Reducing Parking Search Time for City Residents

Problem Hypothesis

Thessaloniki Municipality plans to create an app for city centre residents to improve their parking experience. The app aims to alleviate frustration caused by limited parking availability due to an excess of cars. During the 3-day event, we used the methods below to come up with a solution proposal:

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Part I: Discovery

We ran initial Interviews to find out what the business wants and what the users potentially need

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Challenge

Our app aims to reduce the parking process time for city center residents. While we cannot create new parking spots, we should provide users with information about the areas where finding a parking spot is most likely.

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Stakeholder Interviews

• The vision is to enhance the convenience of local residents by providing clear information about parking spots in the city center.
• We aim to simplify the process of finding parking for city centre citizens, making it easier and more efficient.
• Unlike the existing app in Thessaloniki called "thesi," which caters to city centre visitors, our standalone mobile app is exclusively designed for local residents.
• With our app, locals will be able to remotely claim a parking spot for a duration of 60 minutes, adding to their convenience and peace of mind.

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User Interviews

• Reduce parking-related frustration
• Increase efficiency in finding parking to save time
• Enhance overall quality of life for users
• Prioritize safety in the parking experience
• Minimize walking distances for added convenience

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Part II: Ideation

For team collaboration, note-taking, and ideation on the initial findings, we used Miro. This allowed us to work together seamlessly, both in-person and asynchronously during the event.

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Competitor Analysis

We conducted research to identify both direct and indirect competitors from Greece as well as other countries.

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Persona

Due to time limitations, we created one persona based on the data from User Interviews. The interview included questions about users' everyday life, commute to work and driving experience in the city.

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Storyboard

Meet Anna! She is a young marketing manager who lives in the city centre but works in another area. Anna wants to have a smooth parking experience when returning to the city centre, so she follows these steps:

• After finishing work outside the city centre, Anna opens our app.
• She reserves a parking spot in advance before her commute back to the city centre.
• Anna drives to the city centre and parks in the reserved spot.
• Satisfied with the experience, she leaves the parking spot and continues with her day.
  

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Flowchart

The previous story has been summarised in a simple flowchart for a clearer representation of the process by including also important details

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Part III: Design & Evaluation

For the final designs and additional presentation components, we used Figma as our primary tool.

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Mid-Fidelity Design

Due to time constraints and the availability of a flowchart and storyboard for ideation with stakeholders, we proceeded with mid-fidelity designs for the app concept.

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Look & Feel

During a stakeholder meeting, we established the color palette as part of the branding solution. It is important to note that the primary color aligns with the primary color of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the app's sponsor.

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High-Fidelity Overview

We implemented stakeholders’ feedback by adding the option for users to select and claim a parking spot from available areas for 60 minutes. It's important to note that the app cannot provide an exact count of available spots. Its main objective is to enhance the parking experience by assisting users in finding existing parking spots, resulting in a faster and more convenient process.

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Conclusion

Given the time constraints, we acknowledge the limited user research conducted to validate the identified needs. However, we have developed an initial experience that serves as a solid foundation for testing and refining the solutions based on real user feedback and needs.

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Backlog Features with Potential UX Value

• In-app navigation for claimed parking areas
• Addition of Bluetooth parking confirmation feature
• Customised suggestions for parking areas
• "Choose on map" feature for selecting parking spots
• Implementation of automatic sensor-based identifier