Detecht
Overview
Detecht is a social platform for motorcyclists, combining automatic crash detection with route sharing and a community-driven riding experience. As Lead Designer, I helped shape the product from its early stages into a platform with over 20,000 active users.
As a product designer I worked across multiple areas, defining the brand, designing the website and shaping the mobile app into a cohesive and user-friendly experience.
Visit Detecht's website at Detecht.se
Role
UI/UX design, Branding, Research, User flow, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability testing
Timeline
April 2018 - June 2019
The Opportunity
Motorcycle riding comes with a unique set of risks, but it also brings people together through a shared passion for the road. Detecht set out to combine safety and community in one experience, developing an automatic crash detection system alongside a social platform for motorcyclists.
The challenge was to create an app that riders could trust in critical situations while making it simple and engaging enough to become part of their everyday riding experience.
This created an opportunity to build a cohesive brand and digital experience that made safety feel accessible, community feel natural, and the technology easy to use.
My approach
I like getting to the core of a problem early. I work closely with the rest of the team to understand the constraints, challenge assumptions and explore possible directions before committing to a solution. I value clear communication,
honest feedback, and making decisions that brings value to both the team and the product.
Project - The app
When I joined the team there was a clear vision of how the app should work; the main feature was the crash detection system, but they also wanted to create a type of social platform for route sharing.
Since there was a clear plan for the app, my job was to create a working prototype as fast as possible. So after some wireframing, mapping of user journeys and a broad concept created in Sketch, I had a working prototype in InVision.
With a working prototype in hand, we decided to have a structured work week based on Google's design sprint, where we ended each week by testing new or changed features on Friday.
Thanks to this structure I got feedback on my work from people outside of the team each Friday which could shape the coming sprint. After just a few weeks we got our hands on a working app, which gave us the opportunity to add A/B-testing, onboarding and even integrate nudges to get users to share their routes and interacting with others on the app.
Thanks to the collaboration with our users during development, we could focus on building the features that users asked for and create a roadmap of future focus areas.
Project - Branding
Even though the app was the main focus during my collaboration with Detecht, they also needed help with creating a visual identity.
I wanted to create a simple logo so anyone could recognize the app/company from the wordmark or the icon alone. The icon is a combination of a GPS signal and a road sign, to represent the crash detection system.
To build the website, we used a WordPress theme called Divi. My approach to the website was simple: get the user to download the app. So I structured the home page to be a showcase of the app, where we list our most prominent features. And all other pages on the website are simple "one level pages" so visitors weren't distracted from the main goal: downloading the app.
I also produced showreels and print material. Since Detecht was a startup we attended a lot of different events, to attract both investors and users.
Impact
I helped bring Detecht from an early-stage concept to a functional motorcycle safety and social platform, contributing to a product with over 20,000 active users. I also initiated a weekly test routine that lets the team make product decisions based on evidence rather than opinion.
Through rapid prototyping, iterative usability testing, and A/B testing, I refined the user experience to make the app more intuitive and encourage route sharing and community engagement. I also established a cohesive visual identity across the app and website, creating a consistent experience that supported product adoption.
Reflection & takeaways
This project highlighted the importance of understanding the context in which a product is used. For motorcyclists, the experience needs to account for different situations: are you just about to jump on your bike? Or are you browsing routes while sitting on the couch?
My role as designer changes when the development starts. I get access to other tools to help me in my work. Using a test version of the app helped a lot for user testing and gathering important data around user cases.
My work
