Boosted Rev

Boosted

With Jukka Rautiainen, Logan Price

2019

A bold new scooter design built from the ground up with the full Boosted treatment. I worked with two other designers and our incredible engineering team to bring this product to life.

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A Boosted scooter?

Boosted became known for making the best electric skateboards on the market. While some boards were faster and others had more range, none of them had that Boosted magic. Our mission with this project was to bring that perfect balance of performance, durability, and ease to an electric scooter.

Concept Exploration

Scooters come in many sizes; from tiny folding Razor scooters to big-wheeled downhill standing bikes. We started honing our concept by riding and experimenting with various tire sizes and types, battery placement, rake angles, handlebar widths, etc. Once we settled on a use case, we focused on the overall form and how to visually handle critical junctions and details. People really resonated with our bike-like tubular structure concepts because of their familiarity and approachability. This form language also helps communicate the dependability and legitimacy of our scooter as a viable form of transportation.

Vehicle Dynamics

We knew from the beginning that getting the scooter’s core dynamics right would be critical for achieving a product that’s truly exciting to ride. Most scooters on the market lack basic prioritization of ergonomics and vehicle dynamics, leading to unstable, uncomfortable, and unsatisfying riding. After study and testing, we came away with understandings about a few critical factors for a good ride:

A low CG, wide deck, and beefy tires provide stability and confidence.
A low standing platform helps users feel less conspicuous and makes hopping on and off the scooter more intuitive.
An agressive rake angle with just the right mechanical trail makes handling both nimble and stable.
Bars with just the right backsweep, upsweep, offset, and width give an “in-the-cockpit” feeling of connection with the scooter.

These factors combine to make a vehicle that just feels “right”, inspiring confidence in riders so they can focus on the busy road around them instead of their scooter.

Wheels

More power = more control

Somewhat surprisingly, we found that providing ample torque and speed enables riders to be safer on the street. Having a powerful motor in each wheel enables our riders to be in command off the line, merge smoothly with moving traffic, and get out of sticky situations with ease.

Motor & Wheel

Very few OTS parts existed for electric scooters, so we developed our own motor and tire. This enabled us to provide a better user experience, higher performance, and gave us more control over surfacing and CMF.

Design & Development

Cockpit

A worthy throttle

When it came time to choosing a throttle, it was immediately clear that they are all garbage. So, once again, it was time to make our own. We explored several architectures, eventually landing on reinterpreting the wireless Boosted remote as the best direction. This gave us precise throttle control as well as the ability to have regenerative braking.

“I was a bit worried about how (the throttle) would feel on a handlebar, but it took me all of three seconds to get used to it. And I love it. The button is nicely knurled so it feels great on your thumb. Applying more throttle or rolling on the brake feels very intuitive. It’s a hard thing to describe, but trust me when I say that it works well and that Boosted executed it nicely.”

– Micah Toll, Electrek

A simple display

We prioritized the display’s information and hierarchy to be glanceable. Rather than including tiny details and non-essential information, we focused on speed, ride mode, and state of charge indicators. A single button keeps operation simple, while deeper functionality can be found in the Boosted app.

Folding

Creating a folding mechanism proved to be one of our most challenging tasks. There’s a pretty large tolerance stack-up involved, and a lot of moving parts. Working closely with our engineering team, we created multiple concepts and helped bring them to life. My goal was to create something that’s easy enough to do with one hand, which we were able to achieve.