How Might We use behavior economic knowledge to improve Berkeley street parking experience?
Duration: 2 weeks | Personal Project
Role: Product Designer | Mobile App Design
Background
Berkeley is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is famous for Liberal Politics and “Parking Problem”. As parking is such a huge problem in Berkeley, UC Berkeley has made it a practice to offer its Nobel laureates a special perk: a free lifetime permit to park on campus.
Is there anyway to improve the street parking in Berkeley area? After learning behavior economics, we decided to redesign Berkeley parking system using behavior economic concepts .
Define Problem
Problem
Street parking in Berkeley is a huge problem, you just don’t know if I can find a parking spot, and if there are available spots, is it the best one? Will there be a better spot? A cheaper one?
To make things worse, the parking signs are super confusing.
Can I park here? For how long? How much do I pay? Sometimes the first hour is like $2.5 and then the second to third hour is like $3. Ughhhh it’s so frustrating!
Moreover, as people are always in a hurry, it is difficult for people to make good decisions under high pressure.
Behavior Principles
Some behavior principles mentioned in the above problems:
Choice Architecture, Cognitive Overload, High Pressure Decision Making
Objective
Based on customer preference, provide limited choices for users to make decision
Reorganized information and reduced cognitive overload
Improve parking related experience
Target User
People who need street parking in Berkeley
Research and Analysis
User Interviews Insights:
Users have no knowledge of parking spots availability in their destination area, they can’t decide if they should drive or taking other transportation methods.
When they need to find the parking spots, they spend a lot of time figuring out if they can park on this street; if this street has the cheapest parking fee and close to their destination; if the maximum parking hours fit their schedule.
How to use the parking meter? How to extend the parking time? Where should I move to if I hit the maximum parking hours?
Design Solution
Ideation
Based on user interview insights and behavior economic principles, I sketch the EasyParking ideas
Final Design & Rational
With EasyParking solution:
We predict the availability of the parking spot;
Choose the best parking spot for you;
Tracking and managing your parking time to avoid parking violation;
Pay you parking fee easily. Our app covers all the street parking in Berkeley, you can pay your fee easily through our App;
Track where did you park your car;
We embedded voice activation in EasyParking to help driver use voice control of the App
Customized Preference
Before using EasyParking application, you need to fill the parking preference.
You can weigh the importance of 1) parking spot distance to your actual destination, 2) price, and 3) max parking hours based on your preference. Our recommendation system will recommend parking spots based on your preference.
If you want to change your current preference, just come to the profile page and reorder the sequence by dragging these three options.
Availability Prediction
To solve the “Driving” or “Uber” Problem, EasyParking provides “Parking spots” availability prediction.
Once users search and enter the destination (typing or voice activation), EasyParking will predict the possibility of having available parking spot around this area based on history data and real time analysis. If you feel the possibility is acceptable, you can drive to the place!
The “Parking spots” availability is managed by “Kiwi bot” which is a food delivery robot in Berkeley. Each street parking spot has a QR code, if a car is parking on the spot, the QR code is not scannable by Kiwi bot. If the parking spot is available, Kiwi bot is able to scan the QR code, and update it to our central system in real time.
Parking Spot Selection
With EasyParking, you don’t need to worry about if the next parking spot is the best spot or if you can park on this street at this moment, because we take care of you!
We help you choose spots based on your preference. Large button and voice interaction help driver to better interact with the App.
By providing 3 choices, we simplify choice selection and reduce the cognitive overload. With the preselected option A, we use the power of default to help you better select your choice.
Easy Payment
Users don’t need to get off the car to check out the parking fee, and they don’t need to deal with different parking meters (reduce cognitive overload). EasyParking will help you calculate the price.
Simply click the button and pay for it!
Time Reminder
EasyParking will remind you to move your car and help you find the next parking spot, or extend your time when its reach the time limit.
Benefits
With the EasyParking Application, the parking spot searching is simplified. You have more information prior to planning a trip to Berkeley. Since the payment is integrated into the app, it saves the hassle of searching for a card or cash after parking. Overall, for the user, it is smoother and more pleasant experience!
The bot not just helps identify parking spots, but also gathers information on cars that are parked beyond the time they paid up for. This kind of patrolling by the bot increases safety and surveillance in the neighbourhood.
Moreover, users find the best spot available, saving time, resources and effort. The parking spot fills up efficiently and space can be utilized properly. Traffic flow increases as fewer cars are required to drive around in search of an open parking space. It also helps on reduced pollution – searching for parking burns around one million barrels of oil a day. An optimal parking solution will significantly decrease driving time, thus lowering the amount of daily vehicle emissions and ultimately reducing the global environmental footprint.
Reflection
Almost everyday, I heard my friends complaining
"I can’t find parking spot.”
“Sorry, I can’t find 2 hours parking when I came here, I need to move my car now.”
“ I didn’t remember where I had parked my car.”