Author Archives: Carrie Stiens
Number 10
SPOKED is number 10 on the list when you google “spoked”. That’s exciting. Get ready, we’re going to climb that chart! However, first we need to do a little content strategy:
Character Notes from Womack
With characters, get them to surprise you in some way. Show how people react: ‘Wow! I didn’t expect that!’ Show them having the experience and reacting to it.
A person uses your product then goes on to do other things. Your website is one of 20 websites, and probably the last, rather than the one and only. Don’t make the project a star of someone’s life. Just make it good enough. Show that it did something for the person. Then your character moves on to the other things in his/her life.
Show internal struggle. Don’t try to show the whole experience. Focus on the critical moments.
There’s a difference in the plot and the experience of any character. Involve more than one person and have some conflict exist between them. It’s the conflict between the characters and complexity that keeps you going more than the overall story arc.
“Beauty brings copies of itself into being. It makes us draw it, take photographs of it, or describe it to other people.” —Elaine Scarry, Professor of aesthetics, Harvard
The Whale Hunt is awesome, and lead the author to making Cow Bird. Products need characters. Stories need products, or main characters to focus them.
Prachi, the Bike Borrower
Prachi learned to ride a bike late in life, at the age of thirteen. Though, at that age, she didn’t ever get a chance to ride her bike outside of her house compound in India. The streets outside of her house were busy with traffic. I can imagine some similarities to the streets of New York.
Prachi’s took her first proper ride the day she bought a new bike as an undergrad. It was a proper ride, to say the least—all 14 miles of it. Needless to say, Prachi has her daring and ambitious side:
“I head straight for the most difficult path,” she says.
Prachi moved to New York nearly a year ago, and hasn’t ridden or even owned a bike since she gave hers away in India. When she said yes to being a contestant in the SPOKED Kickstand IxD battle, Kristin and I were both excited, but a little confused about how she would bike without a bike. Regardless, we signed her up to color the map in mustard yellow string of yarn.
Still, I couldn’t help to think, ‘why did she do it?’ So, I asked her:
“I’m just looking for reasons to go out in the city, and usually I don’t find one. So I thought, ‘Awesome, I can borrow and bike and just go out. And, I have at least some motivation to do that.’ Otherwise, I can’t think of any other reasons why I would go for a walk, on say the Hudson river park in the middle of the day. But now I have to cycle and get miles, so I should go.”
And, when I asked, ‘Are you planning to ride more?’ Prachi unhesitantly answered:
‘Yes, I am. It was awesome.”
But, she didn’t stop at that:
“When I did the Hudson River Park stretch, I was like, ‘Wow! I covered an entire stretch of Manhattan in 2 hours.’ It’s good exercise, and you’re also traveling and seeing new places at the same time. And, it’s faster than walking around; And, much easier than traveling in subways and taxis.”
Certainly, it takes only a taste to know the goodness of biking. Prachi has shown us that.
Character Stories
PRACHI PUNDEER
Prachi learned to ride a bike late in life, at the age of thirteen. Though, at that age, she didn’t ever get a chance to ride her bike outside of her house compound in India. The streets outside of her house were busy with traffic. I can imagine some similarities to the streets of New York.
Prachi’s took her first proper ride the day she bought a new bike as an undergrad. It was a proper ride, to say the least—all 14 miles of it. Needless to say, Prachi has her daring and ambitious side: ‘I head straight for the most difficult path,’ she says.
Prachi moved to New York nearly a year ago, and hasn’t ridden or even owned a bike since she gave hers away in India. When she said yes to being a contestant in the SPOKED Kickstand IxD battle, Kristin and I were both excited, but a little confused about how she would bike without a bike. Regardless, we signed her up to color the map in mustard yellow string of yarn.
