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Things To Think About

It is essential that you consider the following:

• Who is the person (people) that I am designing for?
• Why do they use their bike? (Reduced travel costs, green issues, health or lifestyle issues)
• How often do they use their bike? (Daily, weekly, weekend only)
• What type of bike do they ride?
• What are their needs and priorities?
• What are the behaviours that you want to promote and prevent?
• What is the environment in which they will experience/engage with your design?
• What solutions already exist in your chosen design area or related design areas and what is good and bad about them?
• How does your proposal relate to the aims and objectives of other cycling stakeholders?

Work out your design priorities by talking to those you are designing for and also, perhaps, those that you are designing to foil. For example different users may demonstrate different sensitivities and responses to risk and convenience – how would you accommodate such differences or is it unnecessary to do so?

What is the intervention? How does it relate to existing patterns of use, and/or design provision - clearly communicate what it does, for whom, and why.

How does the intervention work? Is it easy and enjoyable to use? Does it reduce reward for the thief, increase effort or risk of detection and arrest? How does it thwart the offender whilst facilitating legitimate use? Might thieves develop countermoves (for example some kind of tool to defeat the improved security?) Can your design guard against this?

How is your design to be experienced? What will be its impact, both direct and indirect, on the actors you consider? What will it be made from? Who will make it? Consider cost implications – could your design be implemented?

Your proposal should clearly explain how you explored the issues and how this influenced your design proposal.