PARK ME | A PARKING SOLUTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Problem Awareness Users Research Plan Results Usability Test Solution 1 Final Solution Site Architecture Wireframes Final Mock-up

THE PROBLEM

Problems: 1. Which streets have parking for the general public 2. Where there are available spots on those streets A lot of time and effort is put into nding a parking a spot. For pass buyers, the rst wtime searching for a spot is not easy since the sectioning of campus is confusing. Buying a pass allows you to park on certain streets, which requires you to remember all of those individual street names. For non-pass buyers, people dont know which streets are for the general public and which are only for people with passes. They have to spend time driving up and down each street to gure out. The street signs can be misinterpretted because of the complex rules. People who forget about street sweep days get their car towed and they have to spend time to retrieve it from the impound lot. Instances that parking can be an issue: 1. Returning from Holidays 2. Running an errand 3. Leaving for a trip 4. Returning after a street sweep or a football game 5. Leaving for a school reason

CURRENT EXPERIENCE

Awareness Days such as game days pack large amounts of people within the small campus area. On these days there are a lot of people need to nd a parking spot which leads to backed up trafc and wasted time. The growth of the population in the Off-Campus is more than the streets were built to hold. It is annoying to have to remember to move my car, on top of my busy college lifestyle. People dont always park logically. There are instances I could have parked somewhere if the person in front would have moved their car up a couple feet. All the spots are parallel parking spots. What I want to know Im not sure why some of the streets are free and some arent. The unawareness for the user without a pass can leave them searching in the wrong area, causing lost time and effort.

Users We specically are focusing on users related to The Ohio State University for this research. This idea can spread to other areas and universities with the ability to be slightly altered to meet the needs of the users in those areas. 1. The Students, Staff, and Faculty such as commuters, off-campus residents, and non-pass owners. 2. The non-students such as vistors, tourist, etc. Some students live on the Off-Campus and use the street parking as the main source of parking. Other students park their cars there to go to class if they dont have a parking pass with the university. Some staff and faculty also park there if the dont have passes. The other group of people consists of non-students such as visitors, future students, parents, etc. These people are usually unfamiliar with the area and need direction. The off campus parking does not provide this and can lead visitors to be lost.

We dont like to waste time and effort.

RESEARCH PLAN

Intended Conclusion To understand the exact problem, we need to understand the quantity and quality of the time and effort wasted. Does it annoy people enough and often enough to result in other ways of parking; paying for a pass or a day pass in a garage? The solution should make street parking on the off-campus at Ohio State a better experience for all the users. We need to meet the users and understand their current experience. From here we can co-design with them to nd the ultimate solution to this problem. When parking is a hassle, why is it a hassle, are there personal stories to share? Research Methods For the time span of this project, we will only be able to complete evaluative research and investigate their current experience of other application that are simular instead of experiential research. Observations: Immerse ourselves into the off-campus environment to see the parking frustrations in person. Semi-Structured Interviews: There are questions that need to be answered but there are also a lot of good answers that can come from causal conversations with our users. Surveys: We can send this out to the large participant pool; which consists of all students, staff, and faculty that use off-campus parking.

Observations To understand the problem more, we needed to immerse ourselves into the eld. This way we could see the experiences of people trying to parking rst handed. There were multiple times where people would attempt to park in a spot and then give up because the spot was either not large enough or they were lacking the skill to parallel park. This problem could be solved if some of the vehicles were moved a couple of inches forward or backward. A possible solution could be marked out parking spots to reduce the amount of random space between cars that sacrace parking spots. There were also multiple times that vehicles would circle the streets multiple times in hopes that someone would move in that time. Some vehicles would pull up in a spot where their car was partly behind the no parking sign. The general mood of the people that seemed to spend a lot of time and effort parking was frustrated and rushed. I can conclude that these people dont allot out the time in their schedule to nd parking spots and therefore are rushed to their next appointment, class, etc. From my observations, I also can conclude that there are more vehicles that need parking spots than there are parking spots available.

