Find your parking space Prete rts Designing an app to discover, choose and book a parking space. By Arnav ChandThe Problem Statement = Fully-automated car parking centers are being launched in certain cities for tourists & locals. The centers are multistorey, and each floor has multiple parking spaces. ‘& People are required to book parking space as per their requirements and pay the charge on an hourly basis. Anappis required to help people explore, decide, and book parking space. @ View complete problem statement hereThings to consider © The parking centres are fully automated, ice. there isno involvement of any humans in the day to day functioning of the centres © The parking centres are being launched in certain cities to cater to the parking needs of tourists and locals of those cities. © Allparking centres are multistorey buildings, with multiple parking slots on each floor.Some Background = Access to quality and sufficient parking spaces has become one of the foundational needs of commercial India & Anaverage driver in the USA, spends more than 100 hours per year looking for a suitable parking space. These numbers range from 60 to 90 hours per year for European drivers. = One can easily assume, for an overcrowded country like India, this number might be well into the 200s.© Thisis not only a colossal waste of time, but it also negatively impacts the environment and causes enormous economic losses. Can also cause unnecessary traffic jams. The given facts are clear indicators of two things : 4a = The current parking spaces available 3) The current parking systems aren't aren't enough to accomodate the capable to manage all the incoming cars of the drivers. traffic throughout the day.Exploring the Problem I tried to explore the given problem using a hypothetical scenario.SCENE-1 = Inthe hot summer days of June, Arvind decides to visit the water park with his family on the weekend. SCENE-2 © He enters the adjoining parking lot to park his car. © Itbeing a busy weekend, there are a lot of cars behind him in the queue.SCENE-3 © He takes a look at the tariff structure at the entry booth. © It's costly, but he doesn’t want to turn away now. SCENE -4 & The employee at the entry booth hands him a ticket. © He keeps the ticket safely in his wallet.SCENE-5 = Another employee guides him to a vacant spot. © The ground and basement parking were full. So he has to park on the 2nd underground level. SCENE -6 ‘© After a good time at the water park, the family returns back to the parking lot to leave for home.SCENE-7 “© But Arvind has no memory of where he parked his car. © The parking ticket also doesn’t have any mention of the parking spot SCENE-8 © His daughter remembers it was the on the 2nd. =p level. & He somehows manages to find the car using the security alarm of his car.SCENE-9 = Atthe exit, the Arvind returns the ticket, & wanted to pay using a debit card. = But the cashier refused it. He ultimately had to pay him in cash that wasted a lot of time and led to a queue of cars waiting behind him to exit. SCENE 10 © He exits the parking lot and proceeds towards his homeThe Conclusionsket gven atthe boom bore. Dees whether he wants to park here besed onthe tif structure Drives to the parking lot Finds a suitable slot & parks Finds vacant parking sot onthe ‘most corwenient fer ofthe parking lot Has to take into consideration the size ofhisear a wel ‘ter completing his work (ising the malraseun/ shopping ee) inishes work & Leaves the navigates back to his car parking lot Returns the ticket at exit and pays the required amount CCachirat the eit colts the payable amount from the ver and opens the boom barrierDrives tothe parking lot Positive oe + Dilosng the tart struts ecion making easier + Ching the paring ticket before entering sto ‘nae a emocthparking Painpoints + Manual tiekatingis very tne consuming andificut io manage maniay cases ‘hon high numberof veces how up + Theta ervene ie nemaly present ner hetoam baer ny ether ight be sitfeutotakea utr Finds a suitable slot & parks Positive ae + Emploeosat the parking ‘id theives towerds sab prking lot + Thy even asthe divers ‘to park propery avoids westage of space and chonoesof congestion. Painpoints + Employees might note able twcater toa of the veces ‘entrng tho parking ‘drieg rush nore + Dict for vers of ‘vacant sptson the own —+ tight eed ores pring Finishes work & navigates back to bis ear Positive de + Ps calurns genera have coer eg hphenumerc + Drivers canmararie ie cadet remember whee they parked the er Poor 5 wel er) Painpoints + Most ivr cart remember the exact acto rhe pl umber + ery cften they might nt sen emamber the Foor + vente employees cent ap theminsuch statins Returns the ticket at Leaves the exit and pays the parking lot required amount Positive a + Porking paces general have chen sgnege torn the pathtotheesi| + The catharaa for tbe regured ameuntand mos vee the act range Painpoints + Inthe init condone & the ace the yout sometimes becomes ditt sofnatno ox + Marusteashing process at the tie sow sndeancreste