'ndemo
Useful information
- Team members
- Virginia Padovani Irene Tessari Lorenzo Meula
- Country
- Italy
- Keywords
- boat pooling community Venice lagoon shared mobility service design boat seating raincoat pinpoint
Short Description
‘ndemo is a boat pooling service for the Venetian lagoon that optimizes private boat traffic.
Detailed Description
Mobility in the Venetian lagoon presents critical issues that cause discontent to all users. The problem of transport is real and urgent and is caused both by overtourism and by the complications specific to public transport such as overcrowding. ‘ndemo (which means "let’s go" in venetian dialect) is a boat pooling service for the lagoon of Venice that optimizes private boat traffic while also improving local community bonds. Pooling is the practice of sharing a means of transport from one place to another by dividing travel expenses. This activity already takes place in the area, however it is not regulated.
To use the service you can use an app, of which we already designed the prototype, which will work through a patentable algorithm that will manage key components for the operation of the service, including the calculation of routes, prices, and the matching of users by place and time slots. We designed the visual identity and branded products to improve the user experience.
Project Details
- Does your design take social and cultural challenges and human wellbeing into consideration?
The whole project idea came while observing and listening to the Venetian community in the research process: the socio-cultural environment in which these people are living is peculiar, considering Venice is one of the most iconic and touristic cities in the world. The depopulation of the lagoon is a clear indicator of the distress that the residents have to endure and the lack of efficient public transport contributes to the worsening of the situation. By offering them a community based service, we hope to make their life easier by improving the way the people move around the lagoon using boat pooling. We are also planning to cooperate with our competitors, which are water taxis and public transport, in order to offer a full service experience to the residents.
- Does your design support sustainable production, embodying circular or regenerative design practices?
Our project focuses on what resources are already available in our area of interest: we figured that private boats would be a perfect solution in order to promote a more sustainable way of moving around the lagoon while also preserving the wellbeing of the residents. We will not be adding any more boats to the already overcrowded lagoon, on the contrary we wish to reduce traffic by optimizing seating inside the existing boats. These practices will eventually lead to a more sustainable, self managed circular economy within the residents and the lagoon.
- Does your design use principles of distribution and open source?
Our aim is to provide residents and visitors with a tool which will hopefully make their life easier.
Inside our app there will be all of the technicalities useful for them in order to self manage their boat sharing services or needs. There will also be a review system which will ensure users about safety and reliability. Ultimately, the true decision makers will be the users of the app which will allow us to improve the service by tailoring it on their needs even more by giving us feedback.
- Does your design promote awareness of responsible design and consumption?
While designing specific additional products to target a certain problem might be the only solution in some cases, we believe that working on existing resources, both physical such as the private boats, and social such as the strong community sense within the residents, is a way to promote awareness of responsible design and consumption. By making people aware of the potential that the things that surround us hold, we aim to promote a more sustainable and ethical way of living.
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