Project: ParkIt Role: Design, Interviewing, Moderating, Analyzing Data Duration: 3 Months
Overview
ParkIt was the afterthought turned into a prototype when my team considered the hassle that can come with finding a parking spot, especially when in the city or visiting a new area. This parking app is designed to bring ease to those who are in search of a quick and user friendly way of parking. Over the span of a semester, working alongside a fantastic team, we were able to bring this initial concept to life. Using ParkIt, drivers are able to explore their parking options and reserve a spot. Navigation is an additonal feature with web mapping for the dirver to use as they head to their parking destination.
Challenges
1) Creating a Parking App with features that would make it to stand out in its market
2) Narrowing down on common needs that people with different driving routines looked for in a Parking App
3) Making sure ParkIt included access to reasonable parking prices while keeping in mind the business of parking garages that would be in partnership with us
4) Adapting to a classroom shift that became fully online due to COVID-19 to maintain team communication/collaboration during that time
Meet the Team
The Goal-Directed Design Method
We followed the steps of Goal-Directed Design so that our research can be qualitative. Goal-Directed Design is a design process (created by Alan Cooper) that has the designer create products with the user's needs, goals, and behaviors in mind. The steps of Goal-Directed Design include:
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Research
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Modeling
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Requirements
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Framework
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Refinement
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Support
Methodology
Juwan Petty
Team Member
Niah Kimbrough
Lead Researcher
Yanci Pengelly
Team Member
Kayleb Rollins
Team Member
Research
We conducted a series of research to gather as much information on a Parking Apps as we could. Our Literature Review was eye-opening to how Parking Apps operate in the real world from reading various articles and news posts on the topic. A Competitive Audit was created as way to highlight what our potential competition is and is not doing as a Parking App. My teammate Niah who was the Moderator (the one holding conversation during the interview and asking questions) and I who was the facilitator (the one taking detailed notes while asking questions occasionally) worked on carrying out the interviews. These interviews helped us in creating our Personas by giving us insight on what our audience would be like as well as their driving habits.
Literature Review
Technology Specifications & Strategies
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Parking managers and government agencies receive feedback by tracking historical data.
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As more data becomes available, developing a more user-friendly customer experience increases.
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Data analytics and IT infrastructure can enable a process that matches vehicles with parking spots using sensors to detect vehicles entering and leaving each parking sector.
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Street sensors in Jacksonville, Florida have been used to launch mobile apps that enables drivers to find parking spaces, garages, and lots in real time.
Market Research Studies
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U.S. parking market generates roughly $30 billion in gross parking revenue annually.
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Americans spend about 17 hours per year searching for parking.
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About $345 per driver in wasted time, fuel, and emissions.
Competitive Audit
Having an Informative Parking Map and In-App Payments were among the more common features that could be found in our the apps of our potential competitors. We noticed there was a significant lack in allowing their users to be able to find their car through the app, availability of GPS Mapping and Session Managements.
Persona Interviews
Our interviews took place on campus while some were at-home-interviews. All 7 of the people volunteer we interviewed depended on driving to get to their destinations throughout the week. Niah asked the same 14 interview questions that lead to other possible discussions and questions relating to parking. These questions involved asking our volunteers about topics such as what kind of car they drove, how much they were willing to park far from their destination, what apps they used to assist their driving, etc. At the end of the interviews, we would analyze the notes I had written down and helped organize to see what commonalities existed between our volunteers. Their traits such as how often they drove, experiences with parking, and needs they had in a parking app all shaped the framework for creating our main Personas later on.
Interview 1
Interview 2
Interview 3
Interview 4
Interview 5
Interview 6
Interview 7
Interview 1
An Interactive Design student that lives on campus, driving a Honda Sonata to and from main campus around four times a week for club activities. Their main concern with parking is hitting other cars. They’ll avoid parking next to trucks, luxury cars, or shopping carts. They’ll adjust their car a lot and hates when cars aren’t parked straight. They prefer parking at empty lot and into diagonal spaces or into the opposite side of where she’s driving. They’ll take about the length of a song (3 minutes) to find a spot closest to where she’s entering, especially if it’s cold or late. If needed, she’ll circle a lot twice if it’s small (less than 30 seconds). They have a very hard time finding their car so they try to park same place every time, but that isn’t always successful. Tried Google’s parking feature but it was too complicated to work.
