Story 01 · Strategy

Ninebot Dz

“Why do you want to make this scooter?”

Client: Segway-Ninebot · ICONA Design
My role: Design Lead
Year: 2021 · launched 2024
Type: Production

The brief felt familiar. Futuristic, advanced, smart, for a young audience.

It sounded like every other project. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing new in it either.

So I asked a simple question.

We had a brief, a moodboard and a room full of ideas. But the client already had several scooters in its lineup. Why invest in another one? Why not improve what already existed?

So I asked them directly: “Why do you want to make this scooter?” The first answers were the expected ones: a new product line, a different character, something fresh. None of them explained the real need. I kept asking.

The original brief moodboard pinned to a board

Their market share had stopped growing.

That moment changed everything. This was no longer about designing a scooter. It was about unlocking growth.

The riders nobody was designing for.

Looking across their ecosystem, one thing stood out: Segway. A brand they owned, with a completely different kind of rider. Younger, more active, more expressive, more design-aware. And no scooter had been made for them.

A gamer in headphones lit in red and blue — The gamer

A motorbike enthusiast working in a garage — The enthusiast

A young rider in a hoodie, from behind — The street kid

Designers pinning sketches and research on a studio wall

Our North Star

Design a scooter that Segway riders are proud to own, and others want to have.

From that point on, every decision had a reference. Performance, personalisation, intelligence. Not taste, not opinion. Clarity.

From the sketchbook

From five words to one stance.

Armoured and layered. Bold and iconic. Technical. Performance-led. Personal. We explored hard inside that frame, then chose the direction with the strongest pull for our riders: an aggressive, forward-leaning stance with Segway DNA.

Then the design had to survive reality.

Clay, prototype, engineering reviews, cost. This is where good ideas usually die quietly. We protected the intent and solved problems instead of flagging them.