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Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Our Mission
Hello
Our names are Eric Peloquin, Brian Mitchell, and Erik Askin. We are 4th year Industrial Design Majors at the Rhode Island School of Design. This semester we are starting a project which will focus on designing an alternative transportation product for urban commuters.
Our Mission Statement:
"For the past century, cities have been designed around vehicles; it is time to design a vehicle around the city. While public transportation will always be a good option, there is no doubt that personal transportation is an integral part of American culture. As the density of U.S. cities has increased and space has become an issue, multiple person vehicles have become less efficient. In the context of today’s economic and social climate, we think that the creation of a successful alternative vehicle would have a positive impact on the ability of those in urban environments to get around.
Many consumers do not want to own or drive a car, because of issues such as sustainability, financial investment, maintenance, and space. Currently, the market of alternative vehicles is dominated by bicycles, motorcycles, and scooters. While these options are available, they tend to be catered to particular user groups. Each option has a distinct culture and following behind it leaving the mass market with few choices. We wish to address this gap and create a product which fulfills not only the needs of this market segment, but also creates a desire and culture base.
In order to achieve this goal, we plan to begin with market research. By analyzing current alternative vehicle cultures (bike culture, bikers, scooter riders etc.) we hope to discover the factors which have created this appeal, and apply them to this new market segment. The research we will perform for this project will be both quantitative and qualitative, including personal interviews, our price point against other cars on the road and identifying competition, and research into user demographics and the needs of potential customers.
Issues that we will consider are:
- Creating an emotional connection between the user and product
- Emphasizing personal customization
- Involving consumers in assembly
- Parking and space considerations
- Storage
- Weather protection
- Maintenance
- Security
Our success will be determined by the ability of our team to develop a vehicle which addresses some or all of these factors. At the end of the semester, our deliverables for the design of our vehicle will be:
- A working, useable prototype,
- Final looks-like representations (renderings)
- A business model and corresponding business plan
- A service model "
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