Simplifying the Parking Experience

ParkIt is a smart application designed to address the parking challenges faced by new employees and visitors in co-working office spaces. By streamlining the process, providing real-time parking availability, and offering guided navigation, ParkIt reduces frustration and ensures a hassle-free parking experience.

Role - Lead UX Designer
Team - Collaborative effort involving designers, developers, and parking management system stakeholders
Responsibilities: Conducting user research, synthesizing insights, creating workflows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs.

Figma, User Journey Mapping, Image Processing Technology

CLIENT/DATE/DURATION

Internal Project for Co-Working Space Employees

Problem Statement:

Parking in co-working office spaces is often inefficient, especially for new employees like Ram, who spends up to 15 minutes daily searching for a suitable parking spot. The lack of clear signage and real-time availability data results in confusion, unintentional violations, and penalties, causing stress and reducing productivity.

Key Challenges Identified:

1. Lack of Clear Demarcation: Visitors and new employees struggle to differentiate between reserved and visitor parking spots, leading to violations.

2. Insufficient Parking Availability: Limited spaces result in longer search times and increased frustration

3. Inefficient Management: Absence of real-time information on available spots wastes time and resources.

4. Unclear Parking Assignments: New employees like Ram are unaware of their future assigned parking spots, creating additional confusion.

5. No Reporting Mechanism: Lack of feedback channels prevents users from addressing issues such as unauthorized parking.

Improving the parking experience for employees and visitors is essential for enhancing their productivity, reducing stress, and promoting a positive workplace environment.

Research Objectives

1. Understand the daily parking challenges faced by new employees and visitors.
2. Identify key user needs and expectations for a seamless parking experience.
3. Explore technology solutions to provide real-time parking data and guidance.

Methods:
• Interviews: Conducted interviews with new employees and parking management staff to identify pain points and expectations.
• Observation: Observed user behavior in the parking facility to understand navigation patterns and challenges.
• Contextual Inquiry: Examined parking layouts, signage, and entry/exit systems to identify inefficiencies.

Insights:
1. Navigation Issues: New employees face difficulties locating visitor spots due to poor signage and unclear layouts.
2. Time Wastage: Employees spend significant time searching for spots, reducing their punctuality and focus.
3. Stress Factors: Fear of penalties and unintentional violations creates anxiety among users.

Goal 1:
Develop a mobile application that provides real-time parking availability and ensures hassle-free navigation to suitable parking spots.

Goal 2:
Create a system to clearly demarcate visitor and reserved parking spaces to reduce unintentional violations

Goal 3:
Enable feedback and reporting mechanisms for users to address parking-related issues effectively.

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Solution Features:
1. Real-Time Availability: Image processing monitors parking occupancy and updates spot availability dynamically.
2. Navigation Assistance: GPS-based guidance helps users locate the nearest available spot efficiently.
3. Violation Alerts: The app warns users attempting to park in restricted areas or outside assigned spots.
4. Feedback Mechanism: Users can report unauthorized parking or other issues directly through the app.

Value Proposition:
A seamless parking experience that saves time, reduces stress, and promotes efficiency for both new employees and visitors

Usability Testing:
Tested with a group of 10 users, including new employees and visitors, to evaluate functionality and ease of use.

Key Findings:
1. Positive Reception: Users appreciated the app’s ability to suggest parking spots based on their preferences.
2. Improved Navigation: Navigation assistance reduced time spent searching for parking spots by 40%.
3. Feedback Implementation: The reporting feature made users feel more empowered to address parking issues.

Iterations Based on Feedback:
• Improved parking spot visuals to differentiate between reserved and visitor spaces clearly.
• Enhanced navigation prompts for better clarity in multi-level parking facilities.

Results & Impact
Outcome Metrics:

• 40% reduction in parking search times.
• 30% fewer parking violations reported.
• Significant improvement in user satisfaction with parking facilities.

User Testimonials:
“The app has completely transformed my daily routine—I no longer worry about finding parking!” – Ram, New Employee

Challenges & Learnings

Challenges:

1. Integration of real-time availability required significant backend support and testing.
2. Some users initially struggled to adapt to app navigation features.

Outcome Metrics:
• 40% reduction in parking search times.
• 30% fewer parking violations reported.
• Significant improvement in user satisfaction with parking facilities.

User Testimonials:
“The app has completely transformed my daily routine—I no longer worry about finding parking!” – Ram, New Employee

Challenges:
1. Integration of real-time availability required significant backend support and testing.
2. Some users initially struggled to adapt to app navigation features.