Park-In: A Parking App — UX Case Study

What if we launch fully automated car parking centres in certain cities for tourists and locals. The centres are multi-storey, and each floor has multiple parking spaces. People are required to book parking spaces as per their requirements and pay the charge on an hourly basis.

An app to help people explore, decide, and book parking space and use them for the booked time. Since it’s a fully automated system, consider that the whole experience is technology-driven without human intervention.

Why

Who are the users?

(While understanding this aspect, I understood know something about the user so I can use them to make some assumptions about them before starting on my process, though this at times might create chaos because I might either be using human biases or I will have to fight with my hypothesis but in the end, I want to know the reason behind my decision and this little step helps.)

When might users need our app?

This helped me understand if there is a need for this product, and what might trigger the users to switch from their existing models to a new system. Because breaking existing habits need time and effort how I can create a product will also be clarified from this.

When might a user want this product?

1. While travelling to the office daily to avoid being late for meetings.
2. When they see an ad or receive a referral.
3. During their road trips, when a lot of time gets wasted due to parking as they are not aware of the local area and sometimes the local language too.

How might we make users feel happy to use this as a solution to their problems?

1. It takes less than a minute for the user to come on the app and book the space for their car
2. Quick payments so they don’t have to spare time and feel like this is an unnecessary hassle (may be given the option to do it multiple times so they can use it)

Competitive Research

There are two types of parking apps: One that helps find a spot and the other helps find your car.

Few apps help you find your car after you park it→ Google Maps, Parkify, and Parking, while the others which allow you to locate spots for parking include the Parked Car locator, SpotHero etc. Our application stands out because it is a combinatory application that also covers use cases like extending time.

Probable Ideas

These are the probable spaces that this app should offer to make it successful in solving the problem. Every item is a small user flow which gives users the option to choose items as per their preferences.

The probable user tasks

For the User to register first time on the application

Flow for a user to choose and book a parking spot

Home → Search Landmark → Choose parking space → Choose time → Book and Pay

Flow for adding a vehicle

Home → Add Vehicle → Add details

Flow for a user when a booking active

Pre-paid bookings

When the user has already completed the payment while pre-booking

Pay Later

I gave an option to pay later because first-time users have little or no trust so to make them feel comfortable and build upon their trust, it was required to allow them

Prototype of the app

What would make this success?

I have take some assumptions on what should be my metrics to check if the

1. Task success rate
2. Task completion time
3. Conversion time

Limitations

1. Blindspots
2. No user testings
3. No stakeholder discussions