Research on the Design of Bicycle Service System in Colleges and Universities Based on Contact Mining

Abstract

University campus is a place where bicycles are used a lot and there are many people choosing bicycle as their vehicle, with the increase of users, the vast volume of bicycles also brings high pressure on the entire campus bicycle service system and causes many problems, the existing service system could no longer meet users’ demands. This thesis targets the university bicycle service system as the research target, adopts the service design theory as the fundamental support, takes contact as the entry point, integrates service design method to develop research, and establishes service system process chain network (PCN) model to supplement and improve research results.

Firstly, determine the main users of service system, so as to research its demands from both qualitative and quantitative levels, qualitative level is to use Personas to extract the characteristics of main users, use the method of stakeholder to excavate other users with relevant interests with the main users, integrate the key character map method to determine the interactive relationship between the main users and other users, and extract user demands. Quantitative level is to, based on the research result on qualitative level, further determine the main demands of main users through the questionnaire survey and data statistic analysis on the demand level of main users. The demands of main users shall be concluded based on the comprehensive summarization of the two levels above.

Secondly, systematically use the interview method, situational approach and role playing method to analyze the process of main users in using the existing service system and excavate the contact. So as to conclude the problems in existing system from both qualitative and quantitative levels, qualitative level is to summarize the corresponding problems of each contact through field investigation and from contact perspective. Quantitative level is based on qualitative level, it determines the relatively prominent problems in the existing service system through questionnaire investigation and data statistic analysis on the level of prominent questions, and provides foundation for subsequent improvement and model establishment.

Finally, integrate the demands of main users and improvement of problems in exiting service system, use the process chain network (PCN) tool method to position the contact in the process chain, establish the process chain network (PCN) in university bicycle service system, further determine the interactive relationship between main users and service providers in contact.

1 Introduction

Currently, with the development of service design, its application field becomes wider [1], in the field of campus transportation, the university bicycle service system is a set of brand-new campus bicycle service system with users as the center, service design method as the research means and with multiple functions in one formed through research and optimization of service process [2].

2 User Demand Research of University Bicycle Service System

The users of university bicycle service system can be classified into main users and other users with interest relevance, this user demand research mainly targets the main users.

Firstly, determine the main users of service system, through large volume of literature summarization and research. The university students account for 60.32% of the total users, university teachers account for 22.59% of the total users, university staff account for 11.92% of the total users, these three types of users account for majority of the users of service system. So it is determined that the main users in this research include university students, university teachers and university staff, so as to have in-depth research on the demands of main users from both qualitative and quantitative levels.

2.1 Qualitative Research of User Demand

The demands of main users shall be analyzed through three steps, including extraction of user characteristics, stakeholder analysis and research on the interactive relationship between users and stakeholders.

2.1.1 Extraction of User Characteristics

Use the personas method in service design to summarize the basic characteristics, psychological characteristics and behavioral characteristics of main users [3]. Establish personas model cards, including the three types of groups, namely university students, university teachers and university staff, in which the personas model card of university students is as follows (Table 1):

Table 1. Personas model card of university students

The personas model card of university teachers and university staff shall be formed in same method.

2.1.2 Analysis of Stakeholders of Users

With main users as the core, use the stakeholder method to have in-depth excavation of the other users with relevant interests in the university bicycle service system, such as decision maker level(Personnel of university leadership bodies), contractor manufacturers level(Manufacturing partners), design and manufacturing level (System programmers) and operation and management level (Management and maintenance personnel).

2.1.3 Research on the Relationship Between Users and Stakeholders

Summarize and classify the other users in the service system with relevant interest with the main users [4]. Adopt the key character map method to have detailed research on the interactive relationship between main users and stakeholders, which is as follows (Fig. 1):

Fig. 1.

Interactive relationship between users and stakeholders

Firstly, the main users have demands for establishment of campus bicycle service system, so as to interact with the decision making level (personnel of university leadership bodies), then the personnel of university leadership bodies decide to interact with contracting manufacturers (manufacturing partners) for establishment of service system, determine contracting manufacturers by integrating the brand awareness degree of manufacturer brands, after entering the design and manufacturing stage, the manufacturers would interact with the designers, system programmers, system testing technicians and installing personnel for establishment of service system. The manufacturers would interact with the operators, management and maintenance personnel. When users use the service system, the main users would have bilateral interaction with the operation and management personnel, meaning finding the related personnel for maintenance when there is any problem in the system, while the operation and management personnel provide users with service.

