Vässla — Startups
An eBike App for the EU’s Hottest Hubs
As brand new bikes rolled off the assembly line, Vässla needed an app that would integrate flawlessly into their real world rider experience. This required a solid V1 that could handle a rapidly growing subscriber base across four regions and three languages, laying the groundwork for further international expansion.
MISC X Vässla
MISC helped us launch our Bike app during a hectic period of expansion to new cities, all while we were pivoting to a subscription-based model. We love working with strong collaborators who are experts at their craft.”
CEO & Founder
Our Approach
We needed to move fast, so we kicked off with a series of workshops
with our client and dev partners. UX went full throttle while our
visual designers attacked look-and-feel. Once the design direction
was approved, we were able to layer it over the wireframes, and the
app took shape right away.
Tight collaboration with Vässla’s dev
partner was critical to ensure seamless delivery, so we established
an Agile collaboration model that worked for all parties.
Team Size
4
Timeframe
8 weeks
Goals & Objectives
- Create an app that lives up to the brand expectations of Vässla’s award-winning industrial design
- Provide subscribers with quick and intuitive access to key features, such as unlocking the bike and tracking its location
- Lay the foundation for additional feature sets in future releases that will enable the app to manage multiple product lines and evolving subscription models
- Collaborate directly with a 3rd party dev partner in order to reduce time commitment for a startup client navigating hypergrowth
The Results
Six months after its European launch, Vässla won Micromobility World’s 2023 Rider’s Choice Award for “Best Subscription” service. We like to think that our collaboration on the Bike app contributed in part to their success with pivoting from direct sales to subscriptions.
Services
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- Extended existing Vässla brand design system into a mobile digital ecosystem
- Several quick rounds of look-and-feel explorations helped us to collectively land on a design direction that felt right for the brand
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- Identified region- and language-specific user needs and considerations and translated them into actionable design requirements
- Considered all aspects of the user experience from the perspective of a novice cyclist, struggling to use their phone with one hand while operating the Vässla Bike in traffic
- Translated hardware considerations, such as battery life for the Bike’s power supply and the user’s smartphone battery life, into critical UX requirements
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- Identified core user flows and codified them in wireframes
- Got into clickable/tap-able prototype very quickly (Week 1) to make sure that the app would fully usable one-handed
- Worked directly with 3rd party dev partner, Akava, to ensure seamless delivery
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Optimized all copy to be easily understood by users across multiple regions and languages
MISC X Talent
I’ve worked with MISC on four projects this past year. Each one was a masterclass in collaboration. They treated every client and contractor with the utmost courtesy and care, no matter how big or small.”
Sr. Copywriter
Joining MISC as a designer was like joining The Avengers. Every member of the collective brings unique skill sets to the table, effectively eliminating all office politics that get in the way of getting work done.”
Design Lead
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