Adoptability
- What are the considerations that will affect peoples’ decisions about whether to adopt and use your design idea.
More comfort, less odour, less cleaning, less sweaty, equally safe, don’t have to carry it around, locks bike as well
- Are there potential barriers that will slow down adoption, or that you’ll need to overcome.
“Just another helmet” problem, unable to see important features at first glance
- What aspects of the existing situation will need to change?
People do not like wearing helmets at all. They feel that existing helmets are too bulky, uncomfortable and especially aren’t appealing to those with long hair. Moreover, surveying and testing suggests that people find it a hassle to remove + carry it around wherever they go. Usage of complicated fitting mechanisms and no existing solution to avoid the “carrying it around wherever I stop” needs to change.
Pricing Model
- What’s the pricing model for your idea?
Upfront cost. One-time. Like buying any other regular bicycle helmet.
- Is there an upfront cost? Or a subscription cost?
Upfront cost
- Are there any rebates or other financial incentives that will help lower the cost and reward the behavior?
The functionality of getting a bicycle lock included within the bicycle helmet serves as a 2-in-1 product and will effectively be cheaper than buying both products separately. Cost is reduced marginally as the length of a regular cable lock will be cut short. The design will only need a certain length that fits in a 3/4th loop around the helmet chassis.
Sustainability Impact
- How does your design idea improve sustainability?
Encourages wearing helmets. The design will make wearing helmets less of a burden and more of a behavioural trait. Like, people don’t forget carrying their bicycle locks with them no matter what, with the lock integration the design aims to promote a similar pattern but with bicycle helmets.
- How big is the problem now? What’s the baseline that you’ll compare your idea to?
As per my survey, not one person responded that they like wearing helmets. The reasons were multiple and it wasn’t like any one reason had a clear majority. But the main themes revolved around comfort and the helmet-carrying experience being not so pleasant.
- What delta will this make? How can you quantify or measure the impact of your design idea? And how big a difference could your design idea make?
I am not sure how to measure the impact of the design idea in numbers. But it could make a big difference in terms of the behaviour and attitude of users towards bicycle helmets. Most of the users are not absolute haters of the current designs. It serves a purpose, keeps you safe and that’s that. I think the problem lies in persuading someone who doesn’t want to wear a bicycle helmet, to in fact put on on daily without it seeming to be forced or like a burden.
Competitive Advantage
- What else is available to your users now? What options do they have?
Different kinds of helmets with all sorts of features exist right now. Some with lights, made of different materials, slightly heavier or lighter, depending on preference.
- Are there other products or services that promise similar results?
As per my research I did not find any alternatives to a helmet that is able to absorb sweat, accommodate for long hair and house a bicycle locking mechanism all in one.
- How do you compare to them?
In terms of design, there won’t be any major difference on the outside build of the helmet. Except, letting go of some unnecessary extensive aerodynamics that are not required for someone who is just biking small distances. Focus will be on making a dedicated space for long hair users to accommodate their pony tails or buns. The padding quantity does not change. The design promotes the use of recycled polyester as a material around the padding to allow for quick sweat absorption. The lock is an added feature not many helmet manufacturers have come up with yet.
Use of Design Thinking / Human-Centeredness
- How does this design idea address the essential need identified in your POV statement?
It improves the helmet-wearing and helmet-carrying experience. Imagine this, you have your helmet kept somewhere inside your home, your bicycle is parked outside. Instead of remembering to take your helmet with you all the time, it’s there on your bike. Now even if you don’t feel like wearing it, are you gonna go back inside to keep it? Or let it hang will you ride your bicycle, constantly hitting your knee. Yeah, attaching it to your backpack makes sense. But you’ll look like a fool. The lock serves the purpose of completely eliminating the need of carrying the helmet anywhere. It’s minimalistic at heart. It serves a practical, on-the-go, urban biker student comletely.
- How did your design idea evolve based on the steps in the design thinking process? (Observing > Interviewing > Defining a POV > Ideating > Prototyping > Testing > Interating)
I believe observing the problem gave the initial spark of having a lock integrated within the helmet design. Surveying made me realise that yes, the lock is a nice feature to have but the main barrier is comfort. That shaped the POV, and I had to revise it multiple times according to the survey. The ideas went from having num-locks to lock-in-a-box on the helmet, to leave the strap itself as a lock. But after prototyping with sketches and having people handle an actual helmet in class made me think that most of the users don’t care much about the additional features at first. So, comfort is the initial barrier to break. I iterated my design to include better padding and more breathable material. Long hair was a major pain point for many users. I included that as a priority. The lock was always part of my design. But people didn’t really care about
What’s the Roadmap?
- Is there an path of future development that could evolve from and extend your design idea?
Integration of utilities into a bicycle helmet can be one possible development that I can think of. As R&D on lighter and stronger materials continues, the opportunity to use the overall structure of the helmet as many different things can also grow. For example, having solar powered fans inside the helmet. Using the helmet as a backpack with some add-ons when you’re not biking. Some of the crazy ideas I had come up with while I was brainstorming :)
- How could your design idea grow?
I think as more and more people become comfortable with using helmets a different set of problems will emerge. Can a helmet be used with AR/VR to create biking experiences? Can it have a in-built water pipe that cools the helmet and also serves as a sipper. I think when I thought of these ideas I thought people aren’t willing to wear helmets firstly, so for the design idea to grow further we would need to break that barrier first.