Interview 2
A computer science student that lives on campus, driving their Toyota Prius about 2-3 times a week to go home on the weekend or to buy groceries. They love getting a parking space right in front of their dorm and dislike when people back out right in front of them. They’re not opposed to parking far away and wouldn’t circle a lot more than once. They struggle finding their car and best find it by turning their car lights on because their horn on their car remote doesn’t work. They’ll typically only trips when they’re long trips and think parking parallel is easy in their small car. They use the app Waze to tell them traffic and police locations, but only for long trips. They rarely carpool.
Interview 3
A CS major and commuter that drives everyday in their Honda Accord. They’ll typically park in the far back of the lot and has a dislike of looping around a lot to find a spot, instead opting to go to another lot. They most love when they find a spot fast in the parking garage. They’d pay to park if it was $8 for the whole day and will only parallel park if they have no other option. They struggle to find their car and will attempt to remember what entrance they came in from. Planning travels makes it easier for them to get to places on time. They very seldom carpool and hates parallel parking. They use Google Maps as a GPS after not liking Waze because the map will cut out mid travel.
Interview 5
A Software Engineer student who drives their 2014 Volkswagen Jetta 5 or 6 times a week for work and school. They don’t necessarily have a reserved parking spot whenever they are parking. When it comes to how long it takes for them to park, it only takes no more than 5 or 7 minutes. Finding a spot is usually kind of a long haul of them traveling around. They do not want to walk too much so they will try to find a close spot if they can. They don’t mind paying to park but their limit is up to $20 a month. You won’t find them parallel parking that much because they are not fans of it so they will avoid it as much as they can. Their go-to app is Apple Maps.
Interview 4
An Accounting student who drives their 2006 Kia Sorento at least once or twice a day. They usually go to school or work. They enjoy driving in their car because it is big so they feel safer in it. When they are parking, usually any available spot is their first pick. They feel that they are a better parker than they are a better driver. At their apartment they tend to park wherever they want. It doesn’t really take them that long to find a spot when they are parking. Usually they’ll circle a lot at least once but after that they’ll just go somewhere else if they can’t find a spot. In general, they’re not really a big a fan of driving but they do have a planned route that they will take. Apple Maps is the only app they use for driving because it was already on their phone.
Interview 6
An IT major with a concentration in Web Design. They drive their 1999 Toyota Corolla every day for school commute, groceries, and entertainment purposes. Their usual parking routine consists of going to the top of the school parking deck since it has ground level access and that means less stairs for them. They don’t have a reserved parking spot but they wish they did since they are a fan of continuity. They will drive around until they find a spot that they like. This process takes about 2-4 minutes. At most, they will circle a lot twice before taking a more inconvenient parking spot. They are extremely comfortable with parallel parking and can do it in their sleep. They carpool often because it takes away the monotony of driving alone. They often use Google Maps.
Interview 7
A Game Developer who drives everyday to work for about an hour and a half. They generally don’t enjoy the commute since it’s going to the city. They drive a 2009 Honda Accord but wants a Sedan since they are tall and think it would be big enough for them. Typically, they’ll park in the back of the parking garage on the second level since they know that no one else wants to park there. They like that there is a guarantee that a spot will always be there and they don’t mind that it means more walking for them. They’re bad parking experiences tend to involve someone parking in multiple spaces at a time and diagonally. Usually they won’t circle a parking lot if they notice other vehicles have been circling it as well. They used Google Maps a few times but no longer need it nowadays.
Modeling
The interviews allowed us to find patterns that were realistic and relatable to the audience of ParkIt. These patterns played a major part in who our Primary and Secondary Personas would be. Some of what we found in our data is that people tend to be:
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eager to quickly find a close parking spot whenever circumstances permitted that
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commited to a kind of commute that would happen weekly even if it was a solo drive versus carpooling
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hesistant to do parallel parking
Requirements
In this stage of Goal-Directed Design, the Personas became more dimensional as we created real life scenarios that would involve them using ParkIt. We walk you through a scenario that takes place with our Primary Persona, Toddy, as he uses ParkIt for the first time.
