Jianyu (Andy) Zou

About

Hi! My name is Jianyu Zou and also known as Andy. 

I got my BA in product design at Jiangnan University earlier in 2018 then furthered my study at RCA Intelligent Mobility. I have a great passion in design and was very lucky to have worked on variety of projects which involved vehicle design, product design, service design and interaction design. I’m flexible and have strong ability in adapting to different environments. I’ve travelled to cities and countries around the world in the past few years, therefore developed a comprehensive insight and understanding of global innovation. In addition, with the experience of participating in numerous group projects as well as being a student representative at RCA Intelligent Mobility, I’ve enhanced my skills in communication, group work and always being responsible to all my assignments.

As a transportation designer, I'm always more interested in how technology affects future mobility system as well as the user experience. Therefore in my project, in addition to check the exterior and interior design, you could see great attention to systematic thinking, bussiness model, user experience and interaction. Hope you could enjoy my project and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!

Contact

Degree Details

Statement

1. What is it?

My project is called “Androline”——a shared mobility platform runs by membership. It’s a self-driving 6-passenger mini bus for 2030 with adjustable modular-designed interior.

2. What’s the issue?

The design focuses on the issue of improving the current traffic system as well as providing a better experience in public transport.

-Improving current traffic system:

By connecting and disconnecting between vehicles, travelers could interchange seamlessly and effortlessly. Since interchanging is happening while the bus is on the go, therefore it doesn’t need traditional bus stops and the whole transportation system improves its efficiency.

-Providing better user experience:

3 settings of interior layouts-You could have your own “private zone”, or turn around your seat and screen to have a private chat with your close friend. Or, if you are group traveling, you could all turn your seats to the aisle and face each other. 

3 different ways of using the seat- In addition to sit like in normal vehicles. Androline also provides the space for standing and lying. As the average commuting time in mega cities like Beijing could be more than 90 mins, even sitting too long could be tiring. Therefore, with the provided “standing seat” on each side, the passenger could lean on it whenever they want to stretch their legs. Also, to put the “standing seat” down, it becomes a leg support for passengers to lie down.  

3. Membership plus:

The future is membership. But only the traditional monthly payment just for traffic would be no difference to an Oyster card. As vehicles are going to become platforms, 

Thanks to the big screen in front of each seat, the vehicle fits its purpose of becoming a mobility “platform”. The content could be ads, games tryouts, latest TV show previews and so on which does not just come from Androline, but also other companies like Netflix, Google, Apple or Amazon. Thus there will be collaborations between the mobility provider and content providers like Apple Arcade to expand the source of income. 

Put simply, in the aspect of a customer, you could pay a monthly Androline membership just for daily commuting, or buy Androline + Youtube or Apple TV membership package in a much cheaper price.

4. Business model for future mobility:

This “connecting” mobility system will not only benefit customers for saving more time and effort, but also alleviate concerns about insufficient range of electric vehicles nowadays in the perspective of a mobility provider as each vehicle only runs a certain distance instead of a whole journey to get people from A to B. 

More importantly, this connecting mobility system could be a standard for future mobility. Especially in places where no physical stations could be built: aviation, outer-space or Mars.

In conclusion, Androline is providing a future solution of service and business mode to both customers and companies to have a better user experience as well as making a profit. It’s mostly targeting on daily commuters in mega cities but revealing future potential in public transportation system standard at the same time.

