Self-Propelled

I didn’t think it was possible, and to be honest, it may just be a flight of fancy that was brought on by the fantastically clear and cold weather we’ve been having this week, but I’m slowly but surely turning into one of those bike people.

Not one of the Gore-Tex, spandex clad whippet thin people you see racing around town on bikes that cost more than my braces, and not one of those kamikaze bike messengers who seem to have more speed than sense. Instead, I’m turning into someone who has started thinking of riding a bike as a normal activity, something that isn’t out of the ordinary, and something that doesn’t (necessarily) require special gear, special training, or a specialized language to understand.

When I think about usability and user experience, I often think about ways that designers can build systems that seem natural, or that seem like an extension of oneself. I want the customer to feel like that even though they may not be an expert, that with only the minimal amount of exposure to something, they can at the very least feel competent.

That concept was missing from my previously held notions about what riding a bike was all about. Now that the seed has been planted, I’m looking for more ways I can incorporate my bike into my daily routine. I’ll have to make concessions of course. Even the most adept user has to learn something new in order to move from novice to expert. But even with that in mind, I don’t think I’ll be deterred from adapting to this new way of thinking.