Case study: The thinking behind Barclays' cycle hire app

This case study details the thinking behind an app created in 2013 by Lowe Profero for Barclays Cycle Hire scheme in London. The project was awarded 'best use of location based services' at last year's MOMAs (Marketing on Mobile Awards) organised by The Drum. All figures are accurate as of June 2013.

Barclays is the exclusive sponsor of Barclays Cycle Hire and Barclays Cycle Superhighways in London. Cycling is a low-cost, sustainable and environmentally friendly way to travel around London, and more cyclists on London’s streets creates a friendlier and more attractive city for us to all enjoy. The scheme now covers approximately 65km2 of the capital, with over 8,300 hire bikes available from the 15,000 docking points spread across central and east London.The location-based mobile app is a key part of the Barclays Cycle Hire user experience, since it provides the most effective means for users of the scheme to find docking stations and check both bike and space availability. Lowe Profero's strategy became:

• Help people find and dock bikes, and help them to explore the city on a bike
• Do it in a way that is seamless and intuitive, where the most pertinent information is always at the surface and the logical next step is just a click away
• Capture and reflect the positive feeling of cycling in London

The result of which is an app that has been downloaded over 170,000 times (there are currently 180,000 members of Barclays Cycle Hire), listed in the iTunes App Store Top 20 free travel apps and deemed an ‘essential accessory to Barclays Cycle Hire’ by the Evening Standard.ObjectivesBarclays was determined for its sponsorship to make a positive contribution to London through the scheme but also through tangible improvements to user’s experience of the scheme. Therefore, the objective of the app was to:

• Demonstrate how Barclays makes a positive difference to everyday life in London
• Create an application that enhances people’s experience of the scheme
• Provide better functionality and usability than competing applications which all had access to the same data as Barclays( via TFL’s publicly available API).

StrategyThe brief was to make the app an essential tool for users of the scheme. Interviews with these users uncovered the three key components of the strategy:

• There was a clear need for an app. Whilst the actual ride was highly rated by users, finding a bike to get started or an empty docking station to finish were clear pain points.
• There was a functional opportunity to improve on competitor apps. These apps made users work hard to find the information they needed and frustrated them with unexpected dead ends. They had been built as a collection of features rather than designed as a seamless user flow.
• There was a bigger emotional territory that the app could occupy. Whilst competing apps all focused on minimising pain points, none touched on why people enjoyed cycling in the city in the first place.

Cyclists can be quite evangelical about cycling in the city as it provides both functional and emotional benefits over public transport. Cycling is often more convenient and more practical, it also causes people to look at and appreciate their city. It removed the distorting affect tube maps and bus maps have on people.Cycling literally and metaphorically opens up London for people, as the interviews showed, with the following comments emerging:

• “[Cycling is] much more reliable than the tube, and less stuffy and cramped”
• “Cycling around London is an extremely enjoyable way of seeing the city and much more preferable to the Waterloo and City line”

Therefore, the strategy became:

• Don’t just help people find and dock bikes, help them to explore the city on a bike
• Do it in a way that is seamless and intuitive, where the most pertinent information is always at the surface and the logical next step is just a click away
• Capture and reflect the positive feeling of cycling in London

The appThe home-screen is simple and clear, with evocative 'outdoor' symbolism of encouragement and reinforcement. One click quickly finds the nearest docking stations with free bikes or free spaces. Cycle routes can be quickly planned from and to any docking station (with walking directions taking over from there). Or users can start by planning a route and find the nearest docking stations at either end. The routing algorithm is specifically for bikes and the routes can be matched to the confidence of the rider, while a built in timer tells you when your free time is up.Results

• Featured as one of the iTunes App Store’s Top 20 free travel apps
• Selected by Apple as an ‘Essential Free Travel App’ in the App Store
• The app has been downloaded 170,000 times (there are currently 180,000 members of the scheme)*
• People are choosing to use the Barclays app over competitor apps: 30 per cent of people who have ever used the scheme have also used the Barclays Bikes app vs. only 16 per cent of who have used all competing apps combined
• People use the app as often as they use the scheme (Median usage of the app is just over two sessions/week, the media usage of the scheme is two rides/week)
• The app has supported around 3m cycle rides around London
• Billed as an ‘essential accessory for the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme’ by the London Evening Standard

*all stats are correct as of June 2013The 2014 MOMAs, which rewards effective mobile marketing campaigns and strategies, is now open for entry with a deadline of 28 February. All information on Awards registration and entry can be found on the MOMAs website.