Still, I couldn’t help to think, ‘why did she do it?’ So, I asked her:
“I’m just looking for reasons to go out in the city, and usually I don’t find one. So I thought, awesome, I can borrow and bike and just go out. And I have at least some motivation to do that. Otherwise, I can’t think of any other reasons why I would go for a walk, on say the Hudson river park in the middle of the day. But now I have to cycle and get miles, so I should go.”
And, when I asked, ‘Are you planning to ride more?’ Prachi unhesitantly answered: ‘Yes, I am. It was awesome.”
But, she didn’t stop at that: “When I did the Hudson River Park stretch, I was like, ‘Wow! I covered an entire stretch of Manhattan in 2 hours.’ It’s good exercise, then you’re also traveling and seeing new places at the same time. And it’s faster than walking around. And much easier than traveling in subways and taxis.”
Certainly, it takes only a taste to know the goodness of biking. Prachi has shown us that.
JULIE HARDEE
About Julie via her blog:
“I’m an Urban Girlscout in New York City. I live on the Upper East Side and I always carry a camera – whether it’s just my cell phone, a disposable, a toy camera or my DSLR, I’m always prepared to document the events of the day. (But mostly I use a rough & tough Pentax Optio H90)
April ’10, I started almost-daily bicycle commuting. I try to ride in the clothes I plan to wear to work or whatever event I’m going to, and I take a lot of Bicycle Outfit photos and discuss that here, but I also talk about random stuff, adventures, stuff I bought, etc.
I work as an in-house fit-model and receptionist at a Junior/Women’s clothing company in the Garment District. I’m 32 years old.
Something else very important about me – My husband and I live in a 375 square foot apartment in a Historic Landmark Tenement building. Yep, NYC tiny. I have had a professional home organizer come over and talk me through some things.”
“One week in and the map looks freaking awesome! Some people are showing out and making designs in the map. I am jealous.
I need to go track some rides in the northern part of Manhattan. I’ve been going straight to work and back home. Saturday I rode downtown for my PP volunteer shift but that’s pretty straight down and back up north.
So many people are biking serious miles, like 5 times as many miles as me. Dang.”
Join a Team
What’s missing from a SPOKED game? A few people have been lingering at the bottom of the happiness chart (our leader board). We’re missing their rides. Perhaps the real question is—How do we get the ‘zeros’ to ride their bikes?
Right now, contestants are competing for smiles. One mile equals one smile; Except on super-spoked days (the third consecutive day of riding) when one mile equals two smiles. The good news is that people are riding their bikes, taking advantage of their super-spoked days and pushing each other.
We were hoping that the super-spoked days would level the playing field for the people that aren’t as comfortable on the streets. However, if you aren’t an avid rider and you miss the first three days of riding, there’s no way you’ll catch up to compete. We need incentive for these people too!
So, instead of joining a game to battle on your own, contestants will join a team. Our hypothesis is that a shared goal among a team, will incentivize every contestant to do their part and ride! Contributing to a team effort is better than working to get yourself ahead in the game. It also helps to not alienate the not-so-comfortable riders from the avid riders.
Our goal is to get avid riders to get their friends with dusty bikes to ride. So, back to the main question: How do we get the ‘zeros’ to ride their bikes? I’ve played out a few story scenarios with and without teams in the post: How do we get Wang to ride his bike. Here’s one rather promising one:
It’s a sunny day perfect for riding. The sun beats down on the cobble stone streets of Dumbo. Will Wang ever ride? Mattias rides his bike everyday. Naturally, it makes Wang a little curious. Mattias finds SPOKED and decides to start a game. He invites, rather “summons” Wang into it so that he’ll have an excuse to get on his bike and ride. He can’t say no to helping Mattias beat his friends on the COGS team. Yay! Whoohoo!!
How do we get Wang to ride his bike?
STORY SCENARIOS:
With Teams:
It’s a sunny day perfect for riding. The sun beats down on the cooble stone streets of Dumbo. Will Wang ever ride? Mattias rides his bike everyday. Naturally, it makes Wang a little curious. Mattias finds SPOKED and decides to start a game. He invites, rather “summons” Wang into it so that he’ll have an excuse to get on his bike and ride. He can’t say no to helping Mattias beat his friends on the COGS team.
