Improving the User Experience Of Parking Areas

Making parking effortless —a study in Design Thinking

Photo by Bartosz Kwitkowski on Unsplash

Design thinking is a method so widely used in UX, and a skill that’s frequently sought out in product designers. Wikipedia will give you definitions and various interpretations of this process. Applying it to a non-digital project has helped me learn what to do, what not do, and what to improve while using the tool that is design thinking.

Here is a stage-by-stage study of how I applied design thinking to improve users’ experience of parking areas (with notes and learnings ✍️)

Empathize

I began the first stage of design thinking — to empathize with users, and identify the problems they face while using their parking space — through a set of user interviews.

Users may not know the problems they face, so I needed to draw out concerns and gaps in their parking area.

To do this, I framed my interview questions to give me information surrounding a few core aspects —

1. Context — what do the users use their parking space for and how often? do they have a space at all?
2. Activities — what exactly do the users do in the space? what are their most frequent/regular activities?
3. Experience — how do they perform these activities? how easy/difficult is it for them to do so?

My past experience of interacting with customers has taught me the importance of creating a relaxed and conversational atmosphere. So, I used the questions as guidelines, while making sure I had non-rigid conversations with the users I interviewed.

User time is valuable and expensive.

✍️ With each interview, I learned to lead the conversations with a better grip on time —
watch the clock,
bring conversations back when they wander, and
use visual aids to more effectively get information.

The questions I framed are listed below —

1. Do you have a parking area? Do you have need for a parking area currently?
2. What do you use your parking for? / What is the vehicle you use your parking for?
3. Let’s talk about your house. What kind of house do you live in?
4. How many vehicles can be parked in your parking area?
5. Can I see a quick sketch of your parking area? (asked in later interviews) Where in this do you park?
6. What do you do when you want to park? Can you walk me through how you park after you get back home?
7. How do you exit your parking space when you want to take your vehicle out for a drive? What could be better about this?
8. What are the things you take with you for sure on every trip in your vehicle? (did not explore this question enough)
9. What do you do when you need to clean your vehicle? Where do you keep / get those cleaning supplies from?
10. What about if you have to do small repairs? (asked for some)
11. How is the light for the parking area? Where is the switch board? (asked for some)
12. What happens during different kinds of weather? (How raised is the parking area? Roofed?)
13. What is the security like in your area? (asked for some)
14. What is one thing you like best about your parking currently, and one thing you dislike?
15. If you could change or add anything about your parking space, what would you change?

After talking to users about their experiences — good and bad — in their parking areas, I compiled the insights from each user.

Define

In the second stage of design thinking, I needed to distill the insights I got from the users into problems (or opportunities for improvement in UX :) ).

Once I had listed the problems, I needed to define each of them further and understand The Core.

The core is simply the origin/ root cause/ importance of the problem for the user.

These are the problems I identified, along with the deeper level of definition of the problem —

1. Users find space too tight to navigate pillars and gates and park their vehicles (especially cars).
   The core: It takes time, focus, and sometimes even outsider help to steer their car into the parking spot such that they avoid scratching their car on pillars/gates, and have enough space to get out of their car.
2. Parking space is not enough for the number of vehicles in the apartment so some vehicles need to be parked outside.
   The core: Parking outside forces users to protect their vehicles from sun and rain, and children, animals, or other people who may damage their vehicle outside.
3. Space is not planned, so users cannot turn to use the side spaces of the parking area to the fullest.
   The core: Users are unable to fully use the space, and the vehicles get cramped in a small part of the parking, which makes walking to the door difficult.
4. Parking lots are not placed in a planned way, so the way the vehicles are parked obstructs other vehicles from being taken out.
   The core: Users are unable to freely move the vehicle in and out without calling the neighbours to move their vehicle. (Therefore they have constant arguments with the neighbours as well)
5. Security of the area is a concern and users feel that a watchman cannot do much anyway in case of theft or damage.
   The core: Users need a way to be alerted when someone breaks in, and a way to identify the trespasser since the parking is the entry to the home.
6. Users are worried about animals resting under their vehicle.
   The core: Users want a way to know when animals are resting under the vehicle so that they don’t accidentally run over them.

