Displaying vehicle information while riding
IZA was an Electric Vehicle Company based out of Hyderabad. As we had to release our flagship electric bike Vertex, the components had to be built right up.

One of them being the Instrument Cluster.
Team
Shashank, Harshin
My role
Product Design
Context
An Instrument Cluster is one of the important elements in a vehicle.

Traditional Instrument Clusters in a two-wheeler are space-consuming and are expensive to manufacture. Most instrument clusters are designed and manufactured by third parties and require high MOQ ( Minimum order quantity).

Without a Digital Solution, it is impossible to keep production and maintainance costs down.
The clue
This is the place where I fell in love with the process of Research. Our initial idea was to get a manufacturer to get the quote, until ...
Secondary research
Cycle computers
• For cycling enthusiasts
• GPS/Non-GPS enabled devices
• Seperate mobile apps for information in detail
Proprietary Display Modules
• High Production costs
• Third party supplies are expensive as well
• Transflective displays enable the best visibility outdoors
Cycling Apps
• Low production costs (application)
• GPS enabled devices
• Bluetooth connectivity
With our requirements being proprietary due to custom information to be displayed, and cost efficient, it was a no brainer that we should go ahead with a mobile app
Problem statement
Deisgn a mobile application that displays important information to the vehicle owner while riding
User interviews
Why delivery boys and bikers? 

Cycling enthusiasts prefer highly accurate information with easy to read displays for glancing information at high speeds whereas the Vertex is not a product for competitive cycling.

Vertex is license-free, meaning the highest speed that it is allowed to have is 25kmph. Therefore, bikers and delivery boys were considered for the user interviews.
2 DELIVERY BOYS
3 BIKERS
Insights
Observe Instrument cluster at the start and end of the trips and at the signal stops
Analogue was preferred to have much scanability than digital
Admit to ignoring errors as they do not know what some symbols stand for
I hesitate to ride a bike whose instrument cluster is faulty
There have been many accidents where my friends were checking maps while driving
So much technology but people still need to be told about the  lights on
Conceptualisation
The team gathered and put out their ideas into stickies on how to display information to the rider while riding. The team had to put out their ideas in the form of how might we questions and the founders had the right to choose which ones to tackle.
Concept building
Stakeholders were asked to list down their thoughts and expectations on how the mobile application should fulfil user’s needs. Threats or drawbacks were also encouraged. Through this discussion, feature sets and other details like mounting of the mobile to the bike were discussed.
Prototyping
We used paper mockups and made a focus group. Each individual was asked to navigate through the application to get a task done. It gave us insights about some usability issues as well as placement of important CTAs.
Mockups
Iza Information Essentials makes it easy to connect a computer to the bike, displaying important information before, while and after riding, using a skeuomorphic interface
Information on errors
Whenever a major component is at fault or needs service, the symbols become active to show the warning on homepage as well as while riding

Unlike traditional Instrument clusters, the user can now understand what is at fault and book the vehicle for service
In-app navigation with trip information
Most of the riders end up in an accidents due to navigating through maps while riding

An in-app navigation system along with essential trip information like speed and charge remaining can increase convenience as well as use navigation
Trips and stats
Detailed trip information and statistics allow the user to monitor usage and track their child’s riding habits.

On the other hand, it allows developers to create a power management system for each rider to increase the efficiency of the bike
Dark UI for battery optimisation
Although designers and psycologists still debate about which one is better ( at that point of time), I chose to go with the dark background with white text to save battery consumption on OLED devices
This project is desktop optimised only for now
I know you must be thinking, what kind of a shitty designer does not have a responsive website. Well you know, here's the thing, I am working on it okay?

Meanwhile if you are on Desktop, please resize your window to view this project will you?

Thanks!