My diploma project gave me a wonderful opportunity to work with TI Cycles, which is one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in India. As I started without any specific brief, I was allowed to explore various areas of opportunities and I finally created my primary brief, which was to design work bikes - the bikes used for fulfilling a specific purpose.
After an in depth study of the tricycle context, I decided to explore and study various usage patterns and scenarios. It started with primary research related to bikes and tricycles used both in India and abroad. Six major cities of India were selected for the survey, which led me to focus on tricycles used vastly throughout India for delivery and vending purposes. Essential parameters like feature lists, load capacity, sitting postures, ergonomics and scopes were decided after the analysis.
Before finalizing on the final concept, lots of cardboard and paper mock-ups were made in order to test the feasibility of various possible structural arrangements. Initial hand drawn sketches followed the above for form exploration; some of these and viability models were simulated in different materials to get expert feedback from various members of the product development team.
After an elaborate discussion with the experts and design head, the concept was finalized and a full scale-working prototype was built with the described features. A small internal user testing was also done to get feedback on the vehicle.
Designing the worktrike was a wonderful experience for me. It gave me the opportunity to see things from a systems point of view. The learning experience I derived by conducting the user study exposed me to some really amazing moments of life both about the project and otherwise.