Level of Difculty easy 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Quality of Results low 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Quantity of Results low 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Level of Time/Effort Required little 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

difcult

high

high

alot

Surveys The survey asked the users to identify their role at Ohio State, how often the park east of High Street, their feeligns on the street parking, if they own a street parking pass and their feelings on it, their biggest annoyances about street parking, and any other comments. Most of the participants were students at Ohio State. The range of days that they park on east of High ranged from 1 -7 days a week. Over half of these students do not own parking passes. The results showed that there were a lot of annoyances ith off-street parking, not just one. People dislike the time and effort spent in off-campus parking, parallel parking, the rules, the amount of spots, and the irregular parking; as seen in my observations. People think its unsafe and are worried about something happening to their cars after they park it. Special rules such as moving cars for football and street sweeping become a huge hassle because it limits the spots even more.

Level of Difculty easy 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Quality of Results low 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Quantity of Results low 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Level of Time/Effort Required little 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

difcult

high

high

alot

USABILITY TESTING

Intended Conclusion I want to understand what makes simular parking solutions successful and unsuccessful. Why are students not using these now and is there something out there that already solves the issue of the street parking on the off-campus of Ohio State. If the current materials dont help, can they be improve to help or is a new design solution needed? Findings: 1. Required proles on an app are frowned upon and logging in while driving is difcult. 2. Open search results are too broad 3. Be simple! Because this app is used while driving a car, or at least inside of a car, the navigation must be simple enough to use when only paying half attention. Also, to reduce TIME and effort, an app that requires a lot of time to use would be redundant. 4. Can an app solve parking? No, its only the interface to something greater. Overview of the Test: Moderator Introduction: I give the directions and things to remember. The user is reminded that this is not a test. Pre-Test: This consists of a couple of questions to get the user thinking. Tasks: A few tasks are given that leads the user through a simular app while asking questions along the way. Debrief: Some conclusions are asked and a survey is given.

Conclusion The app that was used for the testing was designed to nd open parking garages/meters and how to nd your car once you are ready. The participants all said that the app was pretty easy to use and they would maybe use it. No one thought it was an app they would download unless they absolutely needed it. It wasnt something that would make their lives easier. Also this app would not solve the street parking problem because it only nds available parking in garages and meters.

SOLUTION ONE

Native Mobile App The app would have multiple apps within it like the The Ohio State Universties app. You could reserve spots and give notications on towing days. Also the app would allow users to create proles for different cars. Why mobile? People always have their phones while traveling and have a personal connection with it. They would feel comfortable giving the app information about their vehicles for the proles. The GPS connection on the phone would be helpful to nd the area the users are looking for a spot in. Features Hold times will depend on the distance of the rest stops to avoid using the phone while driving. Notications will be sent to the phone if the car is being towed or on days it needs to be moved. On the main screen you will know where your car is. Red indicates it needs to be moved, yellow indicates a reserved spot, and green indicates where your vehile is without any problems. FAQ explanis OSU game days, different parts of campus, etc.

WIREFRAMES

Native Mobile App This concept is too complicated. Users may shy away from the app becase they have to make a prole. The workow of the app needs to be shortend so people can use it when their driving. Reserving a spot may be a good idea but could also cause complications unless a system is created to a lot out permanent spaces. An app is a good solution but something more needs to exist to provide more structure to the off-campus area. There needs to be a structure that stays consistant throughout the campus to ensure that people know where and when to park. People do not want to spend the time, nor the hassle and wasted hope on turning onto the street if there are no spots. Off-Campus is easily dened, the streets are marked, but how does that save the time and hassle put into parking? Making it easier to visualize which streets are free and which streets the user is allowed to parking on, they can go straight to those areas.