✍️ At this stage I learned the need for good follow up questions, to get the necessary data to identify the core problem faced by users. I found myself unable to go beyond the surface for some problems. I needed to ask more, why’s, how’s, and what-happens-then’s

Ideate

🥶 Spoiler alert — I made a very basic, but impactful mistake here, that I learned from at a later stage.

In this design thinking project, I moved into the ideate stage before selecting a specific problem to address. Although this may not be the case in real world projects, it gave me a full workout in the process of brainstorming solutions.

I came up with as many solutions as I could for each problem using the crazy 8 method.

Check out all the solutions here —

The next step was to select the top 3 out of the solutions I had come up with—

1. Angular parking lots with reflective floor markings, to reduce turning radius and help users navigate with minimal effort into their parking lots.
Why: Aimed at the problem of navigating cars in the parking area without stress, which I feel is an important problem to solve. Floor markings could be an easy and economical solution to implement for a variety of parking spaces, even if the location prevents angular parking from being created.

2. A mobile robot that aligns itself with the car and uses laser beams to provide a guide for users to navigate into their parking lots with minimal effort.
Why: Aimed at the problem of navigating cars in the parking area without stress, which I feel is an important problem to solve since it creates everyday friction. Laser beams have been used widely as a way to provide guidelines in construction, and this could be a great on and off way to have guidelines on the floor.

3. Leveled parking lift, to make use of upward vertical space, which would allow vehicles to be parked one below the other.
Why: Aimed at the problems of limited space (#2 and #3) which are frequently faced by drivers. This could be used by vehicles of various kinds

Prototype

I chose to address the problem of cars entering and exiting the parking area smoothly without worry, stress or fuss. For many, this is the first thing they do while rushing out of the house with the day’s tasks in mind. It is the last thing they do as they’re eager to walk through their front doors and wind up for the day.

Out of the 3 solutions I had narrowed down, I selected the idea of providing visual guidelines using reflective floor paint to help users stay on track to moving into their parking lot smoothly.

The paint would be drawn out into tracks for each parking lot, keeping in mind the maximum width that a car could take up. The tracks for adjacent lots would be differentiated with alternating colours of paint. As long as the car remained centered in the track, it would easily enter the lot while avoiding pillars and walls.

I chose this solution primarily because I thought it would be economical and easy to implement for users.

Testing

In this stage I took my prototype to the users (this turned into more of a peer testing, than a user testing)

The usability feedback I got for the idea were —

1. AR users felt floor markings are definitely useful (just like on the road), but JG and SA felt will be hard to see at close distance in a parking space.
2. This method would severely affect the aesthetics of the parking area.

However, one person pointed out the most obvious flaw in the solution — there was no product.

(This was a great reminder of how design thinking is an iterative process. I’ll go back to Ideate.)

I had made the basic mistake of forgetting that I’m aiming to create a product to solve problems, not methods and modifications.

✍️ The big learning here was that, while focusing on simplicity for users, I need to create something sellable for my business as well.

✍️ Another more practical learning — I need to really challenge myself to justify the approaches I choose to take. This will greatly improve my choices while helping me effectively communicate the need for my approach to other stakeholders.

Prototype 2

I still wanted to address problem of cars entering and exiting the parking area smoothly without worry, stress or fuss, for the same reasons I mentioned earlier.

I decided to work with my second solution instead — a small device on wheels that can move around the parking space while projecting a laser beam to provide a visual guideline for a car to follow.

This idea was inspired by robot vacuums and laser levels used in construction. Just like laser levels, my mobile parking guide would project laser beams (these are fairly clear and visible at any time of day or night, especially within roofed, shaded areas such as ground floor parking).

It would move as per average speeds of cars during parking and adjust its speed using sensor inputs (if the car gets too close).

The parking guide’s path during operation is illustrated below —

The car driver needs to align themselves centrally to the laser guide. A mobile app can be used to alert the device when the driver is close to home and the device needs to get to work.

