Designing For Underserved Communities

Plenty of people in underserved urban communities bike, but they have been denied good design, because most companies just focus on designing for affluent mainstream cyclists.

Five student teams envisioned good design for the cyclists who get ignored too often in our city.
One team chose to develop things to help Latino women cyclists, another focused on making cycling easier and safer for immigrants. Three teams chose to take different turf - Northside, Southside, and Westside - designing for young adults who have adopted street BMX as a way to get out, have fun, and - as several of these guys said - "stay out of trouble".

They toured sites and saw lectures by non-profits and people who live in these communities. They spent several weeks researching people's needs and perceptions, and then developed realistic solutions. Prototypes were made and tested by individuals from their target demographic.

A snippet of their early research can be seen in their Kickstarter video:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/487830610/urban-bike-project

Team VOZ - Mayumi + Jacob - designing for immigrant cyclists: http://vozbike.tumblr.com/

VOZ's Bike Passport - safety + security basics, in Spanish and English.

 
Team SAL - Sandy + Ari + Lynn - designing for Latino women: http://sal-bikes.tumblr.com/

SAL's cycling garments - fashionable visibility

 
Team NS - Jessica + Danny + Shannon - design for Northside BMXers: http://nsbmx.tumblr.com/

NOS interviewed Northside riders

 
Team Propel Motion - Heonjoo + Eric + Andrew - design for Southside BMXers: http://urban-bikes.tumblr.com/

Propel's wheel-illuminating fender

 
Team Gremlin - Jason + Bob + Thomas - design for Westside BMXers: http://bjjcycles.tumblr.com/

Gremlin's test subjects gave them feedback on their concepts