Through extraction of user characteristics, analysis of stakeholders and the interactive relationship between main users and stakeholders, the concluded demands of main users include: establishment of intelligent campus bicycle service system and lease service system, optimization of bicycle extraction and pickup procedure, marking of bicycle parking areas, adding of the related anti-theft and charging facilities of bicycles, improvement of bicycle parking order and management system, integration between bicycle parking areas and campus environment, timely updating and maintenance of service system, interaction and feedback with users and service providers.

2.2 Quantitative Research on User Demand

Based on the research on qualitative level, determine the main demands of main users on quantitative level through the survey and data analysis on the demand degree level of main users.

2.2.1 Research Method of User Demand

The method adopted in this part is the questionnaire survey and data processing method, the questionnaire includes 5 parts and contains 15 questions regarding user demands in service system. The first part is basic user information. The second part is the survey and analysis about users’ demand in bicycle service system model. The third part is the survey and analysis on users’ demand for the internal service process factors of bicycle service system. The fourth part is the survey and analysis on users’ demand for the integration between the management of bicycle service system and campus ecological environment. The fifth part is the survey and analysis on users’ general demand in the service system, the high-frequency words from the 6 words describing the user demands in the service system shall be extracted as the main user demands.

The level-by-level survey on the demand degree of main users in the campus bicycle service system is in order to have quantitative analysis on user demand and extract its main demands. There are 6 different demand degree levels designed for each question in the questionnaire, level 1 means the weakest demand degree, level 6 means the strongest demand degree, so on so forth.

2.2.2 Hierarchical Analysis of User Demand Degree

This questionnaire survey issued 300 questionnaires and successfully withdrew 271 questionnaires, after further sorting and researching of the questionnaires, there were 235 final valid questionnaires.

Analyzing through the survey result of the demand of bicycle service system model in second part of the questionnaire, mean value was adopted on the demand degree level of each questionnaire in this part, the biased chart of demand degree level is drawn as follows (Fig. 2):

Fig. 2.

Biased degree of the average score of demand level of service system model

The main users have relatively high demand for the service system that has designed and established the intelligent setting and included two modules of leased and non-leased bicycle.

Analyzing through the survey result of the demand for internal service process factors of bicycle service system model in third part of the questionnaire, mean value was adopted on the demand degree level of each questionnaire in this part, the biased chart of demand degree level is drawn as follows (Fig. 3):

Fig. 3.

Biased degree of the average score of demand level of process factors of service system

The main users have relatively higher demand for the three aspects in the process factors of system service, including improvement of the existing bicycle deposit and pickup process, proper increase of some simple vehicle maintenance tools and antitheft management of bicycles.

Analyzing through the survey of the demand for integration between management of bicycle service system and campus ecological environment in fourth part of the questionnaire, mean value was adopted on the demand degree level of each question in this part, the biased chart of demand degree level is drawn as follows (Fig. 4):

Fig. 4.

Biased degree of average score of the management and ecological demand of service system

The main users have relatively high demand for increasing the integration between ownerless vehicle and the ecological environment of service system.

The main users extracted high-frequency words from the 6 words describing user demand of service system as the main user demands, the biased chart is drawn as follows based on the statistics of the quantity of selected words (Fig. 5):

Fig. 5.

Biased degree of main words of the demand in service system

The highest-frequency words describing the demands of main users in service system include convenience, intelligence and safety.

2.3 Conclusion of User Demand

List the demands of main users on qualitative level and excavate its main demands on quantitative level, which are summarized as follows (Table 2):

Table 2. Conclusion of main demands of main users in the service system

Comprehensively and deeply excavate the demands of main users, and select its main demands, so as to provide clear direction for the establishment and innovation of subsequent system model.

3 Analysis of Contact Excavation of University Bicycle Service System and Related Problems

3.1 User Behavior Process Analysis and Contact Excavation

The service system researched this time includes manual service system and intelligent service system, and the intelligent service system includes the intelligent non-lease type and intelligent lease type.