Context Scenario
It’s Saturday morning. Toddy has plans to meet up with friends to go paint balling downtown about 9 miles away. His friend who is familiar with the spot know it's always crowded on Saturday so plan ahead and leave early for parking. Toddy who isn’t familiar with the location needs assistance. He gets in his car and mounts his phone.
Toddy pulls up ParkIt to help. He logs into his profile with his registered vehicle to see the closest available parking to the paint balling place so that he can meet up with his friends in time. Toddy then searches for his destination and views the surrounding parking lots. Once Toddy views the parking lots surrounding the paint balling facility, he was able to see what parking spots were available. Finally, Toddy is able to drive to the paintball place and park his car in the available parking spot.
Framework
Our team did some Affinity Mapping where we used a bunch of sticky notes that we could write on any thoughts that would come relating to ParkIt features. This was a great way to stretch the limits of ParkIt and see what it really needed to be an app that wasn't lacking key features. From there our team of Visual Designers, Juwan and Kayleb, created our Prototypes starting at Low-Fidelity all the way to High-Fidelity.
These scenarios take a look at alternative features of the app that might not be used as often as other ones (Alternative Scenario) and scenarios where certain features must be used in order to perform certain tasks with the app (Necessary-Use Scenario).
Validation Scenario
Alternative
Our secondary persona, Raven, is going the Coca-Cola Factory for the first time and wants to find the cheapest parking she can get. She tries out ParkIt’s Filter Feature to highlight the parking that is free for her destination. This is achieved by pressing the filter icon on the top right of the map view.
Alternative
Alternative
Alternative
Our first persona, Toddy, has been using the Guest Login Feature of the app whenever he needs quick parking but realizes that he want to use ParkIt more frequently. Toddy goes to the main screen of the app and chooses to create his own profile. He also registers his payment information in one sitting so he doesn’t have to worry about it later.
Necessary-Use
Medium-Fidelity Prototype
Refinement
The Medium-Fidelity Prototype created by Juwan and Kayleb was then tested by Niah and I as we started up our next round of interviews that were focused on Usability Testing this time around. We listened to the feedback of our volunteers on how usable this interactive prototype was and what development changes were needed.
Usability Testing Round 1
Interview 1
Likes
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Available parking spots are clear
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Can view available parking lots
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Feels reliable
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Simple and minimalist design easy to understand
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See where their car is located
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Enjoyable
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Function feels prioritized over aesthetic
Suggestions
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Confused why you would be able to reserve a spot when you’re already parked
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Nest “settings” in menu
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Add previously visited lots to menu
Interview 2
Likes
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Easy to use
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Inventive idea; useful
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Muted, non-distracting color scheme
Suggestions
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Use signup instead of register
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Looks like both login and register need to be filled in. Use buttons
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Color-coordinated by price
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Make lines on the map straight instead of like you’re going to cut through the building
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Sign-In with Facebook or Google
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Filtering (price, distance away, etc.)
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Guest option
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Favorited lots in menu
Support
With the feedback we received on our Medium-Fidelity Prototype, we felt sure about the direction we wanted to go in with our High-Fidelity Prototype. So once our team's Visual Designers had put in the work to create a first iteration, Niah and I scheduled some more interviews to see what feedback we can get on the prototype. It was time for Juwan and Kayleb to wrap up our visuals and interactive features once Niah and I shared the feedback from the interviews.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Usability Testing Round 2
Interview 1
Likes
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How the general information was explained/conveyed in the sign up process
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Linear nature of the app process
Suggestions
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Consider a tagline for the sign-in page to give a better idea of what people are signing up for
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On the payment methods page, put in an option to set it up later with the understanding that people wouldn’t be able to reserve a spot unless they give credit card information
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Onboarding process might work better placed right after the user creates an account and before they enter credit card information
Interview 2
Likes
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Straightforward. Nothing complicated
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Would use in the city or campus
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Simple, clean design
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Included GPS
Suggestions
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Put option to skip payment information
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Onboarding process is awkwardly placed; put in the beginning
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Add reserved spot’s duration once you reserve a spot
Moving Forward
Through this project I have learned the dynamics of creating a Parking App. There were a lot of things to consider such as what interaction would be received awkwardly for the user like having the user give us their payment information too early. These are some formalities and considerations I want to keep in mind after hearing out the opinions of the interviews in my research. Overall, I think this was a fantastic experience with some difficulties that I'm glad I could work through with a great team.