Shared Mobility: Moments that matter

At fresk.digital we are curious by nature. When we bring our clients from business concepts to meaningful digital products, we research and validate with real people. It is a crucial method to make the right product right.

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As experts in the Travel & (Shared) Mobility market, we believe that it is very important to stay up-to-date with the latest developments, whether it is technological, data driven, design focused or in a specific business market. Our digital domain is aimed at understanding how digital can be supportive to our day-to-day lives in order to make our lives more meaningful. Where the digital meets the physical is where we thrive.

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As part of our own educational journey, we chose to take a closer look at the world of shared mobility. This most recent exploration led us to analyse the human behaviour in bike sharing, moped sharing and car sharing. We delved into the real-life experiences of people engaging with shared mobility services, focusing on key moments that shape their journey: moments that matter!

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We shared our insights in our Shared Mobility Reports Trilogy. Though a bicycle, moped and car are three different forms of transportation, there, interestingly enough, is an insightful overlap. In fact, our research shows a red thread that is universal for all services that bring us from A to B.

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The red thread is threefold:
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1. Onboarding:
   It should not be rocket science that onboarding a person on your digital service should be seamless. The key take away in all three shared mobility researches is to just keep it simple. Expectations should be met or even be exceeded (don’t surprise people, anticipate their expectation), make them feel safe and don’t take too much of their time. In the end this should apply to all parts of the onboarding, whether you are signing up for a car-sharing service, downloading a bike-sharing app or uploading your driver's licence in your moped sharing account. Barriers for entry should just not be there.
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2. Planning and Booking:
   The availability of vehicles in an acceptable proximity, and with that the ease of booking them are crucial to the satisfaction of travellers. Again, this is about expectation. Having a car, moped or bicycle available when you want or need them is key to the recurring use of the service. And when you have your preferred mode of transportation available to you, the booking should be a one click-feel. It should not be a long and tedious process with steps you could have avoided by simplifying them or embedding them in the onboarding, like we have seen in the shared mobility services we researched.
   Our research highlights the importance of user-friendly booking interfaces, real-time availability updates, and personalised recommendations. By simplifying the planning process and empowering users with relevant information, shared mobility services can enhance trust, loyalty, and an overall good user experience, stimulating recurring use of the service.
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3. ‍First-Time Use:
   ‍The first-time use of a shared mobility service sets the tone for the overall experience. When you use a product or service, it needs to work, it needs to feel safe and it needs to do what it's supposed to. In short, the vehicle needs to be usable!A bicycle needs to have inflated tires, an electric moped should be sufficiently charged, a car should be clean and without major damage. Having a maintained vehicle gives the user a feeling of safety and confidence. It builds trust, leading to the willingness to use the service again and again.

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By researching real people, observing their behaviour and understanding their needs, we are able to pinpoint the moments that matter in the customer journey. Translating these moments into actionable features enables us to bring a digital product to life with a seamless customer experience.

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This method in itself is not limited to the travel and mobility market, it is a universal method that can be adopted to any digital product in any market. In the end, it is all about connecting businesses to people and our method to do so is in its core… human centred.

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