3.1.1 Contact Excavation of Manual Service System

Manual service system is the most common form in the existing university bicycle service system, the entire service system has relatively low automation degree, which adopts manual deposit, pickup and locking of bicycles, there is no intelligent and automatic technology [5]. It is to identify the information of behavioral process of manual service system and excavate contact from it. The main users’ use of manual service system has three scenarios: deposit of bicycle, pickup of bicycle and use or repairs of bicycle. Contacts are excavated as follows with the scenario of depositing bicycle as an example (Fig. 6):

Fig. 6.

Contact excavation in the bicycle depositing process of manual service system

The method and process of excavation contact of the scenario of picking up bicycles and repairing bicycles shall be done in the same manner. Finally the contacts excavated in the behavioral process information of the main users in using of the existing university bicycle manual service system are concluded as follows (Table 3):

Table 3. Contact excavation in the process of manual service system

3.1.2 Contact Excavation of Intelligent Service System

Compared with manual service system, the intelligent service system has higher intelligent degree and automatic degree, and mostly in the model without specific management personnel [6]. Intelligent service system can be classified into lease type and non-lease type. The main users’ use of intelligent non-lease-type service system includes three scenarios: deposit of bicycle, pickup of bicycle and use or repairs of bicycle. Referring to the contact excavation method of manual service system, the contacts of intelligent non-lease-type service system are excavated as follows (Table 4):

Table 4. Contact excavation in the process of intelligent non-lease-type service system

The main users’ use of intelligent non-lease-type service system includes three scenarios: lease of bicycle, return of bicycle and report and repairs of bicycle. Referring to the contact excavation method of manual service system, the contacts of intelligent lease-type service system are excavated as follows (Table 5):

Table 5. Contact excavation in the process of intelligent lease-type service system

3.2 Analysis of Problems in Existing University Bicycle Service System

The analysis of problems in existing university bicycle service system shall be developed on both qualitative and quantitative levels, qualitative level is to deeply analyze, through field survey and from contact perspective, the corresponding problems of each contact in the using process of main users of existing service system. Quantitative level is to, based on the problems summarized on qualitative level, use questionnaire survey and data analysis to analyze and determine the relatively prominent problems in the existing system. The main problems of existing service system shall be concluded and summarized based on the two above, and provide basis for the establishment of service system model.

3.2.1 Qualitative Analysis of Problems in Service System

The problems existing in the current service system shall be summarized through field investigation and from contact perspective, the objects of which include manual service system, intelligent non-lease-type service system and intelligent lease-type service system. Firstly, the problems involved in deposit of bicycle scenario of manual service system such as: lack of intelligent and automatic technology, unreasonable layout and planning, low efficiency in interaction between users and system, lack of effective signs at parking space, chaotic parking of bicycles, inconvenient deposit and pickup of bicycle, mutual occupation of parking space with motored vehicles, lack of management of ownerless bicycles, lack of falling-proof, antitheft facilities of bicycles and difficulty in identify bicycles.

The problem analysis method in the intelligent non-lease-type service system and intelligent lease-type service system shall be done in the same manner as that of manual service system.

3.2.2 Quantitative Analysis of Problems in Service System

The method adopts in this part is the questionnaire survey and data processing method, the questionnaire includes 3 parts and contains 15 problems existing in service system. The first part is mainly the basic overview information of the users participating in the survey. The second part is the survey and analysis of problems in users’ use of entire bicycle service system. The third part is the survey and analysis of internal problems in users’ use of bicycle service system.

The adoption of questionnaire survey and data qualitative analysis to determine the prominence hierarchy of problems in existing service system is designed to have quantitative analysis of problems in existing system and extract the main problems. Each problem in questionnaire has 6 different prominence hierarchy, level 1 means the least prominent, level 6 means the most prominent, so on so forth.

In this questionnaire survey, 500 questionnaires were released, 456 questionnaires were successfully withdrawn, after further sorting and research on the questionnaires, the quantity of final valid questionnaires was 420.

