BikeMi
Using brand identity to drive collective change
Introduction
As modern cities are increasingly embracing car-free city centres, public sharing services are playing an important role in making this transformation successful. In 2020, D&AD New Blood Awards in collaboration with Amsterdam-based design studios VBAT and Superunion asked creatives from all over the world to re-imagine the brand identity of a bike hire scheme. We chose Milan’s own bike sharing system BikeMi.
What I Did
- Brand identity
- Logo design
- Art direction
3 Big Takeaways
- A new logo to tell a new story
- UX/UI to encourage people to cycle more
- Digital transformation
1. A new logo to tell a new story
BikeMi’s new logo draws its origins from the original logo of Azienda Trasporti Milanesi. The iconic little wings have been reengineered into a single line to resemble a bike lane, conveying a sense of modernity and continuity.
Saffron risotto, trams, historical buildings, the M3 metro line. What does all of these things have in common? The colour yellow and Milan.
By looking at the elements that make the city famous in the world, we developed our own shade of yellow and named it “Giallo Milano”.
2. UX/UI to encourage people to cycle more
With cities pressed to solve their transportation crisis amid rising concerns around gas-powered emissions¹, micromobility is emerging as a powerful alternative to the current public transit mix — especially as the Covid-19 crisis impacts the sector. How can BikeMi redirect city dwellers to its service?
We interviewed a pool of people who live and work in Milan and what we discovered is the sense of belonging Milanese people have for their neighbourhood. Leveraging this insight we set off working on the new interface.
The App is designed to give prominence to data like Air Quality Index, amount of CO2 saved and a chart with the cleanest area in Milan.
Our innovation lies in the way those data are presented. Instead of producing personal reports, the app shows how the user own rides improve the quality of the air in the area is cycling. Every morning the charts with the best performing neighbourhoods is published and users can see their contribution in relation to Milan’s average. In this way we believe that by making people feel part of a collective change we can create engagement around a public, shared service.
3. Digital transformation
One main problem we identified within the service was its digital obsolescence. Originally relying on magnetic cards to be purchased via the online website and to be received via the postal service, BikeMi had a huge gap in attracting new potential users like tourists.
Our solution to this problem is to simplify the access to the service. By integrating the physical card in the app, we gave everyone the possibility to use their phone to unlock bikes and cycle by using a pay-per-minute plan. Alternatively, registered user can use the display on the totems to log in to their account and use a personal code to unlock the bike. From now on, users are just a couple of seconds away from jumping on a BikeMi!
