ChallengeParking is a nightmare for student commuter in IUPUI. There are six parking garages and 11 parking lots in IUPUI campus, but lots of students still suffer from finding no space or spending too much time on finding an available spot. Every semester, students have to pay more than 100 dollars for the parking permit, but do they money really buy them a parking spot?
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About our project
Our team (3 HCI students) started this project from Sep.7 to Oct.19 (2017), spent around 30 hours. We went through Problem Framing, Design Exploration, and Prototyping Evaluating phases. I did 2 observation, 1 interview, brainstorming, prototyping, and 1 final evaluation.
Our design process is: choose one problem direction, gather data, define our user and problem, brainstorm and narrow down ideas, create prototype, and evaluate our idea.
Our final solution
Signboard at garage entrance and floor entrance
Our final solution was creating an electronic signboard at the entrance of each garage and each floor entrance. This signboard would show how many available spots in this garage and at which floor. The signboard could save the time that students go around at each floor to find a spot, instead, they can decide whether they drive in or not by the information shown at the garage entrance.
Interactive Prototype: https://invis.io/ZFE0ZH5DN
Target student - persona
Phoebe is a freshman in IUPUI. She lives at Carmel, a half hour away from school. She has a class on Monday 9. But 8 to 8:30 is the rush hour, she always has to leave home earlier. When she arrives at IUPUI, she needs to spend extra time finding a parking spot. She feels exhausted about driving into the garage but finding no parking spot. She hopes there's a way to help her parking.
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How did we come up with this solution?
Data gathering & Problem framing
Data collection
Observation & interview
In order to frame parking problems, I chose one parking garage (Gateway Garage) and observed how many cars drive in and out, how much time they spent on finding available spot, and took notes on the observation. I interviewed two student commuters and asked them what did they feel about the parking issue in IUPUI.
In order to frame parking problems, I chose one parking garage (Gateway Garage) and observed how many cars drive in and out, how much time they spent on finding available spot, and took notes on the observation. I interviewed two student commuters and asked them what did they feel about the parking issue in IUPUI.
Insights from our observation and interview:
- Most cars drive in at 9, but leave at 12. There's a rush hour at garage.
- There's a relative crowded garage and relative empty garage, depends on the place.
- Students have their own way to find their spot (ex. they drive up to the fourth floor, because there's always more available spots.), but it depends on their experience (freshman might not know where to park their car compared to the senior students.)
Problem synthesis
Affinity diagram & concept map
After we collect information from our individual observations and interviews (total 6 interviews and 3 observation note), we started to classify these findings and frame the potential problems by using affinity diagram and concept map. For affinity diagram, we wrote down our findings on small paper, grouped them, and gave a group title. To create a concept map, we started from a core problem, and branch subcategories with more details.
After we collect information from our individual observations and interviews (total 6 interviews and 3 observation note), we started to classify these findings and frame the potential problems by using affinity diagram and concept map. For affinity diagram, we wrote down our findings on small paper, grouped them, and gave a group title. To create a concept map, we started from a core problem, and branch subcategories with more details.
Main pain points for the students:
- Few parking space
- Time consuming
- Lack of useful information (specific focusing on spot number instead of rate)
- High cost of parking permit
- Inconvenient garage location
Problem framing and user defining
Problem: How can we provide an efficient and effective way for students to find a parking spot?
User defining with persona:
Phoebe (21) is a freshman in IUPUI. She lives at Carmel, a half hour away from school. She has a class on Monday 9. But 8 to 8:30 is the rush hour, she always has to leave home earlier. When she arrives at IUPUI, she needs to spend extra time finding a parking spot. She feels exhausted about driving into the garage but finding no parking spot. She hopes there's a way to help her parking. |
Ideation & Idea narrowing down
Design exploration
Brainstorming
We created 80 solutions for the parking problem. Some ideas are very practical, some of them are very crazy. We chose our favorite three and discussed them, I classified our 9 ideas into 5 categories: using application, new service, new permit rule, new construction, and develop new devices. Finally, we decided three feasible ideas: Electronic signboard, Balloon, and Carpool application. |
Idea narrowing down
We voted and chose the "electronic signboard" at garage entrance and floor entrance. Drivers can drive through each garage and know how many available spots in this garage now, and also they can know in which floor these spots are.
Prototyping & Evaluation
Prototyping
Low-fidelity prototype
Low- fidelity prototype revised
High-fidelity Prototype (with InVision)
Interactive Prototype: https://invis.io/ZFE0ZH5DN
I use hybrid pictures to show how this signboard looks like in the real environment.
Interactive Prototype: https://invis.io/ZFE0ZH5DN
I use hybrid pictures to show how this signboard looks like in the real environment.
Usability Evaluation
Insights from usability evaluation:
- This color is not very clear in a far distance.
- The floor entrance signboard is too small to read.
- The floor arrangement doesn't map to the reality.