Measuring happiness only (no competition):
Mattias wants to get his friends with dusty bikes to ride. So, he tells them they will be happier if they just ride. He invites them to join him in measuring their happiness for two weeks.
Avid biker dilemna (with teams & friends):
Mattias signs up for a game against the COGS. He has 8 spots to fill in order to play. He thinks through all of his friends. He knows 9 avid bikers and a handful of people with bikes in their garages. Of course if he chooses the avid bikers they will win. But will they? If he chooses the weaker links, could they still win?
Summoned to Battle:
Wang gets summoned into battle. He joins because his friend asked him to. He wasn’t riding very much in the beginning. And he wasn’t riding much during. And in the end, he still wasn’t riding much.
He wasn’t riding much in the beginning. But, on the third day, he decided to give it a try. There’s no way he was going to win, but he could at least help the team get ahead in the game. On his second day of riding, he gets the word that his miles for tomorrow will be doubled. Of course he’s going to ride get the most from his efforts. Super-spoked days are game changers.
Wang hears buzz about a bike battle happening in his work. He doesn’t have a bike, but wants to be a part of it. So he chooses a color and joins. He doesn’t ride ever. But other people are riding. And they’re talking about it. He wants to, but is too busy. On the weekend, his co-workers organize a group ride. He decides to rent a bike and join. Afterwards, he doesn’t ride anymore.
NOTES FROM BREAKFAST & THEREAFTER
Collaboration:
- Get avid riders to choose people that aren’t biking already
- normalize points, incentivize summoning non-riders
- Team size
- Who are you collaborating against
- Friends or strangers?
- Friends or co-workers?
- Number of teams competing
- Are the team sizes flexible?
- Team within a team
- boys vs. girls
- avid vs. non-avid
- ordered by commute distance
To be a part of something, means you’re contributing
Setting:
- friends and strangers?
- workplaces, co-workers?
The behavior that we want is for the avid rider to big brother the non-biker.
“Let’s do this together!”
Story Notes
TAKE 1 (From video sketch)
We want to spread the joy of biking.
So, we asked 4 people to track their bike rides with thread on a shared map.
But, when people got curious about how far they had been riding… it was a bit of a problem.
We realized, there must be a better way.
But all of the tracking apps we tried were all about fitness—calories, speed, etc.
A lot of the people that we have gotten to know and love are simply using bicycles to get around—to eat tacos, go to work, meet up with friends.
And so, we’ve set out to spread the joy using a bike to get around.
We want to expand our network, make our own world, get inspired by people and what other people are doing.
Our goal: To get people that are biking to get people with bikes to bike more.
TAKE 2
city in dots (life the first year, 2 hours in subway)
- started expanding our circles
social pressure
- what if …
- fell into riding to Manhattan because of each other
(Kristin’s tendency to dare other people to do crazy things, so she can do them herself)
(My tendency to say yes to any challenge)
lines in city
- sometimes it’s hard to get on it, but we’ve had each other to push each other into the habit
We made the social pressure between us
now we want to make that between other people.
- the empowering feeling
- the sense of flying
- being in charge of your own time and your own route
- you can be impulsive – stop at places, talk to people
- the closeness to the city – stitching the city together
- being outdoors and free
Carrie: And for thesis we want to spread the joy of biking that we experience to more people. We launched a bike challenge in the studio for a week in October to explore how we could motivate people to bike.
TAKE 2.1
I hated New York the first year I was here. But I like it now. And I’d like to tell you what has enabled that. I spent most of my waking hours working (in the studio); and a couple of them in the subway. This is what I knew about New York. (points on CG and SVA)
When I moved to Park Slope last summer, I got a bike. And to justify the purchase, I started daring Carrie to go places further away to get my wheels rolling. I didn’t consider myself and avid biker so I actually suggested crazy things I wouldn’t (couldn’t) do on my own. (coney island, traffic) … and everything in between.