Analyzing through the survey result of the problems existing in the entire bicycle service system in second part of the questionnaire, mean value was adopted on the prominence level value of each problem in this part, the biased chart of prominence hierarchy is drawn as follows (Fig. 7):

Fig. 7.

Biased degree of average score of overall prominence hierarchy of problems in service system

The main users believed that the prominence hierarchy of the following problems is relatively high, including the lack of intelligent and automatic technology in existing service system, unreasonable layout and planning, and low efficiency in interaction with users and low controllability, meaning that the problems above are relatively prominent.

Analyzing through the survey result of the internal problems existing in the bicycle service system in third part of the questionnaire, mean value was adopted on the prominence level value of each problem in this part, the biased chart of prominence hierarchy is drawn as follows (Fig. 8):

Fig. 8.

Average score of prominence hierarchy of internal problems in service system

The main users believed that the prominence hierarchy of the following problems is relatively high, including the lack of management of the scrapped, used and idle bicycles, chaotic parking of bicycles in parking lot, inconvenient deposit and pickup of bicycles, lack of falling-proof and antitheft facilities of bicycles and day-to-day bicycle repairing tools, meaning that the problems above are relatively prominent.

To sum up, through the research and summarization on both qualitative and quantitative levels, the relatively prominent problems existing in the current university bicycle service system are concluded as follows (Table 6):

Table 6. Conclusion of prominence hierarchy of problems in service system

Based on the analysis and improvement of the main problems in current service system, provide preconditions for the establishment of service system model.

4 Establishment of the Process Chain Network (PCN) Model of University Bicycle Service System

This part firstly describes the design positioning of service system, then defines the concept of process chain network (PCN) and positions contact in process chain, and finally establishes the process chain network (PCN) model of university bicycle service system.

4.1 Design Positioning of Service System

The design positioning of university bicycle service system is to improve based on the demands of main users and the main problems in the current service system. To sum up from the contents above, the main users’ main demands include establishment of intelligent campus bicycle service system, contain two modules of leased and non-leased, improve and optimize the bicycle depositing and pickup process, add antitheft facilities and repairing tools of bicycles, and integrate parking lot with environment. The main problems existing in current campus bicycle service system includes lack of intelligent and automatic technology, unreasonable layout and planning of parking lot, low efficiency in the interaction between users and system, problem in the management of the scrapped, used and idle bicycles, chaotic parking of bicycles, inconvenient deposit and pickup of bicycles, lack of falling-proof and antitheft facilities in parking system and day-to-day repairing tools. Integrating the contacts of manual and intelligent service system excavated before, determine and establish the process chain network (PCN) model of university bicycle service system, including intelligent non-lease-type module, intelligent lease-type module, sales and purchase of bicycle module.

4.2 Concept of Process Chain Network (PCN)

Process chain network (PCN) is a network chain composed of multiple processes and steps based on sequence. Process and step involve the entities with effect on resources, like supply chain of product manufacturing, generally process chain would cross multiple entities and connect them together [7]. Each process entity has one process field, this is a collection of processes and steps that are initiated, guided and implemented as well as controlled to certain extent by process entity. Process chain network (PCN) is a tool and method that has strong functions and effects on research on the processes and steps (contacts) of service system [7], such method could effectively analyze and establish the process chain network (PCN) model of service system. The basic concept of process chain network is as follows (Table 7):

Table 7. Composing parts and concepts of process chain network

In the university bicycle service system, entities include service providers and main users, all the process steps (contacts) shall be positioned in the process field of service providers and main users, in which the service providers that provide service to users to possibly obtain general resources (money) shall be defined as general beneficiary, the main users that accept service to meet its own demands shall be defined as certain beneficiary. Process steps (contacts) shall be, based on their own characteristics and properties, positioned in 5 process fields, including independent processing by service provider, agency interaction by service provider, direct interaction, agency interaction by main users, and independent processing by main users, the positioning basis and principle include scale economy benefit, cost, controllability of service process chain, complexity and divergence of process steps (contacts), process efficiency, customization, advantage of agency positioning and interaction strength.

