Spotted!
2 March, 2024 1 person team Personal Project
Costco, a store well-known for its incredibly affordable prices of a range of products and generous portions, is definitely bound to always be crowded. From being optimistic about getting a parking space at an errand to Costco, to hopelessly circling around the parking lot for almost an hour, my friend ended up parking outside of the store. It was frustrating that we spent more time finding a parking spot than our shopping spree at Costco. It was until my friend uttered the words “the numbers that showed how many parking spots were available at each floor were useless” did I come up with an idea to invent a tool to find parking spots quick and easy. The answer to this is an application that guides users to find the parking spot. This was how I made it.
Survey
I created this survey to explore the different problems people face when parking. I figured that doing observations alone is not enough to gather enough information that could help me create the best solution to solve the issue of parking spots.
These were the questions asked in the survey, concerning 25 people. To conclude from the survey, people take 15-20 minutes to find a parking spot on average. Evidently, it is time consuming. The two comments that most intrigued me from the survey were “I had to park about 6 blocks away and walked in the rain” and “I found a spot but my car couldn’t fit”.
How might we help people find parking as fast as possible?
How might we help people find a parking spot big enough for their car?
How Might We Questions
I created ‘How Might We’ questions from the survey to brainstorm and capture the crucial points I want to solve. In this case study, these are my ‘How Might We’ questions:
User Journey
I created a user journey without the app to observe users interactions before, during and after finding parking to note down the pain points users experience. Then I created a user journey with the app to note down how I am going to solve those pain points and how I would want users to experience the before, during and after experiences when parking with the application. By doing this step, it helps me think clearer on how I am going to create the solution to parking problems.
Crazy 8s
Next, I created Crazy 8s where I drew each box for 30 seconds. This step helps me brainstorm more effectively on the solution to the issue. Then, I picked the idea that answers the pain points and ‘How Might We’ questions the best.
User Flow
I decided to create a map-like application that guides the user to the parking spot. Then, I created a user flow to have an overview of how I would like the flow of the application to look like and how the user interactions will be like.
I made a simple Figma that includes all the features I wanted the application to have for user and usability testing to validate my design and system thinking. I also wanted to observe users’ before, during and after using the app as well as preparing questions to ask after the tests.
I switched to grey scale everytime I chose a colour to add to the design to make sure that it is clear enough for users to see especially those who are colourblind. The dark blue represents the city, the shades of grey represents the buildings, areas and roads, the white border tells the user that the feature has been clicked, the red represents unavailable spot, the green represents available spot and the yellow arrow represents the vehicle.
Wireframe
User and Usability Testing
After doing 15 user and usability testings, it made me wonder how I could create the app more straightforward and streamlined so users wouldn’t have to wait after every step. It was great that some users mentioned it. Some users also recommended that the arrow that indicates where the car is located should be placed higher on the screen or in the middle for better viewing when driving. The testings were conducted at night and day to test out whether the chosen colour palette and design is suitable when driving at different times of the day.
Final Product