Skip to content
← All work

REXI — Rural EV Mobility Platform

How might rural riders get affordable last-mile transport, while local investors get a transparent way to own and earn from the fleet?

Domain
Mobility / EV / Rural transportation
Role
Founder & product designer · Research lead · Strategy
Duration
30 days
Team
Solo
Status
Prototype
Research
Secondary research, government and industry data, competitor analysis, field observation, survey responses
Platforms
Mobile (rider, investor) · Web (admin)
Type
Physical + digital + service design — EV bikes, rider app, investor app, admin platform
REXI high-fidelity rider screens showing bike discovery, map navigation, ride status and QR unlocking
Rider experience — from finding a nearby bike to unlocking and starting a ride.

01

The challenge

Rural communities face a last-mile mobility gap. Public transport is infrequent — particularly after dark — and autos can be expensive and unreliable. Students, farmers and daily-wage workers absorb the cost in money, time and risk.

The opportunity was not a bike rental app. It was a rural-first mobility ecosystem connecting riders, local investors, fleet operations and the vehicles themselves.

From the project research

62%

would use a bike if one were available

54%

preferred ₹11–20 for a 5 km ride

21%

needed transport daily after 8 PM

REXI Smart Bike Sharing concept cover with mobile welcome screen and language selection
The product vision: simple, affordable and multilingual shared mobility.

02

Users

Meena

Student

  • Safe, reliable travel
  • Availability after evening hours
  • Predictable cost

Ramu

Farmer

  • Affordable daily travel
  • Lower travel time
  • Simple, low-friction unlocking

Suresh

Local investor

  • Transparency
  • Visible utilisation and earnings
  • Confidence in the model
REXI quantitative research page with survey findings displayed as a series of pie charts
Survey responses shaped the mobility, affordability and adoption priorities.
REXI customer journey map showing rider stages, actions and emotional progression
The journey map exposed friction before, during and after a rural trip.

03

Product structure

Rider

  1. Find
  2. Unlock
  3. Ride
  4. Pay
  5. Review

Investor

  1. Invest
  2. Track bikes
  3. Monitor earnings
  4. Withdraw

Admin

  1. Monitor fleet
  2. Track usage
  3. Manage maintenance
  4. Analyse revenue
REXI low-fidelity mobile wireframes for onboarding, bike discovery and an active ride
Early wireframes established the essential Rent → Ride → Drop journey.

04

Design decisions

The problem

Trust in a village is personal, but the product is digital.

Explored

A — Rider-only app, fleet owned centrally

Explored

B — Rider app plus a local-investor ownership experience

Explored

C — Operator-managed model with no ownership visibility

Decision

Design the investor experience as a first-class product.

Why

Local ownership makes the fleet locally accountable. Transparency of utilisation and earnings is what makes that ownership believable.

The problem

Riders needed to trust the vehicle before starting a journey.

Explored

A — Show price only

Explored

B — Show battery, range and fare during the ride

Decision

Surface battery level, remaining range, distance, duration and running fare in the ride view.

Why

The fear in a rural context is being stranded, not being overcharged. The interface answers the bigger fear first.

REXI style guide showing primary and secondary colors, typography and interface icons
A shared visual system keeps three connected products consistent and recognisable.

05

Outcome

The outcome is a complete conceptual product ecosystem rather than a single mobile application: rider app, investor app and admin platform on a Rent → Ride → Drop service model.

High-fidelity REXI rider app screens for bike selection, navigation, ride tracking and QR unlock
The rider app prioritises availability, battery confidence and clear ride status.
High-fidelity REXI local investor screens for joining, identity verification and earnings tracking
The local-investor experience builds trust through visible verification and earnings.
REXI admin dashboard screens showing secure access, fleet overview and operational metrics
The admin platform connects fleet monitoring, users, payments and operations.
REXI admin infrastructure planning screen with AI-assisted bike deployment suggestions
Concept direction: decision support for fleet placement and charging infrastructure.

Projected business impact figures exist in the project documentation (retention, payment success, load time, engagement, rating target). They are projections and targets, not measured production results, so they are not presented as outcomes here. Usability testing: not conducted.

Reflection

What I learned

  1. 01A two-sided model is a design problem, not only a business model. The investor screens changed how the rider fleet had to behave.
  2. 02Affordability is a number the research gave me (₹11–20 for 5 km). Designing to that constraint disciplined every feature decision afterwards.
  3. 03Late-evening demand reframed safety from a feature into the product’s reason to exist.
  4. 04I would validate the investor earnings model with real people before designing another screen for it.

Case study summary

Problem
Rural last-mile mobility gap, and no transparent local ownership model
My contribution
Solo: research, strategy, service model, IA, flows, design system, high-fidelity prototype
Key decision
Design rider, investor and admin as one connected ecosystem
Outcome
Prototype ecosystem; business figures are projections
Main learning
Constraints from research make better products than ambition does

Media I need from you

Upload order for this case study

Send them one at a time and I'll place each one exactly where it belongs. Start with Essential — the case study reads correctly once those are in.

Essential

  • Rider app screens
  • Investor app screens
  • Admin dashboard
  • Service model diagram

Important

  • Personas
  • Journey map
  • Wireframes
  • Design system
  • Prototype recording

Optional

  • Field photographs
  • Sketches
  • Vehicle photographs

Next

Security Sentinel — Enterprise Gatepass SystemView next case study