A compact red and black modern helment with a sleek design.

An Interactive Helmet + App - Helpment

Project Type: Product Development and UX Design

Role: UI/UX Design

Collaborators: Aditya Manepally (UI Designer), Tina Shirasb, and Biderberg Mitchell (UI Designer)

Duration: 3 Months

An all-encompassing rider experience: an interactive helmet paired with a user-friendly app serves as the ultimate trip companion. With integrated Bluetooth headphones, seamlessly connecting to your phone's music player, you can enjoy your favorite tunes while on the road, all while choosing between Noise Cancelling or Ambient sound options. The built-in microphone enables effortless voice commands, enhancing safety and convenience. The app itself provides crucial trip data, including route details, street obstacles, weather conditions, and speed, all accessible via voice command. For added practicality, a secure phone mount ensures your device stays in place on your bike's handlebars. This comprehensive solution redefines the way riders navigate and enjoy their journeys.

Smartphone screen displaying a welcome message for a Helpmet app with an illustrated red helmet below the text and options for login and sign-up.

Revolutionizing the rider experience, our integrated helmet and user-friendly app form the ultimate trip companion. Connect the Bluetooth headphones to your phone's music player, immersing yourself in your favorite tunes on the road. Choose between Noise Cancelling or Ambient options for a personalized auditory experience. Effortlessly control your journey with the built-in microphone, enabling voice commands for enhanced safety and convenience. The app displays vital trip data such as route details, street obstacles, weather conditions, and speed, all accessible via voice command. For added practicality, a secure phone mount ensures your device stays firmly in place on your bike's handlebars, providing a seamless and secure riding experience.

Functionalities

Model Sketches

Planning and ideating the Helpmet physical prototype

Hand-drawn sketches of a portable speaker, including close-up views and design features, with annotations mentioning speaker material, comfort, and ambient sound.
Sketches of various objects including helmets, a smartphone, a bike, a handlebar, and a device with lamps. Handwritten notes about bike conditions, phone mounting, and tools for a bike-related setup.
Handwritten notes on a yellow sticky note describing a smart bicycle helmet, with features like music with ambient sound, warnings for objects and vehicles, and sensors for speed, wind, temperature, and route. It also includes an attachment to clip the phone onto the bike, with small drawings of a bicycle handlebar with a phone attached and a person riding a bike.

Model Prototype

Visualizing the Helpment

A cardboard model of helpment on a wooden table, with a plain white wall in the background, with a pair of black headphones inside the model.
A cardboard model of helpment on a wooden table, with a plain white wall in the background, with a pair of black headphones inside the model.
A cardboard model of helpment on a wooden table, with a plain white wall in the background, with a pair of black headphones inside the model.
A cardboard model of helpment on a wooden table, with a plain white wall in the background, with a pair of black headphones inside the model.

3D Elements

A cardboard model of helpment on a wooden table, with a plain white wall in the background, with a pair of black headphones inside the model.
A digital model of helpment

Magnetic Phone Holder

Close-up of helpment mounting device

User Interface

Helpmet’s Application UI - Onboarding

Voice automated Siri

Siri Enabled

Helpment screen displaying a friendly onboarding form with a cartoon illustration of a smiling person. The form asks for name, phone number, and email address, with navigation circles at the bottom.

Sign Up Screen

Helpment screen displays a colorful questionnaire asking, "What is your helmet color?" with six color options: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Helpment Color Selection

Helpment screen displaying a question about whether to jam out to music or hear your environment, with options 'Ambient' and 'Noise canceling' and navigation buttons at the bottom.

Sound Mode Screen

Helpment screen asking "How will you be getting around?" with options for Bicycle, Scooter, and Motorcycle, over a background illustration of a building and greenery.

Vehicle Selection Screen

Helpment screen displaying app interface for pairing a helmet, with a large blue 'Scan' button at the top, instructions in the center, and a list of helmets labeled Mane's, Tina's, and Mildred's.

Pairing Screen

Helpment screen displaying a setup complete message for Bob's helmet, with a red helmet icon, a text confirming pairing, and navigation buttons at the bottom.

Paired Helpment Screen

Helpment screen showing a biking app with a cyclist on a rural road surrounded by trees and mountains in the background, and music controls at the bottom.

Helpment Screen

Feedback

On presenting our prototype to our target audience, we received valuable feedback, which enabled us to refine and enhance our design. The insights provided by our audience played a pivotal role in identifying areas for improvement and addressing user preferences. This process ensured that our final product aligned seamlessly with the needs and expectations of our users. The constructive feedback received significantly contributed to the evolution of our prototype into a more user-friendly and effective solution.

Comments

  • Easy-to-use application

  • “Simple” look and feel

  • Colors of the app and helmet are“fun”

Concerns

  • User noted that helmets are not always used regularly by people internationally, indicating that the product may not cater to a wider audience.

  • Concerns on the Helmet not being as functional as the application

  • Raised a question on whether the helmet or the app was the main product

Suggestions

  • The helmet should have some sort of physical hardware that adds to the experience, like a button on the helmet you could press for the sounds to become ambient.

  • The app could arguably be as distracting as UI on a vizor because you have to keep looking down and you’re wearing a helmet anyway, as opposed to not having to look down

Final Production

Starting from the sketches to building the prototype, and creating the interfaces, we received valuable insights that prompted us to refine our product design and consider our target audience. The feedback provided valuable perspectives on usability, aesthetics, and the audience's preferences regarding helmets.

We chose ease of use and simplicity as our design guiding principles to make sure the final product is accessible and meets all relevant requirements. We incorporated a range of vibrant and engaging colors in our design, and the concerns raised during the feedback stage prompted us to consider cultural and regional variations in helmet usage.

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