ParkGuard Parking App
Prioritizing parking safety and security, with risk prevention for drivers and their vehicles
Client
Iterate UXD Challenge
Date
August - September 2023
Role
Product Design Team Lead
Product Requirements
UX Design
Overview
Every year, IterateUX offers designers the opportunity to take on short-term product development challenges for hands-on experience and networking opportunities.
The ProMPT
Design a comprehensive solution to alleviate the challenges faced by drivers in major California cities, where finding safe and convenient parking spots remains a persistent issue.
Solution
In 2023, over 4-weeks, we developed product requirements based on research and created two high-fidelity prototypes—one for Android and one for iOS—using a user-centered approach and Agile methodology.
My Role
I served as a Product Design Team Lead during the Iterate UX Design Challenge, guiding product requirements, research, and design with a team of three designers. I created the backlog, led sprint planning, and developed the high-fidelity prototype for the native iOS design.
Results overview
View Prototype
Research and Product requirements
Exploring the problem space of urban parking
Since the product prompt for the team was quite vague, we allocated two out of four weeks to analyzing user needs and the parking context before diving into design solutions and the final presentation. We began with secondary research to establish a foundation.
Top issues with parking from user survey
This project progressed with primary user research to validate known assumptions and uncover new unknowns. Generally, we gathered 14 responses from user survey and conducted 5 user interviews.
Key insights from user interviews
Safety is paramount
Users prioritize safety above all when choosing parking spots, especially in unfamiliar or risky areas.
Convenience matters
Drivers seek apps that provide real-time availability to avoid wasting time and energy searching for a spot.
Unreliable parking app data demands improvement
Users desire enhancements, particularly around safety features, better data accuracy, and payment methods.
Problem statements and their prioritization after research
Starting with secondary research, we explored the various parking problems that lead to uncomfortable situations for drivers.
Having the results of secondary research I identified major issues, breaking each down into key aspects that we discovered with primary research.
By continuously asking "Why?" for each aspect, I worked to uncover the most meaningful root causes in the current state of the world related to parking.
Ultimately, I compiled a list of problem statements:
Product Statements, Problem Checklist and User Stories
Most desirable features based on primary research
Real-time parking availability
Enhanced parking security
Transparent & flexible pricing
Building the product vision of MMP and MVP
For each target audience, I prioritized problems using MoSCoW matrices and created two vision boards. Later, we decided to focus on a single audience: commuters.
Since the product prompt revolves around safe and convenient parking for diverse users, I prioritized the most critical problems within this area.
MMP and MVP Vision Boards for selected audience
Defining scope of release
Based on the MMP vision, in the first MVP scope I identified and prioritized key issues in parking, focusing on safety and security, smart space utilization, and demand-based pricing.
Enhanced Parking Security & Risk Awareness
Prevention of vandalism and theft incidents
Drivers awareness about risks
Security measures in case of crime
Smart Parking Space Utilization
Opportunity to find more available spaces
Alternative parking suggestion (parking sharing)
Spot reservation system
Spot availability updates
Cost Optimization & Fair Pricing
Demand dependent online payment
Auto-refund for unused time
In-app payments and incentives
Parking rate display
Refinements of epics, features and tasks
Based on team capacity and new information, I refined three epics and defined features and tasks aligned with current needs. Here is an example of one epic:
Epic: security and risk awareness
Task level acceptance criteria
Next, I wrote epic- and feature-level user stories, outlining needs rather than solutions through acceptance criteria for prioritized tasks.
Here is an example of an acceptance criterion for one of the tasks:
Task: Design security heatmaps
Backlog formation and a design roadmap
With the product requirements in place, I used a Trello Kanban board to manage the product backlog and plan the team's work on a weekly basis. Since we had only two weeks for ideation and prototyping, staying organized was a top priority.
Sprint plan and Design Roadmap for epics
Conceptualization
Design studio exercise online
To establish a starting point for our prototype, we discussed various visual ideas and selected the best solutions for the interface. While two team members focused on the Android prototype, I worked on the iOS design.
We structured the information architecture and defined key work areas based on the roadmap, ensuring their completion before the UX design challenge presentation. For the selected features, I developed user flows, available in References.
Final Design
Design solution for native IOS
I chose to design a native iOS app because a large number of people in Northern California use iPhones as their primary mobile device, making it a practical choice. Additionally, we didn't have any requirements regarding design system during the UX challenge. The app would serve as an assistant for safe and affordable parking, pre-installed on iPhones for convenience.
Enhancing Safety with Map Overlays
Safety maps and scores help users mitigate security risks to themselves, their belongings, and their vehicles.
In-app parking fee payments
Users can pay through the app using various methods.
Reservation & Parking Sharing
To optimize parking space usage, users can reserve spots during events or peak hours, reducing demand and parking costs.
Navigation to a car and incentives for contributions
Users can locate their parked car using a car locator and earn point-based incentives for early departure or contributions such as reviews or reports.
At the conclusion of the project, we received positive feedback from the Iterate UX jury and earned high scores from our mentor, reflecting the strong outcome of our design challenge.
reflection
Lessons learned
Apple's Human Interface Guidelines
I gained experience working with the HIG design system. It was the first project where I applied these skills. It helped me streamline my design choices and ensure consistency across the interface.
Collaboration and communication
Collaboration and communication are essential in product design to ensure a shared understanding of the project, problems, goals, priorities, and decisions. Success requires dedication, responsibility, and accountability from all team members. The highest achievements are not hero-based, but a collaborative effort.
Product requirements identification
I practiced the workflow for gathering product requirements, which helped navigate the ambiguity and lack of clear limitations in the project's input data.
References
Check our work in a file with Competitive Analysis | JPG
Check out the results of User Survey | JPG
Learn more about Empathy Maps | JPG
View the vision boards for commutters target audience Vision Boards | JPG
Learn more about Information Architecture of the project | JPG
Check out the user flows for my part of work User flows | JPG
