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In 2004, IDEO was invited to collaborate on another new project with Shimano, a Japanese manufacturer of bicycle components, which was facing a flattened growth in its sales in USA. Shimano’s intention was to introduce their high-end casual bike to a new area of consumers who are potentially worth exploring. During the initial inspiration stage, teams were formed from both Shimano and IDEO, comprised of designers, behavioral scientists, marketers and engineers, who worked to explore appropriate potential solutions and constraints. They decided to focus on other areas as well rather than just sticking on the high-end market. They started with searching on the statistics and facts, and found that 90% of American adults don’t ride bikes, so they continue the research and try to find out why. They put in a lot of effort into surveying different kinds of consumers, and found that most of them had ridden a bike during their childhood, and had positive memories. One surprising thing they found out was that many Americans are intimidated by cycling today for a few reasons: the retail experience, the high cost of the bikes, accessories, hidden dangers of cycling on the road, and the maintenance fees. After gathering all the information they received, which were collected and summarized using the human-centered exploration method, it led to the realization that their new created category of bicycling might be able to solve the problems of reconnecting the consumers with their childhood and at the same time to dealing with the intimidation of cycling on the road.

By using the “design thinking” methodology and cooperates with human-centered design method, the design team looked into every aspect to foresee the possibilities, and came up with the concept of “Coasting”, a way to enjoy life. This is designated more for the pleasure than for sports. It is featured with comfort padded seats, easy operation and minimal maintenance. Trek, Raleigh and Giant are three major brand bike manufacturers that benefitted from the research. They cooperated and invented new bikes together with Shimano by applying the same methods they used. But the design team didn’t stop exploring and searching for opportunities from other areas. In order to complete this whole concept, which they are trying to publicize, they designed a public relations campaign which cooperated with local governments and cycling organizations, providing the bikers with identified safe places to ride. “Design thinking” was the key to come to this complete solution, and of course, for the visible, aesthetic part of the bikes was created later on in the development process, a reference design to inspire the bike companies’ own design teams. After the successful launch in 2007, seven more bicycle manufacturers signed up to produce Coasting bikes in 2008.

They were successful due to that; they created breakthrough ideas that were inspired through the understanding of people’s lives and what they really need and implemented the principles of design in or本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。