Car Parking App
Why Spot On?
Everything in Portugal is beautiful and old, which is a wonderful feature for a country but a major issue for a modern society that is always in a hurry. Work, the gym, hanging out with friends, school... you name it. The frustration of any experience in the city begins with the lack of a good transportation system. The car is the primary mode of transportation in Portugal, and a family of four can have two or three cars. This is where the elderly congregate. Narrow streets, one-way streets, a lack of parking spaces, traffic...., the old can be lovely but inefficient. I chose this challenge not to solve the structural problem, but to reduce the frustrations.
The Challenge
The goal of this project is to bring solutions to the car parking system in Portugal that will reduce people's frustration. I believe that by making the necessary changes, I can help to reduce the problems that users face.
The Goal
Saving Time
Identify areas where we can save time.
Avoid Fines
Find ways to reduce or avoid overtime fines.
Seamless Decisions
Determine areas where we can relieve the user of the burden of deciding every step of car parking.
Minimize the frustrations
Identify the most important areas where we can reduce user frustration.
My Role UXR / UX / UI / Visual Designer
To find real solutions, ask open questions.
Qualitative Research
To better understand the real challenges that users face on a daily basis, I interviewed 5 potential users and asked open-ended questions to see if there were any patterns in their responses. The interview was taped so that I could analyze it later. The following are some examples of questions.
How do you commute to work?
Can you describe your day basis commute to work?
What do you think about car parking?
What frustrate you the most when you want to park you car?
Do you use any technology to park your car ?
Can you talk about your favourite website/apps that you use?
“ I’m always worried regarding the fines for overtime on daily basis ”
“ I would like an app that tell me free spaces around my location. ”
“ It’s time consuming to try to find a place to park.”
“ It’s all about price and the nearest location. ”
“ I need to wake up one hour earlier to have time to find a spot close to my work place ”
Competitive Analysis
What’s out there?
After conducting a competitive analysis on some of the field's major players, I discovered the following insights:
• Based on the reviews, I discovered that the majority of the complaints stem from the app's technology, such as bugs and errors....
• The user interface can be improved to be more user-centered rather than system-centered.
• Technology can be improved to provide better solutions.
The dominant emotion is frustration.
User Journey
I create a user journey using the findings from the interviews to understand the real challenges that the user faces on a daily basis. This method provided me with a more in-depth understanding of how a user feels at any stage of a car parking journey.
The findings got a story
Personas
Using all of the insights from the discovery, I discovered two types of car parking users. The user who works in the city and must travel by car, and the younger user who visits the city to have fun and hang out with friends.
Paulo is a business owner who runs his own law firm. He has a 2-year-old son and enjoys spending time at home with him. He spends the majority of his time in meetings all over town, so a car is essential for his job. He is interested in new technologies but is not a heavy user.
Paulo Pereira, 38 years old
Maria recently completed her design degree and has her first job in the city; she lives with her parents and enjoys going out to restaurants and clubbing until late. She is constantly on social media, looking for the most trendy spots in town.
Maria Albertina, 24 years old
How we might solve this?
HMW
I held a brainstorming session with some colleagues to generate the most viable solutions to the problem. These are the solutions chosen for the user problem.
• How we might display the best search results to users?
• How we might reduce the user's frustrations?
• How we might avoid fines for overtime?
• How we might make the parking experience as easy as possible from start to finish?
Using machine learning and AI to provide the best search results based on the user's preferences. Always looking for the best, closest, and cheapest solution in the user's close surroundings
Provide the user with accurate information about his goal in advance to reduce frustration.
Paying by the minute rather than booking in advance.
To reduce waiting time, use car plate recognition.
Fastest path for the goal
User Flow
Wireframes
Possible solutions.
