Through intercept interviews, we discovered that the small, confusing SLZ sign is often overlooked, leading to a lack of knowledge of SLZs. People either avoid the space since they don’t know what it is, or misuse it since they don’t understand the rules of SLZs.
Increasing Parking Space Usage with a New Sign, Web App, & Reservation System
Overview
Smart Loading zones, or “SLZs”, are popping up all over the country. They are multi-use parking spots for both cars and trucks. SLZs are meant to reduce traffic and double-parking by offering a quick spot for cars to park for a short period of time, or a place for trucks to unload their goods. The space is marked by a purple curb and small purple sign.
The Brief
Pittsburgh Parking Authority wanted to explore how to improve Smart Loading Zones, since they were currently an experimental pilot study.
Discovery
Research into the Problem Space
I started by performing background research on SLZs and analyzing data that was provided to us by the Pittsburgh Parking Authority. While this helped uncover the problem, it didn't explain why the problem was occurring. To discover this, my team and I conducted intercept interviews on the streets of Pittsburgh with drivers parked near, or at, SLZs.
Current State
Insight 01
There is a lack of accessible information for users to inform them on SLZ uses and goals
On average, every month in Pittsburgh
770
Vehicles that park at SLZs
140
K
vehicles driving on streets with SLZs
I noticed the purple curb but I don't know what it is
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—Private Driver
Based on data from Pittsburgh Parking Authority
Despite high vehicle traffic in areas with SLZs, there are low park events per month. People are not using smart loading zones often.
Insight 02
There is a conflict of SLZ use cases between private drivers and commercial drivers
Cars and trucks have very different use cases for smart loading zones.
Private Drivers
They are opportunistic parkers, looking for any free space where they can quickly stop, with varying parking time needs
Commercial Drivers
They need to stop at designated dates, times, and locations to perform jobs like unloading goods or delivering packages
When a single car parks there, I cannot park and have to find somewhere else
—Truck Driver
Insight 03
The mental model users have with conventional parking does not match how SLZs charge users and are enforced.
Additionally, on average, every month in Pittsburgh
36
Vehicles parked for over 2 hours
124
Vehicles double-parked at SLZs
Based on data from Pittsburgh Parking Authority
Clearly, smart loading zones are not being used as intended. Cars use smart loading zones a disproportionate amount, the average park time per month was longer than expected, and some users were double-parking in the space, misusing it and causing the very problem SLZs were trying to solve.
How might we improve people’s understanding of SLZs to:
Increase usage
Reduce misconceptions
Balance different use cases
The Final Design
Dynamic Sign, Web App,
& Reservation System
We designed a dynamic sign that has both static and moving parts to provide feedback to users without hurting our client's wallet. Key information is displayed at the top that is easy to understand. The large P and bright purple coloring will draw people’s attention. The middle of the sign is an LED display that can dynamically give feedback to the user. It displays elapsed time and the total amount of money charged, while highlighting the current parking rate. Finally, a QR code was added to the bottom, to make payment easier for users who don't want to be billed by mail.
Real-Time Price Calculation & Elapsed Time Display
Displaying the elapsed time and total cost reduces the cognitive load of users, while also putting slight pressure on them to move out of the space. They no longer have to calculate costs in their head, which is currently difficult since the rate changes based on elapsed time. This also means the public can see the total time the user has parked for, which, based on user testing, motivates users to use SLZs for shorter time periods.
Easy Payment Web App
Quick, with minimal personal data input required. Within a few clicks, users can pay what they owe. At the end of the process, if the user wants to learn more about SLZs and their purpose, they can click the link. This way, learning more about SLZs is not a nuisance—the user can learn about them whenever they have time.
Reservation System for Commercial Vehicles
Since commercial drivers need to park at specific zones at specific times, we designed an app that allows them to reserve SLZs. They can choose a nearby SLZ or search SLZs near specific locations, and enter the date, time, and duration that they will be parking. Once booked, it will give them directions to the reserved SLZ, if needed. This allows SLZs to better accommodate trucks who need to reserve the space for specific periods of time to unload goods.
A closer look
The Design Process
01 Research
Secondary
I began by performing background research to understand the problem space. The Pittsburgh Parking Authority, a stakeholder in SLZs, supplied us with data from the past few years that we could analyze.
Data Analysis
- Less that 1% of vehicles driving by SLZs park at them
- There were few active accounts despite high park events, some months had less than 10 accounts, suggesting people were parking without accounts
- Cars accounted for almost 90% of park events, despite it being a mixed-use space
- Many errors were made while using the space, such as double-parking or staying over the time limit
Primary
We conducted intercept interviews on the streets of Pittsburgh. We created two sets of questions for private drivers and commercial drivers, respectively. Our team split into pairs and waited by different SLZs, interviewing anyone who parked at or near the purple curb.
Key Findings
- 39% of private drivers didn't know what SLZs were
- Most people misunderstood SLZs, such as their purpose, tiered-pricing model, or how to use them
- Private drivers often blocked commercial drivers at SLZs, forcing them to park elsewhere
02 Synthesis
Affinity Diagrams
We took all of our findings and sorted them into groups based on similarities. From there, we could find common patterns and extract insights.
Common Themes
- The current SLZ sign and app is confusing and does not convey important information well
- Private drivers need quick places to stop
- Commercial drivers need specific time windows, for long periods to unload at a low rate
03 Design
Crazy 8s & Storyboards
The next stage used divergent thinking to rapidly create a broad range of design ideas. Once we narrowed them down, we each created storyboards. These were diverse, testing ideas ranging from small design changes to extremely risky scenarios, meant to determine design boundaries based on user feedback. Each team member tested their storyboards on private drivers, gauging their boundaries.
Combined Storyboard Findings
- Users want easily digestible information
- Users are concerned about giving up too much data
- Users are comfortable paying for SLZs as long as rates are transparent and understandable
My Storyboards
Low-Fidelity Prototypes
I created paper prototypes of our sign and web-app with my team, which were meant to test core concepts. The sign has large, easy-to-understand language at the top, explaining its use. Important user data, like parked time and what pricing tier they are in, is displayed. A QR code at the bottom provides easy payment so users do not have to make an account.
04 Testing
Usability Testing with Lo-fi
This test was a temperature check to make sure we were headed in the right direction with our designs and overall user flow. We stood outside near the street to recruit Pittsburgh drivers, having them complete tasks and think their thoughts out loud.
Findings
- Overall user flow was easy to understand
- "your current time" was confusing, users thought it counted down how many minutes they had left
- Users didn't like having to calculate their total amount due in their head, especially with different pricing tiers
Usability Testing with Hi-fi
We made edits to the designs and created high-fidelity versions using Figma. These had higher visual polish and interactions. A reservation system was also created, and reservation screens were added to sign. We returned to the streets of Pittsburgh to conduct more think aloud tasks. We also recruited a truck driver to test our new reservation app.
Findings
- "Camera Enforced" was often missed
- "15 min free parking" confused some people and conflicted with the reserved commercial vehicle parking screen
- Users worried that they would be charged while they were paying and did not know about the option to be billed by mail
How we Helped our Client
Outcomes
Our designs are projected to increase the amount of people using SLZs, which would drive up revenue for Automotus and Pittsburgh Parking Authority. This would be done by making the sign easier to see and understand, so that people would notice SLZs, learn about them, and feel empowered to park in them. The payment process would also be easier and match the user's current mental model of a paid parking space more closely.
While implementing our dynamic sign and web app were out of the scope of this graduate project, we can take findings from the usability tests to gauge if our designs achieved our goals. The results from our high-fidelity prototype showed people found them informative, intuitive, and quick to use.
