presentations of the Ninja Riders project (www.ninjariders.eu) with its digital tools, during the workshop held in Milano on November 22nd 2017

1. Ninja Riders
Building a Road Safety Culture
for Young People
Irene Celino – Cefriel
www.ninjariders.eu – info@ninjariders.eu

2. Ninja Riders in one slide
Mobility behaviour is
difficult to catch among
young people, because
they are more reluctant
than adults to be
monitored through
connected devices. Even
when sensing technologies
are in place, collected data
tells us what happened
(e.g. driving style), but
not why it happened (e.g.
psychological conditions
affecting drivers’ decisions).
Ninja Riders engages young people
with its cross-media suite of gameful
digital tools: the youngsters are
involved in innovative ideas generation
via the Ninja Ideas online co-creation
platform; mobility attitudes,
preferences and choices are collected
and analysed through the Ninja Stories
psychographic app, which solicits young
people to evaluate their “ninja” abilities
within concrete scenarios where
decision-making is influenced by
personal and social contexts.
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU
By stimulating awareness
creation and encouraging
personal reflection,
Ninja Riders promotes a
road safety culture and
makes sense of attitudes
and choices, thus
allowing both young
people and mobility
stakeholders to get a
deeper understanding of
the why behind risky
decision-making.

3. ENGAGEMENTPREVENTION
Pre-collision assist
Anti-sleep alarm
Electronic alerts
Mobile phone block
Driving monitoring
Driving coach
Points, coupons, discounts
WHAT
Psychological factors
Preferences
Attitudes
Justifications
Consequence
awareness
Personal reflection
WHY
Rule compliance
Values and
principles
Emotions
Dilemmas
Mobility context
Social context

4. Ninja Riders Project
Ninja Riders creates young, participative communities, engaging them through its suite
of gameful digital tools. The project detects the youngsters’ attitudes and decision-
making in urban mobility, and promotes a cultural change to improve road safety.
Ninja Riders is a project co-funded by EIT Digital within the
Digital Cities Action Line
Project partners are Cefriel (IT, coordinator), BSD (IT, founder of the resulting startup),
Alfstore (FR), Technical University of Delft (NL) and InnoValor (NL)
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
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5. Ninja Riders Requirements
Suite of digital tools appealing for young people with gaming elements
Leveraging curiosity and interactive/conversational approaches
Organizing contests with tangible rewards
Collection of valuable information for safe mobility stakeholders
Going beyond “driving sensing” apps
Collecting real stories and experiences
Investigating attitudes, perceptions and decision making (psychographics)
Valid approach from a social psychology point of view (psychometrics)
Decision-making is context-based and influenced by several elements
Gathering data for an effective analytics of the youngsters decision-making
Creation of a sustainable business model
Target customers/stakeholders: insurances, mobility service providers, cities, associations
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
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6. Ninja Riders Digital Suite
1. Gameful psychographic mobile app  Ninja Stories (under development)
Goal: gather information about decision-making and attitudes from young people in
a structured (data) and partially implicit way
2. Online open and social innovation platform  Ninja Ideas https://ninjaideas.eu
Goal: generate ideas and collect stories from young people through campaigns on
specific mobility topics in an unstructured (text) and explicit way
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
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7. 1. Ninja Stories – Conversational
Decision-Making
Mobility stories told by Ninja characters in a conversation aimed to get relevant data
about context-specific decision-making
Gamified survey to
engage the user to
discover “what kind
of ninja” he/she
currently is or can
become
Interactive prototype:
http://invis.io/CBDDTGQWP
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
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8. 2. Ninja Ideas – Online Open and
Social Innovation
Campaigns and competitions to stimulate idea generation and story collection
First campaign on “ideal mobility” to collect visions and suggestions
Campaigns on product co-creation to improve Ninja Stories app
www.ninjaideas.eu
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
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9. Ninja Riders Approach
Psychographics through psychometrics: youngsters’ road safety profile through
decision-making assessment in the mobility context
Psychographics = Analysis of consumer lifestyles to create a detailed customer profile. Market researchers conduct psychographic
research by asking consumers to agree or disagree with activities, interests, and opinions statements. Results of this exercise are
combined with geographic and demographic characteristics to develop a more 'lifelike' portrait of the targeted consumer segment
Psychometrics = Measurement or assessment of individual differences in abilities, aptitudes, attitudes, behaviour, intelligence,
and other attributes through psychological tests
(Definition source: Business Dictionary)
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU
Solid
psychological
framework
New
technological
solution
New young
customer profiling
Possibility to
integrate other
information
+ = +
psychometrics conversational
gamification
psychographics
(“why” data)
analytics
(“what” data)

10. Ninja Stories
Mobile App for Conversational
Decision Making
Gloria Re Calegari – Cefriel
www.ninjariders.eu – info@ninjariders.eu

11. Ninja Stories – Conversational
Decision-Making
Mobile app to collect and make sense of psychographics data
Since decision-making is always context-specific, this is created with mobility stories
told by Ninja characters in a conversation/chat
The story told by a third person in a peer-to-peer relationship makes it easy for the
user to reflect on the specific context without feeling “judged”
App conversations are based on real stories, i.e. inspired by actual episodes collected
during user research phase
The conversation includes several questions so to constitute a gamified survey to get
relevant decision-making data
The app engages the user to discover his/her “inner ninja”, thus giving a feedback
that complements the personal reflection during the story
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU

12. Ninja Stories walk-through
Introductory story and basic profiling
When the user launches the app
the first time, it is guided through a
chat with the “Ninja Guru” to
explain how the app works and
set the “common ground”
ask some basic profiling questions
(name, age, home town)
give examples of user interaction
throughout the app
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People

13. Ninja Stories walk-through
Home and personal profile
At the end of the “welcome”
story, the user lands on the
home page where he/she finds
the next story unlocked, ready
to be started
The user can also access
his/her personal profile, where
personal details can be edited
and gained badges shared with
friends
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People

14. Ninja Stories walk-through
Mobility story and context questions
The mobility-related context is
set by the Ninja “storyteller” in
each story
The questions are aimed to
make the user identify
himself/herself in the specific
situation
A binary choice always
stimulates a rule-breaking vs.
rule-compliant decision
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People

15. Ninja Stories walk-through
Weighting factors influencing decisions
In each story, each context
requires the user to evaluate
the factors that influence a
decision, so to reflect on the
specific situation
Possible consequences of rule-
breaking decisions are also
included in the story to add
further “food for thought”
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People

16. Ninja Stories walk-through
Personalized feedback
At the end of each story, the user
gets a personalized feedback based
on his/her answers during the
conversation with the ninja
The “story badge” serves both as
reward for the gamified survey
filling, as well as further element of
personal reflection
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People

17. Early user testing and actual pilot
Early user testing
Graphical prototype evaluation through on-line campaign
Software prototype testing with one-to-one sessions
Very positive and encouraging feedback on the general goal and approach, with interesting
suggestions on possible improvements and extensions
Actual piloting activities
App launched soon on the app stores (both iOS and Android)
4 Italian stories already included and Dutch/English stories to be added soon
Enlarged user experimentation of the app in Italy and the Netherlands within the
end of the year
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People

18. Ninja Ideas
Online platform for Open and
Social Innovation
Irene Celino – Cefriel (on behalf of Alfstore)
www.ninjariders.eu – info@ninjariders.eu

19. Ninja Ideas – Online Open and
Social Innovation
Online web-based platform for idea
generation and story collection from young
people through campaigns on specific topics
Each campaign is a competition to
stimulate open and social innovation
Each campaign runs for a defined
time-frame and rewards the most active
contributors with tangible prizes
(gamification)
User contributions are analysed to identify
common topics and interesting ideas
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU
www.ninjaideas.eu

20. Ninja Ideas campaigns
What does “ideal mobility” mean to you?
First campaign on ideal mobility to
collect visions and suggestions
Main questions:
How can we optimize our cities’ mobility?
Which are the behaviours on the road to
imitate or to avoid for a safer and more
responsible mobility?
It run last Spring (April-June) in
Italian and collected several ideas
and real-life stories of everyday urban
mobility, thus complementing our
user research
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU

