Joining The Data

Today representatives of the EPA and Intel returned for our initial concept pitch. Our team presented on 3 ideas, following the problem statement of 'Visually displaying air pollution to cyclists through real time data'.

Concept 1: Dublin Bike Air Quality Service; here we pitched the idea of incorporating a map which displayed air quality throughout the city and different areas of low pollution and high pollution, this would give cyclists the opportunity to chose more health conscious routes to their destinations. The map position in the interface of the station will show the fastest route between 2 stations and also the cleanest air route to the chosen docking station. Built into the handle bar of the Dublin bike will be an indicator of the air quality in the area that the bike is currently travelling through, this allows for the user to ensure they are remaining in a green zone. This estimation will be based on the data supplied from the EPA's monitoring stations within the city.

Concept 2:  Dublin Bike Phone Mount, we explored the idea of incorporating into the handlebar of the Dublin bicycles a mobile phone attachment facility with allowed cyclists to place their navigation tool in view during a trip. The application for navigation from station to station will act as a helpful tool for finding your way around the city and would also be fitted with a feature that would allow users to see the quality of the air they are currently travelling through. This will hopefully promote cleaner routes for cyclists to travel, resulting in a more healthy experience.

Concept 3: Air Quality Visualiser Helmet, this wearable device would be fitted with a heads up display that would relay live data to the user as the navigate through the city. This data, provided by the EPA would orchestrate the journey through healthier areas of better air quality. The information will display pockets of bad air, highlighted using colour as a powerful tool for denoting harmful fumes that normally are invisible to the naked eye. Like a navigation tool such as Google map, a feature of Google glasses, a user will be able to follow the cleanest path to their desired destination.

Once concepts were pitch, we received in-depth feedback from all attendees, which was very insightful and gave our team rich examples to further explore the area. Heading into the third week of this brief and taking feedback onboard, we shall narrow our concepts down to one to take into the design stage. We shall work out in detail the functions, touch-points and interactions to take forward into a high-fidelity prototype........