But I never say no to a challenge. So, this lead us to … tacos in Queens, fireworks on the West Side Highway, Coney Island, wine tour in Long Island (biking with 3 bottles of wine)
All of a sudden New York looked different to me.
The social pressure that we created between us, lead us to going further and being more committed to our bike seats than we had ever intended. I use my bike to get everywhere in the city.
And I do too. What we experience when we bike (the freedom and fresh air) is something we’d like to pass on to other people too.
SPOKED—a service that helps you and your friends get on bikes more often through two-week bike battles.
A Story to Tell
In a few short weeks, we will present our thesis project to a very large crowd of people! We need a story to tell that will compel them to listen to us, whether they love biking, or have no idea what it means to ride a bike. Here’s a second shot at our story:
kb: Do you see this hill?
Of course you understand why I left my bicyle at the bottom.
Hi, I’m Kristin. This was the hill I faced everyday in Oslo before getting home from work.
cs: Hi, I’m Carrie.
My pink bike arrived in New York nearly a year ago. And yes, even though New York is very bike-able, I was terrified when I rode it home from the bike shop in the East Village.
cs: Riding a bike in a city has it’s hurdles. I’m lucky because I’ve had Kristin to dare me to do things, that I once considered crazy… like commute 14 miles every day from brooklyn to manhattan.
kb: I will confess, I have the tendancy to try to get people in on things that I know I can’t do on my own.
cs: and I will naively say yes to any (almost any) challenge
cs: We began on our bikes, simply riding to the coffee shops in our neighborhood that were hard to get to with the subway. But before long, this minor habit became our lifestyle.
kb: Because regardless any hurdle, riding a bike sets me free and fills me with fresh air. It makes me happy.
cs: Being dared to go further, or even just getting a taste of riding a bike, will make you happy! I’ve seen it with my very own eyes, and felt it with my very own emotions.
cs: So, we’ve spent the last 9 months, trying to find ways to get people riding bicycles. Today, we’ll tell you about the service we’ve created to do this: SPOKED.
kb:SPOKED is your way to get your friends and co-workers to feel the happiness from riding a bike. (Because we’re only two people, and want to spread the happiness of biking far and wide.)
More ideas in Story Notes.
Let’s focus on what we know
We have come to a point of needing to clarify what we’re making and how it’s achieving our goal. After having spent months in developing the minimal features, we have an MVP that could be framed in multiple different ways.
From research and conversations with bikers, we know that most people start to get into the habit of biking under some kind of social pressure either from a friend, co-worker or culture of a place. For example:
Mark joined the taco tour as an excuse to get back on his bike again after falling out of habit.
Julie bought a bike when she moved to a neighborhood where a lot of people ride bikes.
Our goal is to help busy people get into the habit of riding for transportation. Why? Because we believe that biking brings joy to your life!
Our intention is to create a social event that gives people an excuse to ride and pushes them to dare to go further than usual. Competition, recognition and contribution to a communal goal will push people. Thus, SPOKED is a service for people to self-organize competitive spurts of biking so that they can push themselves and each other to ride more than usual for a constrained 2-week period of time. Our audience includes avid bikers, casual bikers, and dusty bike owners.
We believe that it’s not necessarily about miles, but the pure act of getting on a bike over and over that will get people into the habit. Practice makes perfect.
A look back at our from the fall helped bring clarity to what we’re making:
Goal: Our goal is to get people excited and curious about biking, and to provide a way for people to encourage each other to use their bike more for getting around the city.
Rationale: We will achieve this by giving the user voluntary challenges (initiated by self, friends or their workplace) to push themselves to bike more as well as recruit others to get on their bikes. We are providing consistent feedback on their progress, and enhancing the in-ride experience.
