Storyboard beginnings

A rough idea of how the app will be used

Cycle Streets

I came across the CycleStreets website and as you can see from the screenshot below, it offers many options for my journey.

Route calculator on cyclestreets.net

I can choose from the fastest, balanced or quietest route, and for each it tells me the journey time, calories I will burn, how busy the route is.

This looks like such a good way to work out a cycle route... I wonder how they found this all out? 

Also, I would be pretty unlikely to find a route on a computer, I generally need to find a route when I'm standing on the pavement with my bike about to go somewhere then realising that I don't have a clue how to get there. I wonder if they have an iPhone app.... yup, a free iPhone and Android app with ability for users to upload photos... I've downloaded it now so I'm sure a review is imminent.
Plus it looks like other apps use their mapping system for their own development, like "London Cycle" which includes details of Barclays bikes and docking station spaces.

The only downside of this site for me is that calculates routes on figures about the business of the route, probably determined by the road category.

I want my map (if thats what I do) to show people's actual opinions of the route.

I think i will need some sort of notes section for feedback, because there are a number of things which can make a cycle route stressful, including:

• Pot holes
• Lots of trucks/lorries/buses
• Lots of other cyclists
• Difficult junctions (changing lanes etc)
• Roadworks
• Narrow roads

What if on the route there was little markers with notes about that location which was always up to date that can help someone determine which route to take. I think it is important to remember that different things annoy different people, so some routes will be a lot more stressful for others. This is why it will be important to collect lots of data and not only have a few people's opinions.

Mapping your stress levels?

So how about this bike idea?
What if the link between stress levels on a bike could be recorded on a map for other users to reference and interact with?

How about rather than messing with pulse readings etc for stress levels the user is actually asked?
If there was a slider that the user used to show their happiness/stress level which was recorded against their location.

The Mappiness app asked people at random times what level their happiness was and recorded it against their location. They also asked other questions such as whether they were indoor, outdoors or in a car and who they were with.

Mappiness Website

After a few uses, the user can see a pattern of where they are most happiest e.g. in a car, outdoors or indoors, as well as whether it depends on who they're with and the time of use.

So maybe I could use this idea to let people know which cycle routes will leave them the least stress-free according to user feedback.

Christian Nold created the "emotion map", a type of biomapping which involved 50 local residents."From a common starting point the participants would walk for up to an 

hour wherever they wanted in the local area. On returning to the workshop base, they could see their walk represented visually as a personal ‘emotion map’." The personal maps were then combined to make an overall stress map for Greenwich.

Greenwich emotion Map by Christian Nold: www.emotionmap.net

http://www.opencyclemap.org is a collection of cycle routes all over the UK for people to look at.

So, what if I made an iPhone app to record people's stress levels on their routes, then cyclists could look for a route between two points and be shown a few alternative routes according to fastest, least stressful and one inbetween.

The roads or routes could be colour coded according to how stressful it is, and as more users data is added, it will be clearer as to how stressful a particular place is e.g. main roundabouts and junctions to avoid at all costs.

But this arises a few questions:

• How would the user interact with the slider? 
• Handlebar arduino slider device?
• iPhone screen? -->Timeout fail?
• Would it be best to make an iPhone app which shows results on a map, or processing/arduino ?