Motorcycle Safety Research
A project focused solely on research techniques. Work consisted of interviewing volunteers and using generative interview techniques to identify potential product spaces.
Why investigate motorcycle safety?
Through its many facets, contradictions and cultures, the topic of motorcycle safety is incredibly interesting and raises a lot of questions.
Personally, there’s nothing that keeps me up at night like the fear of motorcycle riding. The combination of temptation and the inherent danger makes it an especially tantalising activity.
“It’s not if you crash
- it’s when.”
A reoccurring theme that kept surfacing in this research, was the concept of doing something dangerous, in the safest possible way.
But when looking around at motorcycle riders, its evident that people have widely different impressions of what is dangerous, and what is safe.
Key Findings
Interviews
6 volunteers were selected to participate in the interviews, based on their motorcycle riding history. Each interview was conducted using the same structure and generative tools.
What are generative tools and interview techniques?
In short, they are highly structured and finely tuned ways to get information from respondents.
In addition to basic predetermined questions, the respondent is guided through a series of tasks that are designed to generate discourse. The structure might seem random to the participant, but it is designed in a way to probe into the subconscious of the respondent from different angles - this way the responses can be cross-checked for validity.
Interview Knowledge Goals
1.How does the world influence riders?
Assessing how risk-related decisions are influenced by social factors (friends, family etc), and to what extend motorcyclist think about these things when riding?
2.What do riders feel?
What is the balance between the feeling of freedom vs. the feeling of safety? Or Is safety a limiting factor for the enjoyment?
3.What are considered the most important elements to safety for riders?
Wanting to understand what factors motorcyclist consider (or ignore) when riding, and how they might asses risk.
Participant Specification
The pool of respondents were carefully selected considering their background and experience.
1. Beginner
Recently acquired licence (1-3 years).
2. Enthusiast
Rides frequently, but not obsessed.
3. Pro
Very involved - in culture, experience, technical and mechanic abilities.
4. Veteran
Has experience - but doesn’t ride anymore.
Generative Interviews
We used 3 different tasks to extract information. As all respondents completed the same tasks, it makes it easier to cross-examinate the responses.
The tasks are a combination of “homework” (to be finalised before the interview in order to mentally prepare the respondent), and two “live” tasks done with the interviewee’s guidance.
Photo Journal
How does the motorcyclist’s environment affect their decision making?
We wanted to learn how the motorcyclist is effected by its environment, more specifically his/hers relationship to family, friends, or future opportunities when riding.
This method was effective in probing peoples passions, and represented about 50% of the interview. The task asked respondents to provide a photo and a short tagline to each prompt.
Animal Deck
What does the rider feel when they are riding?
This exercise was intended to inform us about what the rider feels when they were riding, which was quite easily expressed through the “animal cards” on the board.
A highly visual task, respondents got engaged with storytelling through the images. They were all asked to select an image for each prompt, and justify their answer - which also provided specific comparable data (comparing images between respondents).
Trade-Off Exercise
What safety-factors are considered or ignored when riding?
Implied in its name, this exercise engaged a discussion on compromises between safety and other factors to get a deeper understanding for what safety-factors are the most important.
The respondents are asked to pick one card from each category on the right that all need to fit in the dedicated space on the left to describe a “perfectly safe ride”. Larger pieces are more important, and vice versa. Only certain combinations fit - forcing the respondent to make a trade-off. This exercise was a great tool to cross-check the answers and values from earlier in the interview.
Expert Interview
The expert interview was conducted at the end, and was structured differently - with input from the earlier interviews, it was intended to “fact-check” the information, and get deeper insight into the reasonings behind the answers.
The expert has previously been a coach/guide and is considered a “professional”. With many years of riding, and lots of experience, the expert knowledge in the field was an invaluable ballast to contrast with the other interviews.
When looking for participants, the expert would ideally be unbiased, and be a rational decision maker. After the interview, it was evident his mentality was different than that of the other subjects, in relation to the assessment of the actual risks.
Expert Core Findings
Being honest with yourself.
Having the understanding of the fact that you are at risk, and not falling into the “its not gonna happen to me” mentality is critical for making good decisions. It’s easy to romanticise riding and ignore the risks, but “humans are really good at making mistakes”.
Motorcycles are toys.
This point exemplifies one of the many contradictions within motorcycle safety. Many consider a motorcycle a toy, which impacts how you make decisions. Some of the deadly seriousness is easy to forget when you’re in the fun zone.
Practice, practice, practice.
It goes without saying, but its importance is under-estimated. How can you do something dangerous in safe way? As an interviewee said - “when the situation gets gnarly, you don’t have time to think - you just have to act”.
Being a confident and intuitive rider is a huge factor that plays into how you can either avoid accidents, or how you react if you come into an accident.
Whoever has the most fun, wins.
Seriousness aside - in the end, it’s all about fun. Riding should never be a chore, and in order to make it safer, there’s a balance to how much compromise can be made to offset the fun-element. People just want to enjoy the ride!
Analysis
The information was sorted into 5 sets of insights and opportunity pairs using various analysis tools.
Insight & Opportunity Pairs
Concepts
10 concepts were outlined for each insight. The goal was not to finalise any products, but rather create directions that could be starting points for further development.
4 projects were developed in more detail, a brief summary follows below.
An app to get you started riding, improve your skills and meet with local riders, schools, and mechanics.
The app aims to get new riders on their bikes by guiding and giving them tips, providing access to resources and connect them with coaches and shops.
By hosting a forum, it can provide a collection of guides, tips and tricks, with the potential of offering mentoring services.
Finally, it could serve as a resource platform, where you can find and review mechanics, dealerships and riding schools.
Design Criteria: Preventative, Preparation, Knowledge & Building Experience.
A lightweight abrasion-resistant undergarment that fits under any set of clothing, to offer some degree of protection for those who usually wear nothing.
While not as safe as a full-leather suit and pads, it can provide protection against skin-damage, particularly at lower commuter speeds. For those who are concerned with how cool they look, or are “just going to their friends house”, this slips unnoticeably under their own style of clothing.
Physical comfort and safety is a fine balance of compromise, combining agility and protection.
Design Criteria: Physical Focus, Preparation, Agility, Compromise of Safety & Bike always loses.
A speculative visual and digital communication system, that improves the bikes visibility and presence.
Today, drivers and all users of roads rely on visual observation and sound to navigate around motorcycles.
Tomorrow, using Halo, riders can illuminate the ground around their bike to communicate and increase their visual presence.
In the future, there is a need to ensure motorcycles stay relevant and applicable in a traffic system with autonomous cars. With Halo’s vehicle to vehicle communication, one can ensure the bikes position, speed, and trajectory is accurately read and understood by surrounding self-driving systems.
Design Criteria: Preventative, Predictability, Bike Vs. Car, Traffic, Bike always loses.
A rear-view device which lets the rider look behind them with limited distraction and movement.
The core of the idea is to reduce distractions that usually occur when turning around to check blind-zones, or being uncertain of the environment behind you.
In simple terms, a camera is attached to the back of the helmet (or on the motorcycle), and is connected to a HUD (Heads Up Display) display inside the helmet.
The display is mounted on bottom of the visor to reduce blockage of vision when riding and also features a blind zone indicator on each side. This creates an intuitive image of the traffic image around the rider.
Design Criteria: Preventative, Predictability, Bike Vs. Car, Traffic, Bike always loses.