Testing

The users’ feedback on Prototype 2 were —

1. SA and JG felt the laser beam guides on the floor may still not be visible (since close range visibility is not great in a car)
2. SA and Sj felt the device could slip under the car and will not be visible if the car moves forward too fast.
3. SA also felt the device could be stolen if it is just lying around in the parking area.

In my own thinking after the testing call I realized there would be even less visibility for the laser beam on the floor while taking the car out in reverse.

I did get validation for a product in this direction—

users still believed that as long a guide is visible to the driver. it would make parking a much smoother, faster experience for them.
While some users felt that they may not need to invest in a parking guide, others felt that they would in order to save time and avoid stress.

Prototype 2 ver. 2

In this iteration, I focused on mitigating my product’s usability concerns— visibility of the guiding laser beam.

I looked through various resources for visibility from the driver’s seat of cars. This seemed to vary depending on the size and type of the car. I thought about the hood as being universally visible, but this too was not the case — for flatter cars, you may be able to see the hood, and for more aerodynamic and van like cars, the hood might not be visible.

Through all the research I found one constant — every car driver could see the front dashboard. So I modified my laser parking guide to be roof mounted (still mobile) and project the laser beam on the center of the dashboard of the car (instead of projecting on the floor).

The proof of concept for projection of a guiding arrow came from roof mounted safety signs and decorative projections (check out gobo projectors) that are used in various places —

Left to right: A sample of a laser projector, which will be fitted with bearings to let it run along roof mounted tracks; a sample to illustrate how projected arrows would appear

Here is a description of the updated prototype and how it addresses usability feedback from the testing stage—

1. The laser projector moves along a roof mounted track. The track runs along the center of the drive way, from gate to parking lot.
   (This addresses the user concern of the device being run over by a faster car/ taken away from the parking area)
2. The projector aligns itself to the entry point when the user sends a request through a mobile app while reaching home.
   It would project a laser beam downwards (with the guiding arrow being calibrated to fall on the dashboard of the car).
   (This addresses the major user concern of floor visibility)
3. We still have a mobile app to alert the device when the driver is close to home.
4. The laser projector moves along the ceiling tracks, staying above the car as it enters the drive way, and changes the colour of the laser beam once the car has entered the parking slot (as an indication to stop).
   (Since the projector is always above the car, the beam would not be obstructed by pillars or other objects)
5. The user simply needs to keep their car aligned centrally with the laser guide’s arrow as they move in.
6. At this resting position the device would plug into its roof mounted charging station.
7. When the car needs to exit, the laser projector positions itself close to the driveway and reverses its path (to go towards the gate). This time the laser beam is calibrated to fall on the rear deck of the car.
8. Again the user needs to simply center the car to the laser arrow projected on the rear deck.

Future scope

Calibrating the position of the laser projection needs to be done the first time anyone sets up this product (for forward and reverse movement) using a remote control. I have not figured out the exact mechanics and methods for how the calibration will be done, so I’d love comments from those with experience in remote-controlled device design!

There are also possibilities to add sensor feedback and sound/voice signals to indicate when to turn, when to stop, and if the car is out of alignment.

Key learnings

1. Ask follow ups and dig deep.
   Time with users is golden, and effective follow up questions can give me the data necessary to find the core problem to solve.
2. Define problems with both users and the business in mind.
   This is especially important in my case, since I’m in the early stages of learning product design. With practice, I’ll think about usability and business impact hand-in-hand.
3. Think of real reasons for why I should go with an approach or solution.
   Trying to justify and defend an idea will force me to see the actual pros and cons of it. This is one step I wish I had done better.
4. Seek crticism.
   A lot more learning and faster progress happens when I stop marinating ideas in my head, but step our and ask for opinions instead.

In future work, I’m excited to improve the way I do user research.

I also learned to critique myself better towards the end of this project, and hope to challenge myself with that aspect of designing in the future.

Giving thanks where thanks are due :) —

My teammates did not mince words while providing me with feedback. We argued, kept each other going, and gave each other a lot of mature perspectives during our interactions. Couldn’t have asked for a better team — check out their work here, and here.

This project has been structured to set you up for failures leading to lots of learning. It forced me to take a lot of baby steps while thoroughly exploring all stages of design thinking — huge thanks to Anudeep for this experience!