P A R K E R
- Going to the city is great …Except when you have to go to downtown and find a parking spot -
Parker is a mobile app that is focused on shows all the available parking options in downtown San Francisco. This app helps drivers to book a safe spot near their destinations, they can search for different options and receive all the information to avoid a parking ticket.
Date: 05.2018 - 12-2018
Role: UX Resercher
The problem
It was found that people are frustrated by the daunting process of finding a parking spot in downtown quickly and easy. It is estimated that drivers spend an average of 17 hours a year searching for spots in big cities. I want to explore how we can find a parking spot in a more efficient and less time-consuming process.
User Research
As a first step, user interviews were conducted with 7 participants to understand their experiences finding a spot downtown. I have found that most people used the car to visit downtown for activities out of their daily routine activities.
The key findings were that people wanted to find safe areas to park, different options to park (street, metered or garages) in a radio of 1 mile near their destination, reserve spots and check regulations. By gathering data and performing affinity mapping, the findings were organized in groups and select the most noticeable trends from my interviews. This provided information that will help me to create User Personas.
Competitive Analysis
During this time, I also research the most popular methods available (Spothero, Spotangels, Parkme, and ParkingPanda) that users use to find a spot. My top findings were that these apps shared similar pros and cons. The most noticeable downside is they are focused in the price of the spot (which is not really important for my user, they already know that they are going to spend &10-$25 in parking and it’s ok to them) and didn’t focus directly in the safety of the car and drivers. Also, with this apps, you can book for spots, but they don’t give the option to really focus on the plan your day.
User Flow and Information Architecture
Once defined my user personas, user flow diagram was created for them and storyboard out situations of the imaged experience.
To represent the structure of the information architecture, I created a sitemap supported by my user flow. Then, I conducted Card sorting exercises to gather their separate feedback and enhance my sitemap based on the data.
Sketching & Wireframing
I put pen to paper and began brainstorming might the pages might actually look like. After some review and iteration, I brought my sketches into digital life by creating wireframes in Sketch. The key was to design, review and iterate until we had a smooth user experience. InVisionapp was used to create a clickable version of my design.