4.3 Positioning of Contacts in Process Chain

University bicycle service system includes three modules, namely intelligent non-lease-type, intelligent-lease-type and sales and purchase of bicycle. Taking the bicycle deposit process in the intelligent non-lease-type module as an example, the process steps (contacts) in the process is positioned as follows based on the positioning principle (Table 8):

Table 8. Process area positioning of contacts in bicycle deposit process of intelligent non-lease-type service system

The positioning of the process steps (contacts) contained in intelligent lease-type module and sales and purchase of bicycle module in the process chain shall be done in the same manner referred to above.

4.4 Establishment of Process Chain Network (PCN) Model of Service System

The resources contained in the independent area of the process field of service provider include: establishment and university campus bicycle service system platform, design and manufacturing of the instruction signs and certification facilities in parking lot, improvement of public facilities in parking lot, marking of rational parking area, establishment of automatic locking pile or structure, provision of simple repairing tools, establishment of repairing points and arrangement of repairing personnel. Service provider shall satisfy users demands and effectively solve the problems in current service system through improvement and provision of resources.

Firstly, establish the process chain network (PCN) model of the intelligent non-lease-type module in service system, the majority of process steps (contacts) are positioned in the agency interaction area of the process field of service provider and main users, which enhances the efficiency of entire service system and degree of customization, and reduces the cost of service provider. The process steps (contacts) of interaction area includes the contact with repairing personnel and payment of repairing fee, etc., by positioning these processes and steps in direct interaction area, it enhances the user interaction strength, meanwhile, users’ demands could timely feedback to service provider. So on so forth, the entire service system optimizes the bicycle deposit and pickup process, and enables the use to be more convenient, which is as follows (Fig. 9):

Fig. 9.

Process chain network of university campus bicycle intelligent non-lease-type system

Secondly, establish the process chain network (PCN) model of intelligent lease-type module, the majority of process steps (contacts) of lease system are positioned in the agency interaction area of the process field of main users, meaning the adoption of self-help service method to enhance the efficiency of entire service system and reduce the interaction strength of users, when there is any failure in public bicycle, user could report it on the system for repairs and return the bicycle, through the interaction between system platform and service provider, service provider could contact the repairing personnel for repairs, there is no process steps (contacts) in the direct interaction area of the entire process chain, so the using efficiency would be greatly enhanced, which is as follows (Fig. 10):

Fig. 10.

Process chain network of university campus bicycle intelligent lease-type system

Finally, establish the process chain network (PCN) model of sales and purchase of bicycle module, the majority of process steps (contacts) are positioned in the agency interaction area of the process field of main users, the minority is positioned in the process steps (contacts) of direct interaction area moved to the agency interaction area in order to enhance the efficiency and reduce the user interaction strength, meaning that service provider could certify and supervise the bicycle information marked by main users, such method effectively solves the problem of false bicycle information and enables the entire trading process to be more standard. The process steps (contacts) positioned in direct interaction area include the communication between seller and buyer, meaning that it could timely and accurately obtain information through the two between direct interaction. So on so forth, the entire service system enables the campus bicycle transaction to be more convenient and standard, and solves the problems in management of the scrapped, used and idle bicycles in campus, which is as follows (Fig. 11):

Fig. 11.

Process chain network of university campus intelligent sales and purchase of bicycles system

The process chain network (PCN) model of intelligent non-lease-type module, the process chain network (PCN) model of intelligent lease-type module and the process chain network (PCN) model of the sales and purchase of bicycle module constitute a complete process chain network (PCN) module of university campus bicycle service system. This module could to certain extent satisfy the demands of main users and effectively solve the problems in current service system.

5 Conclusion of Research

The thesis explores the demands of main users in service system on both qualitative and quantitative levels, adopts systematic methods to research the process of users using the service system and excavate contacts from it, and summarizes the main problems in the existing service system from qualitative and quantitative levels. The thesis also considers the demands of main users and the improvement of the main problems in current service system as the foundation, takes the contacts as the entry point of research, adopts process chain network (PCN) tool as the method, positions process steps (contacts) in the process chain of service system, so as to establish the process chain network (PCN) model of university bicycle service system, determines the interaction method of service provider and main users in process steps (contacts), so as to better satisfy the demands of users and effectively solve the problems in current service system, enable the traffic of campus to be more orderly, and provide reference to subsequent researches.