Parking is an everyday task that many people around the world do. And yet, many drivers find parking one of the most stressful tasks they face daily. To extreme degrees, anticipatory car park anxiety is an authentic physical disorder. And it spikes, especially when it comes to parking in difficult areas, such as, densely populated areas that require parking on the street.
The Parking Helper is a Google Maps enhancement that alleviates the stress users feel when trying to finding the best on-street parking.
User Research & Requirements Gathering, Qualitative Field Research & Contextual Inquiry, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Test, UI Design
How can Google Maps help alleviate the stress drivers feel when parking on the street of a highly-congested and parking enforced area?
If Google Maps provides the driver with a street parking mode feature that allows users to...
(1) easily understand where they can park
(2) follow a path that optimizes their chances to find street parking
(3) have information that makes them secure
...drivers will feel less stressed when finding street parking, especially in highly-congested and parking enforced areas.
Although Google Maps is an already well-known and solid app, the purpose of this project was to figure out how I can to take it to the next level by adding a feature. To do that, I first had to interview Google Maps users.
The main goal of these interviews was to understand the individual's driving journey using the app and find frustrations within the driving journey that a lot of drivers experience.
Through the interviews, I realized that parking was a universal task that every driver does. And that there is a level of frustration that comes specifically with on-street parking. Here are my main findings.
100% of users found on-street parking in highly-congested areas stressful situations.
Multi-tasking increases mental workload and can cause dangerous car situations.
Often times, on-street parking is a stressful task for many drivers and it escalates when it's in a highly-congested and parking enforced area.
In those areas, drivers have to maximize their cognitive load to find an appropriate on-street parking spot. However, that in it of itself can be dangerous, exhausting, and stressful.
It was important to first understand the magnitude of the challenge mentioned previously. By going through quantitive research, numbers were found that solidified an assumption.
It turns out that drivers, in fact, experience more time searching for parking in highly-congested areas.
After doing all the research and interviews, I analyzed and synthesized the findings to find an all encompassing problem and an approach that potentially solves it.
At this point, I've done enough research to finally understand the problem to be solved. I wanted to do another round of interviews with the questions focusing more on why the stress is present during these areas. Here are my main findings.
After doing all the research and interviews, I analyzed and synthesized the findings to find an all encompassing problem and an approach that potentially solves it.
Before jumping into any design work, I created a user persona that I can center my design around. The user persona I created reflected the wants, needs, motivations, and frustrations I found in my user research.
Ray is an ideal driver that would benefit from this type of Google Maps enhancement due to this situation explained in his biography.
After solidifying the solution, I established the main task in focus:
Ray driving from his home to downtown Seattle and finding an on-street parking spot to meet up with his friends.
I analyzed the journey and dove deep into mapping out his feelings, the stages of the journey, the thoughts he is thinking and the opportunities of which the tool can be utilized. This allowed me to not only empathize with the user, but also to see ways in which I can fill in the gaps.
After finding the opportunities of where I can improve the journey. The main task being:
Find on-street parking in a highly-congested and parking enforced area.
I mapped out the current task flow and created a proposed task flow to check if the approach is a more efficient way in comparison. In the end, it was.
Since Google Maps was already an existing app, I wanted to make sure that the layout this enhancement aligned with their already established app structure. Referencing a Google Maps design system, I tested out different layouts. Below are the top layouts I chose to digitalize.
Below are the lo-fidelity wireframes created referencing the sketches shown previously. Throughout this process, I referenced the Google Maps design system consistently to match the stylings of certain components. It was important to me that the structure and layout of this enhancement was consistent with the rest of the app.
After creating the high-fidelity wireframes and having a working prototype, two rounds of usability tests were conducted to validate assumptions and design choices.
Since this is a navigation app that is used while driving, it was important that I recreated that environment to get realistic results. Unfortunately, driving around with the prototype was not an option due to the limitations of the prototype.
I did, however, recreate the scene by having the participants pretend to drive while looking at the prototype in 2 - 3 second glimpses as if they were actually using it on the road.
Towards the end of the design process, I finalized the UI and visual design aspects of the product. Interact with the slide on the left to see the finalized wireframes in order.
Made to help drivers efficiently and safely find on-street parking, The Parking Helper is a google maps enhancement that makes parking in tough areas easier.
All users voiced that The Parking Helper, after the initial shock, would help them feel less-stressed while parking in highly-congested and parking enforced areas because they were given relevant parking information in real-time to make informed decisions. The initial shock was due to the unfamiliarity of the feature, which disappeared momentarily afterwards resulting in a pleasant experience.
In addition, many users were excited about this feature and were hoping it would get implemented in real life.
I will conduct a few more rounds of usability tests to continue to find the best way to display the color-coded parameters while users are driving. In addition, I will conduct usability tests out on the road to receive more accurate feedback from users.
