Automotive & mobility
B2C
Making bike security automatic with behavioural design
Client
Model
Services
Info
Bosch eBike Systems partners with 100+ bike brands including Trek, Specialized, and Giant.
Their eBike Flow app had 1 million users and comprehensive anti-theft features: motor disabling, battery locks, alarms. But users weren't engaging them.
Bikes were still getting stolen because security required conscious effort at moments of high cognitive load.
Challenge
People don't reliably perform security behaviours. Research shows users abandon complex routines, especially when rushing or distracted.
Bosch's anti-theft features suffered from this behavioural reality. Each feature required manual activation through separate interactions.
The company wanted to integrate third-party smart locks, but adding more components would increase friction. Users would need to remember more steps, manage more apps, coordinate more devices. Standard design thinking says give users control. Behavioural science says people take the path of least effort.
How do you design security that overcomes human inertia? How do you create protection that doesn't depend on users remembering steps during moments when their attention is elsewhere?
Our analysis
Security fails when it demands action during high cognitive load moments. People parking bikes think about destinations, check time, gather belongings. Security protocols compete with immediate priorities and lose.
We applied behavioural analysis identifying three requirements:
Reduce friction through automation.
People gravitate to the least demanding action. Manual activation requires conscious effort every time. The behaviour won't stick. Automatic triggers that understand context eliminate this friction.
Match responses to motivation levels. Low theft risk (bike at home) means low motivation, so asking users to engage heavy security creates resistance. High risk (extended city parking) increases motivation naturally. Match security intensity to natural motivation levels in each context.
Increase ability, not just motivation.
Even motivated users face barriers: no secure parking points, no time for multi-step protocols, forgetting which features are active. The Fogg Behaviour Model shows behaviour needs motivation, ability, and triggers together. We needed to increase ability whilst decreasing required motivation.
What we did
Project impact
If your primary problem is engagement, you need to design for behaviour change, not just interfaces.
Products fail when they demand behaviours users won't maintain. Our behavioural design framework operates on a higher level than pixels and features, looking at motivation, ability and triggers. This creates design systems that work with human psychology rather than against it.
Our accelerator model validates behavioural interventions through research and rapid prototyping before engineering commitment. We compress months of behavioural analysis into focused sprints with clear deliverables.