Renter Scenario
Rebecca is on break at the hospital on Friday when she gets an email notification with the new work schedule. “Oh no” Rebecca thinks, when she sees that she has been assigned the morning shifts. The current spot she’s been using through Parc isn’t available in the mornings so she has to put in a new request. She quickly opens the Parc app to schedule parking for next week. She knows she needs parking from next Monday to the following Monday, excluding weekends. She finds all of the available spots for parking and sees 2 of her ParcPals. She opens the closer one and sees Madeleine and remembers parking with her before. She then submits a parking request to Madeleine.
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Prompt
The most interesting outcomes of the spread of technology has been the rise of the peer economy; one where traditional services get replaced by people (peers) providing just-in-time services to each other. For this assignment, we broaden the definition of peer economy apps to be any that bring two different user roles, with different goals, together in competition of a task.
Scenario:
To propose a native app solution for finding and renting parking spots in high traffic areas based on other models of the peer economy.
To propose a native app solution for finding and renting parking spots in high traffic areas based on other models of the peer economy.
User Flow
Loaner Scenario
Madeline is on break at school browsing the internet looking at prices for the Nintendo 3DS. She gets a notification with a request from Rebecca asking to use her parking space for the next week. She does the math and realizes that if she rents out her spot for the next week to Rebecca, then she can afford the gift for her grandkid. Since Madeline wants to rent out her driveway in the mornings it works out perfectly since she is at work all day. After reviewing Rebecca’s profile and noticing that they are Level 2 ParcPals, she goes ahead and approves Madeline’s request. After using Parc, Madeline is able to give her grandchild the Nintendo DS. Rebecca has been enjoying 30 extra minutes of sleep every morning and saving some money too.
Madeline is on break at school browsing the internet looking at prices for the Nintendo 3DS. She gets a notification with a request from Rebecca asking to use her parking space for the next week. She does the math and realizes that if she rents out her spot for the next week to Rebecca, then she can afford the gift for her grandkid. Since Madeline wants to rent out her driveway in the mornings it works out perfectly since she is at work all day. After reviewing Rebecca’s profile and noticing that they are Level 2 ParcPals, she goes ahead and approves Madeline’s request. After using Parc, Madeline is able to give her grandchild the Nintendo DS. Rebecca has been enjoying 30 extra minutes of sleep every morning and saving some money too.
Research
Interviewed and surveyed 32 people to solidify our understanding of problems surrounding parking and under which circumstances they would volunteer their parking space. Interviewees were mostly Pittsburgh college students that either owned a car or used car sharing services such as Zipcar.
Insights
-People are the most comfortable renting and borrowing a spot from their friends so a app solution should support relationship building between the participants.
- Since people are the most comfortable renting from their friends, the app should have some type of friend filter.
- People either need parking for a very short period of time or a extended period of time so the native app solution should have options for both.
Iteration 1
Using the feedback and our new insights from the research we conducted, we put together a low fidelity prototype for those who would potentially be looking for parking or for those people looking to rent their spots.
Feedback
There was confusion about why the user would need the hamburger button and what information it could potentiall contain.
There was no immediate link for parking now or making a future reservation.
There was a constant confusion about what "view" or mode the user was in, if someone was a renter or a loaner, the app should indicate it in a more immediate way.
There were multiple concerns about how our app would handle conflicting reservations.
Final Iteration
In order to address these concerns, we went back rethought specific steps in the interaction process in order to achieve clarity and intent. We rethought how to toggle between meus and the phrasing for certain action items as well as how to handle conflicting reservations and date toggling. One more aspect of the app that we wanted to touch on was how we were to incentivize individuals to lend out their spots.
Stack Ordering
In order to emphasize the relationship being built, we came up with the idea of "Parcpals" where every time you parked with a specific person your parcpal level would increase by one. When a user would request a spot that conflicted with other(s), the parcpal level and the amount of money the reservation offered are used to determine stack ordering and priority. Priority in the stack would be determined by parcpal level multiplied by amount of money being offered in the reservation.