Project Androline - A New Public Transport Standard

Project Androline-Physical Model Filming — Great effort was put by dealing with over 100 parts of the model in the making process and it was extremely difficult to transfer our models back to London in early February since a lot of cities were locked down and flights were cancelled in China. Unfortunately the physical show was later cancelled due to the outbreak. Therefore I filmed the model in the studio before the school was shut down in March.
1.How did I come up with this idea?
1.How did I come up with this idea? — By observing how people behave on public transportations, I've realized that there are times people want their own private space for having a rest, making a call or doing some work, and there are times that they want to share the space with friends and family to talk about their days on the way back home. Therefore I was thinking, if there could be a way, people could have their private space, but on a public transportation?
2.How to define Androline?
2.How to define Androline? — Who is it for? Where does it fit? What are the key features?
3.Where is the potential business area Androline is targeting?
3.Where is the potential business area Androline is targeting? — This is a key "market map" I developed after great research of all kinds of shared car services available nowadays in the market. People say Uber "kills" traditional taxis, the autopilot system will take over the original private market. However, in my project, I see the public transportation market will have to firstly take the biggest impact.
4.Initial sketches
4.Initial sketches — I started my initial sketches by purely focus on the functionality of providing seamless access and transfer for passengers between vehicles.
5.Sketch development
5.Sketch development — Due to the importance of "a seamless connection" to this project. The design of how two vehicles are connected are crucial.
6.Concept renders
6.Concept renders — Initial renders give a general perception of scale, color, form and function.
7.Exterior interaction
7.Exterior interaction — These renders show the care of how vehicles communicates to passengers and people nearby in different situations.
8.Interaction inside the revolving door
8.Interaction inside the revolving door — The revolving door is the key feature to this vehicle so as its interaction inside of showing how people would transfer and experience. (You could see the details of info provided to the passenger like the interchanging time, final destination, next seat number, apps and so on.)
9.What you'll see while you are waiting for your next bus
9.What you'll see while you are waiting for your next bus — This render shows the idea of providing access to third-party service providers to allow them do business on the surrounding screen. Because the passenger will have nothing else to do while waiting for his/her transfer, the interchanging time is a gold period for these companies to display ads, info or to help users check the most useful data like health and fitness.
10.Androline - Future mini bus
10.Androline - Future mini bus
1-min Design Video — This is a one-min Design video help you briefly understand what the project is about. If you would like to know further about the concept, please check the full design video which carefully explained this new traffic system.

People tend to take interchanging on public transportation for granted nowadays.
However,

Are you aware that more than 60% Londoners have to interchange at least once a trip for daily commuting?

Do you realize it could potentially take up 1/3 the time of the entire journey?

Have you noticed that Interchanging from bus to bus, from tube to tube, from tube to bus could sometimes be frustrating and confusing especially for travellers and elderly people？

Take a look at the Androline mini bus, providing a future solution for interchanging and a much better travel experience！

Project Androline - Interior Development & Future Potential

11.Interior sketch
11.Interior sketch — These sketches show a few tests of how the chair could be. I had concepts about having a shared book shelf on the side of the chair but later concentrated more on giving the best comfort to the user.
12.Final seat design
12.Final seat design — The shape and function of the chair design is based on daily observation and research of how people behave on public transport. In addition, similar to the screen on the revolving door. The screen in front of each passenger allows passengers continue their digital life as well as other companies to provide exclusive contents.
13.Three sitting positions
13.Three sitting positions — In cities like Beijing, people have to averagely spend at least 40 min daily commuting, so sitting or standing too long could damage people's health. Therefore, in my concept, commuters could choose to sit, lie down or stand freely.
14.Interior layout
14.Interior layout — Are you tired of seeing self-driving vehicle concepts with an interior of people sitting face to face? Is there more we could do to make the layout even more flexible in terms of forming both private and public spaces?
15.Private mode
15.Private mode
16.Conference mode
16.Conference mode
17.Group mode
17.Group mode
18.Statement image 1
18.Statement image 1 — The following 4 images are like "advertisement" images to my project showing some of the key features, values and future potentials.
19.Statement image 2
19.Statement image 2
20.Statement image 3
20.Statement image 3
21.Statement image 4
21.Statement image 4
22.Vehicle dimension
22.Vehicle dimension

Project Androline - Physical Model & Animation

23.Concept animation
23.Concept animation
24.Mockups test
24.Mockups test — The full-scale model and paper mockups help me understand the ergonomics, basic scale and function.
25.Model making and transferring
25.Model making and transferring — It's been extremely difficult this year to transfer our models back to the UK due to the outbreak. Cities were shut down, flights were cancelled. We rushed our way back to the factory right after the spring festival to "save" our models and had a few checks all the way to the airport. Unfortunately, the physical show was still cancelled, but you could still see photos and videos I took in the studio before the school was locked down in mid March.
26.Model photo 1
26.Model photo 1
27.Model photo 2
27.Model photo 2
28.Model photo 3
28.Model photo 3
29.Model photo 4
29.Model photo 4
Project Androline Full Design Video — Project Androline is a shared mobility platform run by membership. It is designed to be a self-driving 6-passenger electric minibus in mega cities of the year 2030. The design focuses on generating a new public transportation system by refining the complex interchanging process people have to face everyday, as well as looking into commuters’ needs in comfort and privacy to provide them with better experiences.
Project Androline - Field Research — People nowadays take interchanging for granted, no matter it's from one bus to another or switching lines of subways. However, it could be surprising complicated when you take a close look at all the process people have to go through. Could imagine the difficulty for travelers, elderly or disables. By this video, I would like to point out that, sometimes, the nearest problems are always the easiest to be ignored by the majority. Project Androline's goal is to present a future possibility and push the industry to rethink both the system and the experience of public transportation. (Videos were taken in November 2019)