EASY PARKING
Have you ever felt worried about parking your car in a huge indoor parking lot? This project aimed to offer a new service for easy parking and finding the car.
UX Design + Service Design + Product Design, Individual Project
PROJECT BRIEF
It is common in China that once we park our car in huge parking lots, such as the ones of shopping malls, airports or hospitals, it usually takes us lots of time to find the cars when we back to the park. So why not find some solutions to this pain point that we often meet in our daily life?
This was one of my course project in university. In this design project, I integrated industry design with interaction design and service design, which together served to solve the pain points people meet in the whole parking process.
ROLE
UX Researcher
Interaction Designer
Product Designer
DATE
December 2015 (3 weeks)
MAIN METHODS
Research
User Service Map
Prototype
TOOLS
Photoshop
Rhino
Sketch
Watch the video to see what EASY PARKING is.
PAIN POINTS & INSIGHTS
Though observation at 5 indoor parking lots in Shanghai, sending Internet questionnaires, and firsthand experience as a user by myself, I summed up 3 main pain points and came up with 4 design opportunities.
Where is my car?
?
?
?
1, 2, 3, 4...
IDEATION: EASY PARKING
In order to provide a better experience of parking cars, I create EASY PARKING.
EASY PARKING is a parking assistant. It provides people with all the service through the whole experience, including finding parking places, recording parking information, getting discount parking tickets, and paying the parking fee.
I made a scenario map to get myself through the whole parking and shopping process.
Green posters are main tasks a user need to complete.
The upper yellow ones are user's behaviors.
The yellow ones below are user's thoughts and feelings.
The red posters represent unmet needs.
Based on the scenario map, I used storyboard to narrate how the service works. The following is how Mr. Xu and his girlfriend spent their amazing Friday evening with EASY PARKING.
LINK WITH THE PHONE
Users can be linked to EASY PARKING's service by personal smart phones. Though the application on the phone, users can easily find available parking position, find ways to the mall or the parking lot, enjoy discounts from shopping, and find their car easily in a fun way.
I first made paper prototypes to take fast user testing and get feedbacks quickly. According to the feedbacks, I improve the wireframe.
Paper prototypes used to take user testing.
Design and improve the wireframe.
The following is the final wireframe and interface of EASY PARKING's application.
Visualize the Service Journey.
The following map illustrates user's touch points, the scenario，user's actions and the corresponding interaction on the phone.
Get EASY PARKING from the entrance of the parking lot. Press the bottom to raise the pole or it will rise automatically soon after the APP is installed completely.
Find the available position with EASY PARKING’s help. The light detector on the top of every position will search your car’s information and send it to your phone. Confirm it then enter other required informations.
Set an alarm to remind the parking time. Scan the QR code on the shopping receipts to get parking fee discount. Find the shortest way to the parking lot.
Find the position of your car with AR’s help. Pay the parking fee on your phone. Finished! Say goodbye!
AN USER-FRIENDLY WAY OF INTERACTION
Welcome
Get the Easy Parking.
When arriving at the entrance of the parking lot, you can get Easy Parking form the entrance mill by RFID service.
Transfer via RFID
Scan QR codes
Personal Information
Timer & Reminder
Menu
Link
Link by your personal information.
Data sharing helps to find the current nearest available parking position. After finding the available position, the light detector on the top of every position will detect your car’s information and send it to your phone automatically. Confirm it, then the timer will go.
Discount
Get parking fee discount from shopping.
No more paper cards or tickets. Instead, simply scan the QR code on the shopping receipts, the parking fee discount ticket will be sent to your phone. And the parking fee will decrease automatically.
Pay
Simply pay on the phone.
No more parking cards and cash changes. And no more queueing line at the exit mill for paying. Simply pay on the phone at anywhere and anytime.
Search
Using AR to fine the car in a more vivid and quicker way.
Use your phone to search for the car. Instructions of the shortest way and direction will show on the phone.
THE LIGHT SENSOR
The light sensor serves to make EASE PARKING work fluently as a whole system.
The light sensor is on the ceiling of each parking position. It works as a signal light and a image and range recognizer.
If the light sensor detects no car at the position, the yellow light will turn on, which provide sign to users. When a car has parked, the light sensor can detect the car and turn off the light. Then it will recognize the car‘s license plate number, transfer the information to server. The server will then send information to each user's phone.
Light
Light
Camera for image and
range recognizer
With a car.
Without a car.
With a car.
Detect the license number and record.
The EASY PARKING SYSTEM
The system map presents how EASY PARKING service works. The parking lot, shopping mall, shops & restaurants will be both beneficiaries and contributors.
Reflections
Inviting aim users to do the paper prototype testing.
This was my first integrated design project combined with product design, interaction design and service design. Since it was also my first time to get to service design, I read several reference books and articles in this area, including THIS IS SERVICE DESIGN THINKING, and SERVICE DESING: FROM INSIGHT TO IMPLEMENTATION. (written by Andy Polaine, Lavrans Lovlie and Ben Reason)
It is important to realize the difference between service design, product design, and interaction design. Being different from product design, service design requires designers to consider the process as a unified whole. Each touch point in the service should be linked and offer good experiences. In addition, the service system serves to ensure every stakeholder to be both beneficiary and contributor, making a win-win situation.
Like UX design, users are considered the priority in service design. So I used several user-centered design methods and user testing in this project. Although there are differences between these three areas of design, it is common that they all contribute to better human experience and a better life.