smart foryou: Designing a new individual mobility system for European metropolises of 2025
P.F. Schouten · 2014
The goal of this project was to develop a new type of vehicle that shows a fit in smart’s future product portfolio. The idea of developing a vehicle smaller than the existing smart fortwo arose from developments in the market and society. Throughout the whole automotive industry it is agreed that there is an increasing mismatch between existing vehicles and increasingly urbanizing cities. Few car manufacturers already respond to these developments by creating so-called microcars. Since the timeframe of this project was set out for 2025, one should first understand how mobility needs will change. Perhaps a simple copy of current microcars does not show a fit with these needs. Due to this the method of Vision in Product design was chosen, in order to provide a clear understanding on this changing context and thus future human needs. The domain for the project was defined as individual mobility in European metropolises of 2025. The project starts with a deconstruction of the smart brand, in order to get a good understanding how the design can fit within the product portfolio of smart since it unveils the true values of the smart brand. The second phase of the Vision in Product design method covers the construction phase. The goal of this phase is to create a vision based on constructed future context. After a thorough research all defined context factors were clustered into ten different clusters. Subsequently a coherence was shaped that led to the definition of the three meta-factors or ‘pillars’, that have the biggest impact on individual mobility in urban areas in the future context. Since not all needs can be covered, a direction was chosen that showed the best fit with the smart brand. This eventually led to the definition of the vision, which is embodied by three elements. Mission statement smart wants people to enrich their commute by letting them shape or transform their perception of the environment around them & facilitate them to shift between those two strategies when desired Interaction The interaction between the user and the environment is most important ands can be described as browsing the world wide web. The interaction the user has with the product should be like your personal second skin. Product To fulfill the desired interaction the product qualities are defined as positively open, neutral simplicity & empowering intelligence. The vision lays the foundation for the design, which can be broken down in two parts. First the ‘software’ is designed, meaning that the interaction is designed the user has with the environment and the product without thinking about concrete technologies. This is subsequently translated into a concrete design starting from the inside out, focussing on the user. The embodiment is accomplished step-by-step, putting the most important elements prior. The end of the project focusses on the styling of the vehicle.