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Fueled by ☕ lattes and inspired by 🎲 epic board game wins. Let’s design your next big move! ✨
©2024 Aekta Patel. All rights reserved
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Project type
Role
duration
tools
Park’in enables drivers to search, filter, book, and navigate to parking spots—all within a single app. Users can easily tailor their search by applying filters based on their preferences, ensuring a seamless parking experience from start to finish.
Through secondary and primary research, I discovered that many drivers face challenges related to parking. In particular Gen Z drivers were the most affected by parking situations. Research showed that 80% of Gen Z drivers would cancel plan all together if the parking situation was difficult.
User interviews revealed that 4 out of 5 participants routinely check parking options near their destination to determine the type of parking available. Additionally, 3 out of 5 interviewees expressed a strong aversion to parallel parking, with some stating they would rather pay for parking or drive further to avoid it. Furthermore, several users highlighted the importance of parking spots equipped with cameras for safety, identifying it as a top priority
Park'in was created to help drivers select filters so they can easily avoid parking spaces that require parallel parking or choose parking lots that have CCTV cameras.
I chose to apply the design thinking methodology due to its human-centered approach. My goal was to develop a solution that truly addresses the users' needs and delivers a meaningful impact.
I chose to focus on the problem space of parking anxiety because it's an issue I personally experience. This inspired me to explore the challenges other drivers face when it comes to parking. Through preliminary research, I discovered the term for it is parking anxiety. It is a term used to describe the fear and stress of not being able to park properly or fear of not being able to find a parking space.
Parking anxiety can be as impactful as a physical disorder; affecting drivers' confidence and overall experience.
57% of Generation Z uses apps like Uber or public transportation to avoid parking all together
Skipped a social event to avoid troublesome parking.
Have the fear of parallel parking.
I did four 30 minute interviews with four Gen Z drivers that were 18 and older. The requirements included: being licensed, driving at least 4 times a month and located in North America. Once I completed the interviews, I organized the findings into an affinity map. I learned that drivers wanted to know the parking situation before driving to a destination. Drivers disliked parallel parking and some put emphasis on the safety of the parking lot.
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Safety Concerns
Gen Z drivers want to learn parking skills to help reduce anxiety.
Parking skill development
Gen Z drivers want to learn parking skills to help reduce anxiety.
Time management and efficiency
Gen Z drivers get frustrated when spending time searching for parking, understanding signage and attempting to park
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Cost
Gen Z driver have concerns about paying for parking and understanding and adhering to signage which can lead to tickets.
Familiarity
Gen Z prefers parking in the same spot and they face anxiety when they are forced to park in unfamiliar situations.
Time management and efficiency was chosen as time was found to be the most valuable from all the insight that was gathered. Many interviewees were anxious due to not being able to find parking quickly and also not being able to park quickly in the spot they found.
How might we streamline the parking process for Gen Z drivers to create efficiency and minimize time spent on it.
I developed a persona based on the secondary research and interviews I conducted. I kept Sabrina at the forefront to build empathy for the user and create a design with the user in mind.
Many parking apps do not have an in-built navigation system and users have to copy the parking information into another navigation app. This seemed like a good opportunity to intervene, as it saves the user a step.
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Task flow showing the user's journey from start to finish
I wanted the app to be different from current parking apps already out there to help fill the gap that current apps have. I decided to add in a filter spots option to allow users the option to filter things they wanted and things they wanted to avoid.
I sketched a few paper wireframe variations until I was satisfied with the result. I derived UI inspiration from other apps such as Green P, Uber, Google maps, airbnb and Indigo parking
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Iterations were made after each usability test on the mid fidelity. Two usability test sessions were done. Below is the final lo-fidelity version after two iterations.
I wanted users to feel calm while using the app. So I picked colors with cool tones. Blue and teal are known to be calming colors and white is known to be peaceful. I also noticed that many of the pictures to do with calmness had gradients in them. So I implement some gradients to the app as well.
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I chose proxima nova as the font type as it is sans-serif and it has a really clean look to it. I used ropa sans when creating the wordmark. I wanted the brand wordmark to have clean soft lines that were well defined as when it comes to parking, the words straight lines comes to mind.
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Figuring out where to put specific colors and where to inject them was more difficult than I expected it to be. I tried a few different variations of colors. I had to ensure that the colors were accessible on every screen.
After receiving feedback and making iterations I created my final high fidelity prototype.
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Park'in is a parking app, which means most people would be using it on the go. Having it designed for car play also creates a safer environment so that drivers are not tempted to touch their mobile phone, instead they can just select the options on the car play screen.
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