The way we utilize cars today is wildly inefficient.

According to the US Department of Energy, cars carry and average of only 1.6 people per trip and sit parked over 95% of their lifespan. In order to solve traffic, pollution, ownership costs, and other problems, we must find creative ways to increase the density of passengers per vehicle.

Use urban planning techniques to build communal spaces inside shared vehicles.

Locale uses the 5 senses to build a sense of communal space inside shared vehicles. Borrowing from the work of the famed urbanist Jane Jacobs, Locale aims to create desirable, communal in-car environments in order to incentivize the use of shared mobility over personal vehicles.
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This is important because shared mobility increases the density of passengers per vehicle–the root of downstream problems like traffic, pollution, and costs per trip.

An interactive pop-up experience

I parked a branded BMW SUV near Tompkins Square Park in New York City and welcomed passers by to climb inside, pick a travel scenario, and spec their ideal in-car ambiance. They did this by selecting lighting, sounds, textures, and fragrances from a sensory toolkit, then debriefed with me afterwards.

Jane Jacobs and William Whyte argue for a people-centered urbanism.

In her famous book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, urban planning pioneer Jane Jacobs argues that cities ought to be designed around people, not cars. She asserts that the key to a vibrant community was a vibrant social life in community spaces.
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Researcher William Whyte, in his study of pedestrian behavior “The Street Life Project”, found that engaging spaces propel social interaction, observing “What attracts people most, it seems, is other people.”.

Placemaking is a human-centered urbanist movement we can apply to shared vehicles.

Placemaking is an urban planning method for designing civic spaces around people. Locale’s goal is to  apply this methodology to shared mobility to create engaging, desirable, in-car civic spaces.

User personas

I created personas in order to put myself in the mindset of would-be users.

User journey mapping

The experience is fundamentally social, so it was important to understand both the sequential and emotional journey users would be taking.

Measures of success

To keep the project focused on gathering actionable user insights, I decided to measure success by the: number of participants, specificity of feedback, and degree of user delight.

Framing the problem

Prototyping

Using a blanket fort, I prototyped the experience and workshopped the steps with volunteers

User feedback & iteration

I iterated on my original concept using user feedback from my prototype.

Share a car, share an experience

With the help of 3 friends, I conducted my pop-up experience on a Saturday morning just outside Tompkins Square Park in New York City.

Key Learnings

After the event, I looked over the data we gathered and pulled out 4 key learnings from our users.

Engaging, shared environments improve quality of life.

Jacobs and Whyte assert that the whole point of creating social spaces is to increase one’s sense of belonging, lower anxiety, and facilitate new experiences.
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Ridesharing, in addition to solving a major passenger density problem, is also an opportunity for designers to create fulfilling social spaces that improve the quality of passenger’s lives.