urmectsnry ueusingThe Assumptions « Parking lots are fully automated; no human employees are present at the parking lots People are aware about our app as well about the fact that our app is necessary to park at certain parking lots (i.e. marketing has been done through advertisement, WoM etc) People have already onboarded to our app and have given us details ike their name, phone number, vehicle model ete There are car sensors fixed above each parking slot. This sensors provides the data on when a car gets parked, when it leaves ete.The Discovery PhaseFind your Find your parking space ane sects acne 8) © so ans Qwertyuror 9 Driver enters the destination he/she [After entering the desived location, the Driver ean apply particular ters based wants to travel to, He/she can type in ‘app tells him the associated parking ‘on the duration of parking size of ear, ‘the destination or choose from lots that are closest to that location tart f parking lot ete ‘bookmarked onesThe Discovery This phase consists of the user discovering several fully automated parking lots built by us in the close vicinity of the location he/she wants to travel to. © The flow has been kept similar to ride booking applications (as most of our users will be familiar with such apps). The user just has to enter his destination, and all associated parking lots in the vicinity will be shown © Tariffs at different parking lots can vary according to their closeness to certain locations of importance. For eg: a parking lot near the airport might cost more than others.The Decision Making PhaseDecision Making Ce A driver wants to ensure many things when they are parking their vehicle at a particular place: + Security - Will their vehicle be secure from vandalism, theft, damage ete + Tariff structure - Is their a slab structure or flat rate? Whether the rates are reasonable and afoordable for the driver + Nearness to desired location - Users might prefer to have a parking lot within walking distance of their desired destination + Special cases - For eg handicapped individuals might require special facilities at a parking lot + Maximum duration of parking allowedFind your parking space 9 semaine worsen aocruingzom — 240/3* Clicking on the view button opens up the datas ofthe parking lot e ‘ABCParking Zone 40/3 ‘amon 4 etymetttanntinatnts —y ‘These details hep the user make a decision about the parking ot Have to be transparent about the tariff structure as that is the major deciding factor for the users Whether the parking lot allows on the spot booking or not needs to be displayed explicitlyThe Booking Phase‘ABC Parking Zone 240) Make a Reservation Chooee aval ime and cxstion pwcstiow: 00:45 a omnis = @ 2 @ a) icy oo Bo se = = Review Details sac eng ne 40Types of Booking © I decided to offer 2 types of bookings - Pre-booking and On the spot booking - to cater to the different use cases = For tourists who plan their visits to public places, a pre booking option makes sense. The driver can book a slot for any time of that same day and pay even before leaving their hotel/home, © Forlocals, it might not make sense to plan their trips in advance. Therefore on the spot booking option also needs to be provided. The driver will have the option to go to the entry booth can book their spot there itself by scanning a qr code at the entry boothNavigating back to the parked car © Drivers often forget where they had parked their car in the parking lot © They might also lose track of time and exceed their booking duration. This may cause chaos in the parking lot (as a fully automated parking lot is very dependent on the discipline of the drivers) © The app will send full screen push natifications to remind the drivers that their booking duration is about to get over. They will also get the option to add some hours to their booking in case they wish to exceed it.= Amap will help the driver navigate to the floor and area where he had parked his vehicle. But maps are not extremely accurate (might have an error of +- 50m) Coloured LED lights will be fixed on the roof above the cars in each slot. These lights will ight up in the same colour that is being displayed on the app to the driver when he is finding his carPersonalising for daily users = Drivers who travel to office daily might need the parking space every day. For such use cases booking a slot everyday will be cumbersome = Asubscription model can be introduced for such users. Users can subscribe to a parking spot for a month and pay upfront for the whole month = Such subscription can also be offered to companies who dont have parking spaces of their own.What more can be done Inthis project, due to the heavy time constraint | have worked on secondary research as well as a hypothetical scenario. These hypothesis need to be validated © The solution | have presented is just one solution, many more can exist © User testing needs to be done to understand if the flows and the UI is usable = The interface and accompanying interactions can be definitelty improvedThankyou