FINAL SOLUTION

The Ticker The ticker is placed right above the street sign since people are usually looking in this direction anyway to navigate themselves through the streets. It displays the number of spots available on each street, Tickers will be placed at the beginning of every main street. They will only be placed at the beginning of each street because the distance between alley ways is not large enough to be signicant. The Native Mobile App The mobile app is to help people nd spots before they get to campus. For pass users, it shows them their available spots and for non-pass owners, it shows where there are free spots for the general public. Features The streets are divided up strategically and the streets have permanent spots to make sure that the spots can be tracked and the max amount of spots will be available,

Basics Every street will have marked parking spots. Each spot will sensor if a car is parked in the spot which will then trigger a sensor to change the ticker. Reasoning With actual spots, an exact number can be listed on the ticker. Otherwise, cars could take up multiple spots and not set off the sensor, giving users a false answer via ticker.

Growth If the streets were to widen or change in the future, new spots can be created but still leave the ticker unaffected. (e.g. the street goes under construction and the result is a wider street with more parking area. Once the spots are marked, a sensor can be applied).

High Street, Summit Street, Indianola Avenue, 4th Street Norwich Avenue, Lane Avenue, Frambes Avenue Woodruff Avenue, 20th Avenue, 19th Avenue, 18th Avenue, Iuka 17th Avenue, 16th Avenue, 15th Avenue, 13th Avenue, 14th Avenue 11th Avenue, Chittenden Avenue, 12th Avenue

Basics Off-Campus is dened as 4th Street to High Street (East to West) and from Norwich Avenue to 10th Avenue (North to South). Its also sectioned into 5 even sections. High Street and roads parallel to High Street are free. Any streets perpendicular to High Street require a pass. Reasoning Currently, even with experience with living on campus, knowing which streets require passes arent clear. By sectioning off streets with common ideas (parallel, perpendicular), people can easily remember and explain to their visitors where to park. Its easier to remember generally which streets are free, rather than attempting to remember which specic streets.

Growth With time, the Off-Campus area will most likely expand more south, especially with the introduction of the Gateway. For growth, more sections can easily be added on without changing the current ones. (e.g, 9th, 8th, and 7th will become orange). The area cannot expand more west because of The Ohio State Universitys dened campus area. If the area expands more west, the streets will remain the same colors since the sections run perpendicular to High Street. (e.g. 12th dead ends into a rail road tracks)

Basics The number of spots available on the street is displayed on the sign. As spots are taken, a sensor sends a message to the ticker to change the number automatically. The sign is large enough to see from far away since the user that will need to use this ticker will be concentrating on driving. The ticker is placed right above the street sign since people are usually looking in this direction anyway to navigate themselves through the streets. Ticker Locations Tickers will be placed at the beginning of every main street. They will only be placed at the beginning of each street because the distance between alley ways is not large enough to be signicant. The parallel streets will have tickers at the beginning of every section. Again, the distance between every street isnt signicant enough.

Main Navigation The navigation is simple enough to use while driving. The nd location button makes it easier for users to search spaces around them without staring at the phone too long.The limited options for search results to pick from under the pick a street and pick a pass area narrows down the options for the users. With limited options, the user will not become distracted by attempting to remember a street or understanding what the app needs to supply search results.The red indications on the map show parking spots because red can easily catch the eye. The app not only supplies the same information that the ticker does (if there are spots) but where the spots are at exactly. This way, the user can concentrate on navigating to a certain location and not become distracted by looking everywhere but straight in front of them

The Prole I decided earlier in my research that a prole would be hard to use while driving. However, with the advice from others and additional research, users would like a way for the app to remember their pass areas or where they usually search. Thus....... The prole aspect of the app is not required. However, once a prole is created, the user can set two things: 1. Their pass area 2. Where they would like the phone to automatically scroll to when turned on. For example, if the user wanted the app to show them the parking spots around 15th Avenue everytime they logged in, it would override their current location. The users can request to remain logged in if desired to avoid logging in everytime they are driving. This would increase the safety of the user while using the app.

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Logo Blue Red Green Logo

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PARK ME