Beep beep prototypes!

After our class on design thinking we felt inspired! We wanted to work on a prototype to show people how Beep Beep works, but also to show how the app would look like. We contacted a desirgner who in turn made the first Beep Beep prototypes!

First screenshot

The first screenshot is the options page, where you can choose whether to find a spot or post the spot you're currently leaving.

Second screen shot

Let's say you're looking for a parking spot. The second screen shot shows the moment when the map knows your position, so you can ask the app to search for parking spots.

Third screen shot

To start the search, you will have to use one of your Beep Beep letters. Each letter accounts for one search. You get letters back everytime you share a parking spot. Each share accounts for a "Beep",

Fourth screen shot

The fourth screenshot shows a parking spot nearby. You can see that because you did a search the last "p"is now used.

With these images on our phones we talked to our friends and classmates and showed them how it would be like to use Beep Beep. We got inmediate feedback about colours, layouts, fonts, usage, etc.
For the most comments, they were positive and supporting: the idea is good and helpful, the app looks clean, simple to use and easy to navigate. We also got some ideas for improvement, like a change in fonts and logo to be coherent with the simple layout, and a improvement on the map to make it look more professional.
All of this was great, simple and fast feedback that we used to improve the screenshots. The updated versions can be seen below. We plan to use these on a second field trip, were we will aproach people not only with our ideas but also with our prototypes! Wish us luck!

Beep Beep parking dashboard

Continuing with our series of blog posts, this one is dedicated to our dashboard and two particular leaps of faith we believe are key to the success of Beep Beep parking.

1^st Leap of faith: People will use an app to find parking spots in busy cities

Hypotheses

1. Parking is difficult in busy cities
2. People don’t want to waste time looking for parking spots

Measures

We thought of combining information from desktop and also from on the field research:

1.  # of people with cars  v/s # of parking spots
2. Time spent looking for a spot

Tests

After defining our measures, we thought of ways to coming up with the information:

1. Online information to corroborate “scarcity”
2. On the field interview

Findings

According to Iamsterdam, there are currently 263,000 cars in Amsterdam. The traffic that the city receives every day is divided between bikes (32%), cars (22%) and public transport (16%). This means that the 57,860 cars that make the 22% traffic movement have only 4,454 parking spots available in Amsterdam city center.

When we went out to interview users, they responded that it took them between 10 to 30 mins looking for parking spots, with an average of 15 mins. When asked about using the help of an app most of positive responses came from younger users

Conclusions

Our conclusions to this leap of faith are that the scarcity of parking spots in Amsterdam city center makes finding a parking spot a time consuming activity. On the bright side, younger users are willing to use an app to assist them in the search for parking spots.

 

2^nd leap of faith: People will share parking spots for free

Hypotheses

Our hypothesis for this leap of faith are

1. Gamification will encourage people to share
2. People want to be part of a sharing community

Both of these share one previous hypothesis which is that people are used to social media

Measures

Only one measure for this one: # of positive responses to the model

Tests

We think this kind of information can only be found on the field, so the test will be a interview with app screenshots. This will help the people understand the functionalities of the app and will also give us instant feedback about the appearance of the app.  

Findings

1. People are used to share via apps and social media, the idea of sharing is not new to them
2. People don’t think it would be hard/ time consuming to share
3. Gamification used in the app needs to be precise to motivate people to share without looking too childish
4. More features are needed to make the app interesting

Conclusions

Thanks to the rise in social media, sharing via an app on their phones is already part of the user’s mind set. It’s simple, fast and rewarding. But in order for users to choose to open the app, it needs to be a game experience for them. This means the design and layout, but also means more features to make opening the app worth their while.

 

Observational Learning - Amsterdam

Early Monday morning (14/9/2015) the Beep Beep team embarked on a trip to Amsterdam.  The elements were bad as it was raining all morning.  We conclude we need a second trip in the afternoon to collect even more data.

However we were still able to observe and talk to people about their parking habits and concerns.  In fact, it turned out that people were more than willing to share their experiences.

 

Here are our specific recordings:

1.       Green car: 15+ mins. Drove around many blocks. Said the app would be really helpful. (age range?) Took pic of parked car.

2.       Guy in unofficial parking spot. It’s hard to find a spot, and on top you have to pay for it. Wasn’t very convinced with the app because “you still have to pay”. Older (40-50 age)

3.       Parking meter guy: looking for parking can take up to 15 – 20 mins, sometimes more. An app would be helpful (age range?)

4.       A lot of taxis (über?) around hotels, picking up guests, parking in unofficial places. Opportunity?

5.       2 guys struggled with using the meter.

6.       A lot of maintenance and delivery vans parking in sidewalk (30 to 40). Do they do it to save money? Time? Space? Most trucks and big vans don’t fit in the spaces anyways

7.       Radisson Hotel charges $5,50 for a parking spot, no valet. Street parking is $5

8.       Most people using the parking were locals (observed about 100 cars passing by, seemingly searching for parking).  Perhaps 2/3 had a very anxious look and seemed to turn at each intersection in hopes of something better.  Others were laid back as if there were no worries in the world.

9.       The crazy parking hours are during afternoon, when people come back from their jobs, and weekends

10.   Fedex guy: was parked on the sidewalk. He doesn’t pay for parking tickets, his boss does. Obviously doesn’t pay for parking. App would be useful. (25-30 years)

11.   Blond guy: spent 30 minutes looking for parking, says it’s always a problem. He would absolutely use the app. He uses the park mobile app to pay for parking spots. Took pic of parked car. (25-30 years)

General observations:

1.       Younger people are more enthusiastic about the app

2.       We didn’t find women parking.

3.       Need to look into parkmobile.com.

4.       Most spots in the city were taken.

5.       Garages exist, but hidden and usually associated with hotel.