21. Ninja Ideas campaigns
Try out our brand new app concept
Second campaign on Ninja Stories app
concept evaluation (product co-creation)
It allows users to play with a Ninja
Stories app’s graphical prototype
Main questions:
Do you like the app? is it clear? What should
be improved? What features are missing?
Tell us your everyday mobility stories to be
included in the app!
It is still running, in four parallel versions
(Italian, French, Dutch, English)
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU

22. Leveraging Ninja Ideas in
conjunction with Ninja Stories
The Ninja Ideas platform and the
Ninja Stories app are complementary
In terms of goals (collecting ideas
vs. gathering structured data)
In terms of roles (Ninja Ideas’ users
can learn about the app, Ninja
Stories’ users can be notified about
new campaigns about app’s new
feature testing or new application
domains or stories)
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People

23. Ninja Stories
Decision Making Framework
Alessandro Pollini - BSD
www.ninjariders.eu – info@ninjariders.eu

24. Ninja Riders Approach
Psychographics through psychometrics: youngsters’ road safety profile through
decision-making assessment in the mobility context
Psychographics = Analysis of consumer lifestyles to create a detailed customer profile. Market researchers conduct psychographic
research by asking consumers to agree or disagree with activities, interests, and opinions statements. Results of this exercise are
combined with geographic and demographic characteristics to develop a more 'lifelike' portrait of the targeted consumer segment
Psychometrics = Measurement or assessment of individual differences in abilities, aptitudes, attitudes, behaviour, intelligence,
and other attributes through psychological tests
(Definition source: Business Dictionary)
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU
Solid
psychological
framework
New
technological
solution
New young
customer profiling
Possibility to
integrate other
information
+ = +
psychometrics conversational
gamification
psychographics
(“why” data)
analytics
(“what” data)

25. Decision-Making Framework
Decision-making reference framework
3 dimensions and their interplay:
Intentions, Explanations, Awareness
Questions asked during the conversation
Emotion (feeling in the specific situation)
Dilemmas (rule-break vs. rule-compliance)
Motivations (investigation on motives to take the above decision)
Explanations (possible justifications for the rule-breaking choice)
Awareness (understanding the potential outcomes/consequences of actions)
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU
Intentions
Explanations Awareness

26. ENGAGEMENTPREVENTION
Pre-collision assist
Anti-sleep alarm
Electronic alerts
Mobile phone block
Driving monitoring
Driving coach
Points, coupons, discounts
WHAT
Psychological factors
Preferences
Attitudes
Justifications
Consequence
awareness
Personal reflection
WHY
Rule compliance
Values and
principles
Emotions
Dilemmas
Mobility context
Social context

27. Data Collection and Analysis Outcomes
Preferences about transport means in different travel scenarios
Descriptive statistics
Personal profiles about ethical choices and decision-making
Anova and Cluster Analysis
Proxy about behaviour towards different travel scenarios
Chi square test
Insights beyond data based on scientific approach
Interpretation of data w.r.t. the decision-making framework
Guidelines for interventions aimed to affect decision-making
Development of scenario-specific interventions to affect decision-making
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
scenario 1 scenario 2 scenario 3
si
no

28. Scalability
From youngsters’ road safety profiles and decision-making assessment in the
mobility context
To <any kind of target users> and decision-making assessment in <any ethical
scenarios implying moral engagement>, like for example:
- nurses in the delivery of the healthcare services
- customer behaviour in sustainable choices
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
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Psychological
framework
Engine for data
collection
Target users/
customer profiling
Custom stories>

29. Contact
information
Ninja Riders project:
Web: ninjariders.eu
Email: info@ninjariders.eu
Project coordinator:
Irene Celino – Cefriel
Via Fucini 2 – 20133 Milano (Italy)
Email: irene.celino@cefriel.com
Phone: +39-02-23954-1
Ninja Riders - Building a Road safety Culture for Young People
WWW.NINJARIDERS.EU