brand awareness and make their customers feel more connected to the cycle.
OVERVIEW
Ayush was deeply inspired by Nike’s strategy for their app. He was selling e-cycles through a store but wanted the app for crafting a post sales experience to increase customer engagement with the cycle and word of mouth
BUSINESS GOALS & CHALLENGES
- Differentiate from competitors
- Justify the premium pricing
- Encourage customers to cycle more
- Increase brand visibility
OUR ROLE
UX Research
UI Design
Gamification
INITIAL RESEARCH
User Interviews
We made 4 cohorts of their existing customers and came up with the two most active and populated ones:
- IT employees aged 28-45 years
- Students aged 15-19 yrs
What we found out
In our research we discovered the following insights:
IT Employees
- They are always in a hurry
- They are not worried about high costs of petrol
- No time for physical or recreational activities
- Unable to form habit of cycling
- Lack of motivation to cycle alone
All these things lead of mental stress which goes unaddressed
Students (Discarded from target group)
- Can’t afford premium cycle
The problem was not as simple as it seems there are various hidden factors causing their behaviours.
- For a young IT employee who works 10-12 hours a day in front of a Laptop, both physical and mental health gets ignored. This remains unaddressed keeping them in the loop of working through the mon-friday loop and sleeping on weekends.
We dig deeper in the issue and found that 74% Indians suffering from stress, 88% from anxiety: Study that means at least 1 member in every Indian family is either suffering from stress & anxiety. Often comes with an unhealthy lifestyle, mostly bachelors living alone for a job.
The most simple way is to do some physical and recreational activity.
This is the problem which is worth targeting for Alentar as doing long range cycling trip is a hectic for someone who is not much habituated with physical workout throughout the day. So using E-cycle seems good fit for them.
OUR SOLUTION
For IT employees
We proposed creating an app to help IT employees to reconnect with recreational activities. With an aim to help them rejuvenate, explore new places, connect with nature and other cyclists, and more importantly, take a break from their vigorous & tiring life.
USABILITY TESTING
We tested our prototype with 12 users. After 6 tests we did two iterations in the design and validated our solutions with the remaining 6 users.
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- We observed that users need 2 types of expeditions a closed one where selected people can join the expedition and an open one where anyone can join an expedition.
- During the expedition they needed a pause button so that they can have tea, samosa etc., pause the tracking stats and resume when ready to go.
FINAL UI DESIGN
What can users do in the app?
- Explore expeditions
- Create and invite people to join expeditions
- Tracking calories, distance etc.
- Earn coins by cycling more
- Redeem coins to buy accessories at discount
As part of the UI design process, we experimented with different colours and styles. We tried to focus on colours and visual elements which can distinguish Alentar Electric from competitors.
Final design elements
- Using analogous color scheme
- Adding green as the brand colour
- Circular buttons for friendlier look
GAMIFICATION
Gamification is one of the best ways to make an app more addictive and habit forming. To make this app addictive, we have to make cycling addictive we implemented some Gamification techniques and features to address core motivation drivers with in the app.
Core Human Drives included in the app
Epic Meaning
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- So the app UI, messaging, positioning, and marketing all focused on helping people get healthier along with rejuvenating themselves, helping to recover from loneliness, stress, fatigue etc.
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- We also had to makes some changes in Business model along with it, which founders were fine with. To show Epic meaning or to create an emotional space for the brand they had to do certain activities.
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- Ayush and his team made the first 3 expeditions free for new users, and brought up some psychologists on the team to help people with stress along with activities.
- People have an inner calling to be a leader, because they believe they are contributing something for the society. Users can volunteer for organizing expeditions, bringing sense of responsibility and contribution towards the group. A ranking and reward system can encourage these users to organize more expeditions. This is the very ground where we build other core drivers along with Epic meaning.
Empowerment & Creativity
- Satisfaction of creating & leading expeditions
- Inviting people who are close or total strangers
- Making new friends and being part of a community
All the above things help empower the user by engaging their creative cells.