504 - Design for Screen - Other Bike Scheme Apps

Inspired by a trip to London, I downloaded the Santander cycles app to see how they may approach it differently.. and how I can be inspired by this whilst incorporating these extra useful features I can consider from my research of other navigational apps. 

This opens to a non-animated loading screen, just a simple picture of the bikes lined up and the logo at the bottom - very recognisable and almost iconic

Once loaded, like the other apps, it does open to the map but on this app it has the bike drop-off points highlighted on the map.. On this screenshot is represented as the number of drop-off points in that close little area; but once you zoom in, as you can see towards the the top of the map, it is represented as a small bicycle icon with a red wheel around it - the red being how many bikes are docked up, the leftover white space is how many spaces are left to dock a bike up. This is a quick and efficient process to quickly plan which drop-off point you need to head to nearest your destination to ensure there will be a bike to hire/space to dock it.  
Along with that is also all the docks listed most near to you, which can expand up the screen over the map. This is also includes shortcut tabs to your recently used docks and also your favourited ones (near work or home perhaps). 
You refresh the live dock info top right, you can centre the map to your location bottom right on the map (the same as Google Maps).

Upon using the standard hamburger icon top left, your main menu comes out from the side (similar to all the other apps) - this is the most well recognised feature, people are that familiar now with using these kinds of applications it is just autonomous for them to understand and recognise.
The options include information on your own personal account, tracking of your recent journeys/charges, pricing explained for the scheme and then other help/info; but the Journey Planner I did not get along with so well - the search engine was not very intelligent at picking up suggestions for general locations in London i.e. Big Ben or the London Eye, etc. Even tourists who are unfamiliar with the exact areas, would need to be very specific with their search to get a match and it does seem to only want to take you to Bike drop off points..

- a way of improving this for my app would be to allow the person to search in more general terms for exactly where they are travelling to and then the intelligent app search engine (paired with google) should automatically take you to the nearest most available bike drop off point and then you can continue your journey from their. Would make overall user experience and ease better, as otherwise they would have to switch between navigational apps to complete the journey.

If you know the area and the exact drop off point you need the app does work very efficiently, on the left shows how you can select those individual bike docks for the live info (displayed along a key-coloured line) and then options to save, hire and plan journeys to other drop-off points from/at this one.

Similar to maps you can see how the most efficient way of communicating the directions is through a visual route on the map, partnered with written directions beneath. Would also incorporate the sat-nav mode for when cycling - fitted to the handle bars to glance at.

Upon pressing 'hire' on a particular bike dock you can purchase your individual bike lock code for when you get there.. only valid at that station. With this scheme, you pay £2 access fee for the day, then you get your first 30mins of each journey throughout the day for free, then pay an extra £2 for additional 30min slots. So it is easy enough to just use the app to find a new bike station and get a new code if non are available there or your 30min activation period is up

- I think I may consider approaching payment in a different way with my bike scheme.. perhaps rather than paying a set amount for a time slot, you pay for the time you used the service for, like you would a taxi - would have to develop a fair rate, with time guides and estimates for users. So you pay for more specified time slots perhaps? 10min equals so much £, 15min = £?, 20min = £? - go up in fives maybe, would be more of an attractive payment type for a large proportion of my target market being skint students!!


Spotcycle
Spotcycle is another cycle scheme I found based in Washington DC, America. I thought I would consider how this app may differ and look to see if it has an any other useful features/aesthetic approaches involved which would aid the process on a whole for the user.  

More simplified, standard layout for the app.. 
Route planner search bars at the top, the main map displaying the bike stations (availability not as efficiently displayed) in main section, route options provided like GMaps, with time distances communicated, the location info on the bottom strip of map with distance left shown.  And then includes the similar sort of icons needed as the other apps but along the bottom hub - like refresh, settings, etc - BUT...

... what I like about this app is it provides a timer showing how much time of your rental you have left before it needs upgrading. 
The time dial could be a useful feature to include but on mine not counting down, just timing your use so you know exactly how much time you have used, thus how much you will be charged.