A mobile app that enables users to find their parked cars in a complex parking structure.
Overview
Starting from Jan 2022, I worked on a project in Multidisciplinary Design Program for FlashParking, Inc. to design and implement a parking way-finding iOS application. The goal of this project was to help parking customers to use mobile phone to find their car in a complex parking structure. My teammates and I successfully built the app out and delivered it to FlashParking.
My Contribution
Led user research to understand stakeholders’ goals and users’ pain points towards finding their parked cars and while using 2D/3D navigation.
Designed and iterated end-to-end user experience and interface of the app;
Led 10+ user testing sessions through Userbrain platform to evaluate designs and receive user’s feedback.
Team
2 Designers, 4 Developers, 2 Industry Mentors, 1 Faculty mentor
Timeline
9 Months
My Role
Product Designer
Problem
Have you ever parked your car in a parking deck at the beginning of a long day and found yourself unsure of where you left it at the end of the day? There are a billion parking spots in the United States, making this a potentially large problem. As parking reservation usage increases, customers expect increased service from these systems.
How could we provide an efficient and intuitive way for people to find their car in a parking structure?
Final Delivered Design
Project Process
Define Project Scope
01. Exploring AR Navigation Possibility
At our first meeting, FlashParking proposed that they wanted AR to be a key feature of this application, which could help them stand out from competitors. I started to do some research to see how we can properly leveraging AR into navigation and how to design it. I looked into several research paper about mobile AR technology and did case study on three popular applications that include AR as a feature. I studied their features, flows, and feelings.
Research Result
AR does have entertainment value as a novel technology, but it poses some challenges for people to be present and devoted to both realities at the same time.
AR map is forcing users to hold up their phone the whole time, which causes tunnel vision and general user annoyance.
AR is vulnerability to environment changes, hindering an accurate localization of the virtual content and continuous experiences
02. Understanding Audience
Besides secondary research and case study, we wanted to know how potential users thought about AR navigation and what exact problems they were facing in finding their cars. Therefore, we conducted a user survey. In total, we received 49 valid responses. Here are the findings.
87.8% of participants had different degrees of lost experience in parking garages
Reasons for getting lost including
Network signal issue (20%)
Could't remember (space-oriented) (30%)
Unclear marked sign/information (18.4%)
Complicated physical environment (20.4%)
69.4% of participants still preferred to use 2D map.
Most of the participants mentioned that they were familiar with 2D map and were comfortable using it during navigation, while the rest of them mentioned they would be willing to try 3D/AR navigation in some cases.
UX Requirements
After uncovering these insights from research, I incorporated the findings into product requirements. Based on the user pain points and goals, the application should be:
Useful
Provide an easy and quick way for users to locate their parking position.
Intuitive and accurate for users to navigate back to their cars.
Flexible
Enable users to choose the way they want to navigate.
Users can navigate back from anywhere within the garage.
Rescoping Project Goal
Synthesizing research results, we discussed with developers about implementing AR. Since this was the first time for all of us to design and implement this unique feature, we both agreed that it would took us most of the time on it. Therefore, given the user needs, technical constraints and the company’s business goals, our team proposed to move AR navigation feature as a stretch goal, which would be done after all the key features and goals were meet.
We got the approval from the company’s manager of rescoping the project goal — develop an application that takes uses back to his car using 2D navigation.
Design Overview
User Story 01
As a driver, I want to use an app to help me remember where I park in this large parking structure, so that I don’t need to spend time on remembering it.
Feature 1
Remember parking location —> User Goal 1
Users are able to use the app to remember their parking location instead of remembering it by themselves.
The application stores the location information that users can refer back when they’re back.
User Story 02
As a driver, I want to use an app to guide me back to my car now from where I’m standing, so that I can save my time and won’t get lost in this parking lot.
Feature 2
Navigate users back to their cars —> User Goal 2a, 2b
The application locates user’s current location and navigates them back from where they are.
Users can see the estimated time, distance, and the exact car parking information.
Design Rational
Design Decision 1
Landing Page / Localization
When I first designed the landing page, I envisioned that the localization function would be triggered when users click on a button. Then I found out that this is not the easiest and intuitive way for users to locate their cars on this screen. After discussed with developers, I confirmed that the localization function can be called once the users open the app. So I decided to eliminate the landing page and take users directly into localization.
Designs before iteration: landing page and localization page
My original designs broke the simple localization task into two steps, which was unnecessary for users.
Design Decision 2
Before Navigation
The purpose of this screen is to let users know their car location is being stored in the application as well as showing those information to them. The user task on this screen should be a single button to start getting back to car.
Previous Design
Iteration
User Testing
In order to obtain more accurate and real user feedback, we leveraged a user testing platform called Userbrain, which enabled us to test our prototype and to reach a group of users that meet our requirements. We successfully tested our prototype with 12 individuals.
Testing Result
We received over 90% of satisfaction feedback of the app design and functionalities. Here are some of the feedback:
“I believe this app can come in handy especially for people that forget where they park. And I feel as if this feature should be preinstalled on all phones.”
“I really like how this app helps people who lose their internet connection.“
“It has really good flow, and the text and graphics is not overwhelmed.“
We also discovered some places of improvement:
Offering dark mode in the setting, which could provide more freedom to users.
Some indicators to let users know that the app should be used within the garage.
Iterate after User Testing
To address the second issue, we added a reminder pop-out when people were outside of the garage (detecting area) before launching navigation.