In order to emphasize the relationship being built, we came up with the idea of "Parcpals" where every time you parked with a specific person your parcpal level would increase by one. When a user would request a spot that conflicted with other(s), the parcpal level and the amount of money the reservation offered are used to determine stack ordering and priority. Priority in the stack would be determined by parcpal level multiplied by amount of money being offered in the reservation.
Toggle Menu and Map
We believed having a toggle menu would be the most effective for people to find either immediate parking or long term parking. When seeing the map, a user's Parcpals would be differentiated with the yellow and blue logo.
We believed having a toggle menu would be the most effective for people to find either immediate parking or long term parking. When seeing the map, a user's Parcpals would be differentiated with the yellow and blue logo.
Accept Animation
The biggest challenge was to incentivize individuals to offer their spare parking place. By emphasizing the amount of money being earned we believed that it would lower the threshold for those reluctant to offer their spaces. The amount of money earned is emphasized with the amount floating to the top and the total ringing up like a cash machine.
The biggest challenge was to incentivize individuals to offer their spare parking place. By emphasizing the amount of money being earned we believed that it would lower the threshold for those reluctant to offer their spaces. The amount of money earned is emphasized with the amount floating to the top and the total ringing up like a cash machine.
Date Toggling
This feature was implemented to address concerns that date selection adaptable for certain schedules (i.e if someone is working for a week, they won't need parking on the weekend.)
This feature was implemented to address concerns that date selection adaptable for certain schedules (i.e if someone is working for a week, they won't need parking on the weekend.)
User Flow
Renter Scenario
Rebecca is on break at the hospital on Friday when she gets an email notification with the new work schedule. “Oh no” Rebecca thinks, when she sees that she has been assigned the morning shifts. The current spot she’s been using through Parc isn’t available in the mornings so she has to put in a new request. She quickly opens the Parc app to schedule parking for next week. She knows she needs parking from next Monday to the following Monday, excluding weekends. She finds all of the available spots for parking and sees 2 of her ParcPals. She opens the closer one and sees Madeleine and remembers parking with her before. She then submits a parking request to Madeleine.
Rebecca is on break at the hospital on Friday when she gets an email notification with the new work schedule. “Oh no” Rebecca thinks, when she sees that she has been assigned the morning shifts. The current spot she’s been using through Parc isn’t available in the mornings so she has to put in a new request. She quickly opens the Parc app to schedule parking for next week. She knows she needs parking from next Monday to the following Monday, excluding weekends. She finds all of the available spots for parking and sees 2 of her ParcPals. She opens the closer one and sees Madeleine and remembers parking with her before. She then submits a parking request to Madeleine.
Loaner Scenario
Madeline is on break at school browsing the internet looking at prices for the Nintendo 3DS. She gets a notification with a request from Rebecca asking to use her parking space for the next week. She does the math and realizes that if she rents out her spot for the next week to Rebecca, then she can afford the gift for her grandkid. Since Madeline wants to rent out her driveway in the mornings it works out perfectly since she is at work all day. After reviewing Rebecca’s profile and noticing that they are Level 2 ParcPals, she goes ahead and approves Madeline’s request. After using Parc, Madeline is able to give her grandchild the Nintendo DS. Rebecca has been enjoying 30 extra minutes of sleep every morning and saving some money too.
Madeline is on break at school browsing the internet looking at prices for the Nintendo 3DS. She gets a notification with a request from Rebecca asking to use her parking space for the next week. She does the math and realizes that if she rents out her spot for the next week to Rebecca, then she can afford the gift for her grandkid. Since Madeline wants to rent out her driveway in the mornings it works out perfectly since she is at work all day. After reviewing Rebecca’s profile and noticing that they are Level 2 ParcPals, she goes ahead and approves Madeline’s request. After using Parc, Madeline is able to give her grandchild the Nintendo DS. Rebecca has been enjoying 30 extra minutes of sleep every morning and saving some money too.