˗ˏˋ background ˊˎ˗
In response to the ongoing parking challenges faced by commuters on my college campus, I decided to develop a mobile application designed to significantly improve the parking experience for students and faculty. This application aims to provide real-time parking availability information, location-based navigation to the nearest available parking spots, and the option to reserve parking spaces in advance.
˗ˏˋ problem statement ˊˎ˗
Students who use the parking decks and lots on campus have trouble finding parking spots despite having purchased a parking pass.
First, I viewed NJIT’s information page about parking. I discovered that, despite the cost of the parking fees for each semester ($325 for full-time commuter students (12 or more credits), $182 for part-time commuter students), there is no guarantee of availability. A lot of these parking spots are filled and certain students who paid do not have a way of circumventing the system; there is no guidance on where there are more parking spots even with a paid pass. Additional research revealed that NJIT already has a parking availability app, but it has faced criticism for its lack of accuracy and failure to address the issue of bad parking effectively. This suggests a clear opportunity for an improved and more sophisticated app to fill this gap and enhance the commuting experience for students facing parking difficulties.
From this map we can see that NJIT, is a complex piece of architecture, there are multiple conjoined streets, we have a series of “main” streets, little side alleys, as well as smaller streets. This image also showcases the shortage of parking facilities for a school of this magnitude. There are five parking areas designated for students, but only two major parking decks with a proper parking spaces.
Fig. 1. Image of a map of the New Jersey Institute of Technology campus.
˗ˏˋ preliminary research ˊˎ˗
˗ˏˋ interview process ˊˎ˗
I decided to implement four design methods: the use of personas, a scenario, a storyboard, and a user journey map.
Laura Mitchell
Age: 38, Height: 5'6", Weight: 150 lbs
Laura has been a part of the NJIT community for over a decade, having earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the university. She's known for her passion for teaching and her commitment to advancing research in her field. She lives in a quiet suburban neighborhood in North Jersey, approximately 25 miles away from the NJIT campus. Her daily commute usually takes around 45 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic conditions. She prefers driving to campus as it allows her flexibility, especially when she needs to bring research equipment or meet with colleagues off-campus. Laura is well-liked by her students for her approachability and her willingness to help them succeed. She values punctuality and encourages her students to be equally organized and time-conscious.
Sharad Patel
Age: 21, Height: 6’01”, Weight: 190 Lbs
Sharad Patel is a junior at NJIT. He is new to the school since he recently transferred from community college as a mechanical engineering student. He drives his own vehicle and has a set budget for gas. He also takes a lot of classes. His schedule is very busy and has limited time. He tries to be a good student and is concerned about how his professors view him. He also tries to be punctual and works on his time management skills. He currently commutes to NJIT, and it takes about an hour.
John Smith
Age: 22, Height: 5'10", Weight: 205 lbs
John Smith is an employee at NJIT who works in the dining hall on campus. Smith lives in Toms River and has to make a daily commute to NJIT’s campus. He pays for all his own expenses, including vehicle-related ones, due to his family's financial difficulties. He drives an old pickup truck that his dad passed down to him. This vehicle is not fuel-efficient at all. And with the high gas prices, he’s struggling to budget for gas money. He spends around an hour commuting to NJIT and takes over 15 minutes to find parking and another 15 minutes to exit the campus. So on top of his daily 1 hour commute, he has to waste another 30 minutes due to the parking situation at the school. His money for gas is cutting into the rest of his allocated food budget. This is such a big issue that he’s considering looking for another job elsewhere if the situation doesn’t improve.
˗ˏˋ personas ˊˎ˗
˗ˏˋ scenario & storyboard ˊˎ˗
It’s Sharad’s first day of classes. He’s nervous driving, and he doesn’t know where anything is on campus. It took him a while to find the parking deck, and once he got there, there were no spaces left, so he had to look for street parking, even though he paid for the parking pass already which cost $325 per semester. All of these things together, combined with the stress of the first day, caused him to be late to his first class and he is worried that he made his professor upset and caused a bad first impression. This scenario was developed after we created our persona, in order to understand our potential users more, and to identify what problems that our potential users could face when it comes to parking at NJIT.
Fig. 2. Storyboard depicting a typical day for Sharad, the first persona that we created. He travels to NJIT and struggles to find parking, arriving late for class and in distress.
Fig. 3. A picture of a user journey map, depicting Persona 1, Sharad's mood throughout the day depicted in the scenario. It also includes expectations that Sharad has for parking at NJIT, as well as the opportunities that we spotted for specific app features.
˗ˏˋ site map & screen flow ˊˎ˗
The sitemap and screenflow were developed in tandem after creating the user journey map. Using the user journey map, I was able to identify preliminary key features that we wanted to include within the app. Using that information, I developed the screenflow that addressed the key issues that I found users to have. I created screens for reserving parking spots, and for identifying traffic conditions, in an effort to solve some of the most glaring problems. The sitemap was also developed in order to make it clear how the app would flow and showcase how the different screens are connected.
Fig. 4. Initial sitemap created for the proposed parking application. It depicts the different screens that we planned to create and how the user can access them from other screens, starting from the Home screen into the map of NJIT and the different parking decks.
Fig. 5. First rendition of the screenflow for the proposed parking application. There are less screens than are featured in the final wireframe because this was the prototype.
Fig. 6. Image of completed wireframe depicting the different screens and features of the proposed NJIT parking app. There are many additional screens compared to the previous prototypes in order to best accommodate user needs.
After creating the sitemap and screenflows and receiving peer feedback as well as feedback from the Professor, we used Figma to develop our final wireframe. The final wireframe is the most complete version of the project, and showcases many different features targeting specific user issues. The screens depicted show the log-in page, the different pages that we have for parking and traffic updates, as well as the screens showing how to navigate to the parking spots in the parking deck and how to reserve a space. There is also a feedback form, and a way to edit your profile.
By leveraging my skills in user interface and user experience design, I am ensuring that the application offers an intuitive and efficient solution to address the daily parking struggles of the campus community. This project involves user research, wireframing, prototyping, and mobile app development. My goal is to not only alleviate the stress of parking but also to create a more connected and user-centric campus experience for commuters.