Parkt
A mobile app where drivers can rent more affordable parking in high volume areas easily and conveniently from their phone and driveway owners can rent out their parking spots while not in use.
The Team
2 UX designers and 1 UI designer (that would be me).
The Challenge
Parking, especially in downtown Toronto, can be extremely expensive, not to mention frustrating. But what about all the people who live downtown and have driveways that go unused for a good portion of the day? Parkt looks to open up the parking possibilities by providing an Airbnb-like service just for parking spots. Not only will drivers get to save on parking and spend less time looking for a parking spot, but homeowners/renters can bring in a passive income through renting out their free parking spots.
Our task as designers was to design a mobile app to connect drivers with parking spots.
The Research
The team began by researching other similar apps to see what was on the market and if it was working. We looked at Rover, Honk Mobile, Parking Panda, Just Park, Prkng, and Toronto’s municipal parking app Green P. The results of the comparative and competitive analysis left us with some important features to include that would take the app above and beyond what the competition has to offer. Most of the apps had no filtering options when searching for a spot, didn’t have the option of listing your spot (they were only for parking lots, not driveways) or they were text heavy and not intuitive.
The UX team and I then put together a survey to feel out how potential users felt about such an app. Would they be willing to rent out their own parking spot when not in use? Would they be likely to use an app and park on residential streets instead of dishing out their dollars for parking lots?
The results of the survey were very encouraging!
-75% of respondents felt frustrated and stressed finding parking in downtown Toronto
-More than 70% live in a house and work downtown from 9am to 5pm
-64% of respondents have received parking tickets
-80% have extra parking during the day and would consider renting out their driveway
Design
Since this is a brand new app, the design possibilities were fairly open. In meetings with our client he gave a few guidelines and suggestions, but was open to our ideas. The guidelines included colour suggestions of orange, green, and blue and some keywords to focus on including clean, intuitive, and simple. With this in mind and some inspiration from apps that share a similar space, I came up with a mood board.
This inspiration eventually led to the style guide that reflects the clean and simple guidelines as well as allowing for a good amount of whitespace that really just created the clean feel we were going for.
The colour scheme of blue, orange and white was based on both the client’s recommendations and as an effort to create branding that stands out from the competition. I refrained from using the suggested green as it’s a very common colour used for parking and the Green P app uses it heavily as well as the Just Park app. The soft blue and cyan are friendly without being too cold and the complementary bright orange stands out as a necessary pop of colour and wamrth throughout the app. For typography I went with the clean, Guggenheim inspired font Verlag which adds some modern sophistication while being easy on the eyes. The iconography is where I gave the app it’s pop of colour, making sure to include the cyan and orange to add some personality to the app.
The Results
Based on our iterative testing from initial wireframes to final product, we came up with a clean, intuitive app that is sure to appeal to users who know how frustrating it can be to find parking, especially in downtown Toronto. Check out this link for a clickable prototype:
