Rethinking the JUMP Bikes Experience

Finding an effective solution to benefit the users, the business, and the community

Overview

JUMP bikes, a popular ride share app, is doubling it’s fleet of bikes. However, the city of San Francisco is frustrated with the amount of clutter the bikes create. JUMP needs to project a more socially-conscious image while also attracting more users to it’s service.   

Team and Duration

This was a two week conceptual design project/sprint where I worked with two other UX designers, Joan Tionko and Chanleigh Davis. We worked as a team, making decisions as a group. This was at the General Assembly campus in San Francisco.

Tools and Methods

• User Interviews

• Competitive Analysis

• Archetypes

• Journey Mapping

• Wireframes

• Prototype 

The Problem

JUMP Bikes parking system is a problem not just for users, but for the community.

JUMP bikes has become a popular way for commuters and tourists to get around San Francisco. The bikes are electric and dockless, meaning they can be left anywhere in the city when a rider is done using it. However, this ease-of-use comes at a price. 

JUMP bikes are taking up sidewalks throughout the city, and public bike racks are now filled with them. This has hurt JUMP’s public image. The lack of a specific area to leave the bikes has resulted in a lot of user confusion, resulting in bikes stacked on top of each other and left in inappropriate areas around the city. JUMP soon plans to double their fleet of bikes, and the current system is simply not sustainable.

Solution Overview

Design a parking system that serves the users and the community.

The big idea was to create an incentive-based parking system within the JUMP bikes app that used parking ‘zones’ throughout the city. The rider would be informed of the zones when they started their ride, and would be able to see the zones throughout the experience by toggling them on and off within the app. 

This was expanding on JUMP’s already existing system of having riders park their bikes at public bike racks for credits. However, this system was flawed because it was taking up public space, and the zones were essentially just dumping spots.

Our system would allow for the user to navigate to ‘JUMP zones’ throughout the city, where they could leave their bike for credits. This would create a more seamless user experience for the riders, while giving JUMP the opportunity to have a parking system that did not intrude on local communities. 

Process

Observe the bikes in their environment, synthesize our findings and create a solution. 

Online Survey / User Interviews

We created an online survey early on asking participants about their attitudes towards JUMP Bikes. From this we were able to get an idea about what pain points people were experiencing while using the service, and also how the service was effecting their communities. 

We also conducted user interviews, giving us valuable feedback about the pros and cons of the service and the problems different communities were having with how the bikes were parked. 

Usability Evaluation

To get the full experience, I rode a JUMP bike in San Francisco. This provided me with valuable information, and I was able to center in on certain problems with the app. I found parking the bike to be the worst part of the experience because I wasn’t sure where to put it. This insight further reinforced our hypothesis that we should focus on the parking incentive system. 

Design Studio

We did a design studio as group to get our ideas flowing. This helped us to visualize the concept before we started to design the wireframes, and it also provided us with fresh ideas that we hadn’t considered before. It was a very informal process where creativity was encouraged.

Deliverables

Research insights, wireframes, and a prototype illustrating our design concept.

Prototype

Results and Reflections

A step in the right direction, but a long way to go.

I believe that we made progress in determining a better system for JUMP bikes. However, there are many

details that still need to be figured out. For example, how exactly would JUMP reserve the bike zones, how each zone would be marked in the physical world, and what exactly the ‘credits’ would be.

We would also need to do extensive usability testing with actual users. With that data we could determine whether or not this was an effective solution.

This design exercise could give JUMP bikes a great start in solving their parking system problem. Our redesign of their parking experience serves the needs of the user, the business, and the community.