The first sharing parking service in the U.S., tackling urban parking issues, easing driver burdens, cutting congestion, stress, and emissions for a greener future.
Reservation System Design
Sep. 2022 to Dec. 2022
My Role
Chief Product Officer, Founding Designer, UI Engineer
Tools
User interview, Deductive Method, Inductive Method, Competitor Analysis, Figma, SwiftUI
Team
John Shahin(UX Writer) 、Antony Chang(CEO)、Kevin Chang(DevOps)、Fong Liou (Developer)、
Simpson Huang(Developer)、Eve Wang(Product Designer)
Goal
In order to ensure a seamless reservation process, drivers can make their bookings in just three simple steps, whether they're planning ahead or searching for a nearby parking spot.
IMPACT
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Defined development direction and aligning with business model in an ambiguous environment, attracting media coverage.
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Designing a user-friendly reservation process with ZERO LEARNING CURVE to save cost of customer service.
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Designing an exit strategy without the aid of third-party tools.
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Resolved the UNEXPECTED crash issue encountered during the reservation of a spot.
WHAT CHALLENGES WE FACE
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Why does the Reservation process always crash unexpectedly?
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How to determine design direction amid ambiguity?
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How do we inform drivers of the available spots and times?
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How to ensure the drivers exit the parking spot?
Challenge
How to determine design direction amid ambiguity?
Variety Case Studies
Analyzed a variety of reservation processes via logic and found the common patterns for reference of design
Online User Interviews
Conduct user interviews via video call and text to validate the design patterns and ensure alignment with user needs.
20% Primary Research + 80% Secondary Research
Design Directons
I've identified three essential factors as design guidelines. The next step is to design based on the product's business indicators.
Reached Consensus
Continuously aligning the direction with the CEO and COO ensures compatibility with the current business model and phase.
From Design Direction to Implementation
1
Location
What is the Strategy for Available Spots?
The problem we need to address here is how to display available parking spots on the map. Should we integrate cost information? Should spots that are unavailable for parking be displayed? How should we indicate charging spots?
2
Time
How to Show Available Time?
Parking reservation is different from booking hotels, a calendar-based booking system is not suitable, we have to provide accurate time slots. Additionally, the timepicker does not support database linkage.
3
Price
Absence of Exit Verification Tool
Our pricing strategy will allow hosts to determine their own rates, but we will provide guidelines. However, the more pressing issue is that we currently lack a mechanism to determine when drivers leave, which affects user earnings and, consequently, pricing.
Design
Lo-Fi Product Design for Validating
Solution
Strategy 1 - Location Driven
Design Details
Strategy 2 - Time Driven
Design Details
Both Strategy have Compliance Payment Solution
Solution
Solutions Evaluation
Strategy 1 - Location Driven
Pros
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Convenient for Investor Demonstrations
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Easily discernible parking locations
Cons
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Manual Spot Filtering Needed
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API connecting is busy
Strategy 2- Time Driven
Pros
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Easy to reserve available spot upon specific time
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Reduce database loading times
Cons
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Bad experience of searching spot due to limited spots
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Worse to demonstration to investor.
For Driver Exited Verification
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We schedule a 3-hour interval between each reservation.
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Drivers receive a reminder notification every 30 minutes to move their car.
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We collaborate with a towing company to relocate cars if hosts report a vehicle still occupying their spot.
Final Design
Location Driven
Design Decision Aim to Business
Why we make this decision
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The first priority is reaching and demonstrating to potential investors.
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Most spots are available 24/7.
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Displaying spots at first page can enhance trust among hosts
To optimize Reservation experience
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Based on research, drivers are accustomed to finding spots on-site. We implemented a "Parking spot available now" indicator to fix the manual filter issue .
Development
Designing and Coding
Impact
Go to Market and No Need for Tutorials
Achieved Goal
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Designed and led the team to complete the compliant reservation system and launch it to market.
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Reduce customer service cost, no tutorial needs for completing the reservation process.
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Using time intervals to solve the problem of lack of third-party verification of checkout.
Result
Media Coverage
One More Challenge
Fix Unexpected Crash with Developers
Unexpected crash while users make a reservation of spot
Solution
Modulized the Major Functions
After reviewing the code, we found that engineers combined too many features in one view. I introduced the concept of modularization for fixing the crash issue (life circle) and added new modules based on business needs.
Take Away
1. Missed the data structure problems
A disorganized database structure hampers access to specific time data for available parking spots. The next version will prioritize time as the primary parameter and introduce recommendation functionality to minimize API calls, thereby cutting costs.
2. Interval time is too long
There has been some host feedback, as their parking spots are quite large, and they don't mind if there is some time overlap. However, there has also been host feedback that excessively long parking durations are leading to a decline in revenue.
3. Showing spots on the map doesn’t increase interest in joining us
The feedback from the hosts indicates that simply showing the available parking spots on a map does not necessarily increase interest in joining the platform.