SHAREQ

SHAREQ is a 100% electric car sharing provider powered with clean energy. SHAREQ app makes it easy to rent an electric car everywhere in the city. Getting around town in a eco-friendly and innovative vehicle has never been easier.

Problem

City transport systems often struggle to cope with high volumes of traffic and become congested, despite the use of various traffic management strategies. Crucially, one-way car-sharing gives the opportunity for travellers to utilise car-sharing in conjunction with other modes, such as public transport modes, for their journey provided the requisite intermodal connections are present.

Challenge

Design a car-sharing experience that is seamless, intuitive, easy-to-use, and delightful, taking into account only electric types of vehicles and four different types of booking flows. Make it fast and easy to use for everyone, everywhere.

Purpose

This is my side project and it is not associated with Daimler or Mercedes Benz.

My role

Reasearch / UX / UI Design

Duration

December 2019 / January 2020

Why electric car sharing?

Car sharing replace 239 fuel vehicles.
160,000 tonnes of CO2 could be saved every year thanks to the switch away from 120,000 private to 9,000 shared electric cars.
The concentration of traffic around city centres results in pollution and poor urban air quality, but the increasing popularity of electric vehicles is helping ameliorate these effects.
It has the potential to considerably reduce car ownership and pressure on parking space.
Electric car sharing is sustainable, flexible and individual.

Market and user research

Creating a digital product from scratch can make for an exciting process but never a smooth ride. That’s why I started this project with market and user research. The research helped me better understand the system as a whole.

United Kingdom

London - UK’s center for car sharing, but focus started to shift to other regions. London wants ~0.6m car sharing users by 2020 to reduce traffic and parking problems.

Parking: parking permits in London are biggest obstacle for free floating providers. All 32 boroughs need to be approached individually for permits.
Pollution: intended reduction in number of cars to limit estimated cost of pollution of £4bn/year (one of the most polluted cities in the world).
Mobility: Uber or Gett, as well as P2P car sharing like Whipcar and carpooling like BlaBlaCar are becoming more successful outside of London.

FRANCE

Most successful market for P2P car sharing in Europe. P2P comprises ~ 90% of car sharing with > 1m users. Successful providers like drivy are expanding outside of France.

Geography: mostly in big cities, Bollore is market leader with autolib’ (Paris), Bluely (Lyon) & Bluecub (Bordeaux).
Regulations: strict regulations: all free floating vehicles must be electric or hybrid. When criteria are met, easy access to parking spaces.
Network: car sharing, especially P2P, outside Paris is mainly organised by “Reseau citiz”: consolidation of 18 car sharing providers in over 80 French cities.

GERMANY

With > 1.2m users, 150 providers and 16.000 cars at the beginning of 2016, Germany. is by far the biggest car sharing market in Europe, and still expected to grow.

Geography: many big cities that are suitable for free floating and densely populated medium-sized cities with good conditions for stationary models.
Regulations: authorities open to collaborations (parking permits or spaces). Strict regulations in taxi industry make it difficult for concepts like Uber.
Customer: average car sharing user wants flexibility and is willing to pay for it. Features: male, <40 years, high income and good education.

ITALY

Generally a favorable market with >0.5m users. Both free floating and stationary models are successful in different cities. Uncertain market growth, given the high saturation.

Geography: Milan is center for free floating with 80% of the market, e.g. Twist and Share’n’go. Car2Go and Enjoy also operate in Florence, Rome and Turin.
Associations: stationary car sharing was previously organised by local associations. Of the existing providers, 12/18 still belog to a public consortium.
Mobility: bike sharing is profitable market especially in Milan: > 40,000 bikes with > 280 pick-up stations. BikeMi offers traditional and electric bikes.

SCANDINAVIA

Environmental consciousness, innovation and openness to new things are promising conditions for car sharing. However, constraints stifle its success in Scandinavian countries.

Geography: free floating providers operate only in big cities. Besides Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo remaining population is spread widely across the countries.
Regulations: high sustainability regulations which also place importance on good lobbyism e.g. Sweden plans to have >50% electric car sharing by 2030.
Competition: gas station providers (e.g. Statoil) offer short term rental at fair prices. Also difficult for external providers to cater for specific needs.

The upgrowth of the german carsharing market indicates: More and more people want to use cars in a responsible way and play their own part in the transportation revolution.
At this stage, 70 to 80 percent of the customers of carsharing have no car of their own.
VW notes in a release that in Berlin, the number of car sharing users has grown from 180,000 people in 2010 to 2.46 million in early 2019.
Car-Sharing users use sustainable transport modes (walking, cycling, public transport) significantly more than non-users: Non-car-sharing users indicated that they used a car 3 times more often for their daily trips (to work/school, shopping and free-time) than car-sharing users.
The main motivation to use car-sharing is convenience: respondents indicated that the biggest advantage to using car-sharing is that they do not have to take care of vehicle maintenance (92%) or worry about taxes, insurance or other costs (85%). The perceived increased flexibility in the choice of mode of transport and vehicle type as well as environmental aspects, surprisingly, remained important factors in the decision to use car-sharing.

User Personas

I created two personas that were the synthesis of data I collected. Each persona is guided by their own individual motivations, needs and scenarios when it comes for seeking out a vehicle.

GOALS/NEEDS

He wants to get from A-B reliably, efficiently and painlessly.
Wants to be able to save time on the commute.
Wants to open app and within a few clicks book a car.
He wants to avoid jams in public transport during the rush hour.
Wants to reduce carbon emissions.

FRUSTRATIONS

The process to book a car is complicated.
He doesn’t want to scan code every time he makes stop/brake.
Wants to open app and within a few clicks book a car.
Option in which users can reserve parking space ten minutes before reaching the destination would be awesome.
He doesn’t want to drive car back at the pick-up point.

EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES

Drives around 20 minutes from home to job.
Has 2/3 meetings per day.
Goes in the gym after job.
Uses car sharing daily.

GOALS/NEEDS

Wants to commute conveniently and comfortably.
For her, car sharing service has to be affordable.
Decided not to own her own car because of the costs car ownership brings with it.
Wants to use car sharing together with public transport and bicycle.
As a climate conscious person, she wants to use environmentally-friendly transport.

FRUSTRATIONS

App layouts are too complicated.
Lack of easy access to important information.
There is not enough eco-friendly car sharing options.
Customer service is not very active.

EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES

Wakes up early.
Works 8 hours per day.
Commute around 30 minutes to job.
Combines car sharing with public transport and cycling.

SHAREQ

Problem

Challenge

Purpose

My role

Duration

Why electric car sharing?

Market and user research

United Kingdom

FRANCE

GERMANY

ITALY

SCANDINAVIA

User Personas

GOALS/NEEDS

FRUSTRATIONS

EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES

GOALS/NEEDS

FRUSTRATIONS

EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES

Concept

USER FLOWS

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

Final Design

Let's get in touch :)