IU Ride
The Schedule based carpool app
Addressing the problem of parking on IUPUI’s campus and creating a better experience for students,staff and visitors through carpooling app.
OVERVIEW
Students at IUPUI complain about a lot of things: teachers, classes and homework. But if there is one problem at the forefront for the 30,105 students and over 2,500 faculty members of Indiana university- Purdue university Indianapolis, it’s the continue problems with parking.
PROBLEM
How might we help in resolving the parking issue for students,staff and visitors at Indiana university Purdue university campus?
SOLUTION
I worked with a small team to design a carpooling smartphone application which will eventually reduce the total number of cars coming to campus and will enhance user’s experience in regards to parking as well as commuting to campus.
MY ROLE
I was part of the design team and responsible for strategizing the design and prototyping the concept. I worked as an interaction designer and did sketching, testing mockups, iterating design and testing the design with the potential users.
DESIGN PROCESS
We followed user centered design methodology that leads to concrete design solutions through iterative design process with focus on the users and their needs.
RESEARCH
Identifying the problems
The main goal of the research was to understand the goals, motivations and pain points of the user so that we could design a better solution for them.
Field Observations
I decided to do field observations to gain insight on what users actually do in context.
People were struggling to find parking places on weekdays (generally during morning hours) whereas things were different in evening hours and on weekends. More than 30% spaces were available during weekday evening hours and more than 50% were available on weekends.
Interviews
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 6 students and 2 faculty members to understand the problem space and their overall experience of commuting to school and parking at campus. This helped us to explore different problems & go deep down into major issues that they currently face.
Research about existing solution
We studied existing parking app of IUPUI -JagSpots app
Limitations of existing solution-
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Information is not detailed enough
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No real time data available
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Less reliable and accurate
Also, we were surprised to learn that none of the participants had used the JagSpots app yet.
DATA ANALYSIS
Affinity Diagramming
Based on the notes from observations and interviews, we constructed affinity diagram to categorize our findings and to get better understanding of collected data.
Concept Mapping
Post affinity diagramming session, we did concept mapping to finalize main topics, understand associated sub-topics and other key points for final design requirements.
Key Findings
Current application is not effective
No access to public transportation for those who commute from outside of the city
Searching for parking takes very long time
Need to leave early to accommodate for finding parking
Everyday driving is costly
Difficult to find people of similar schedules to carpool with
USER PERSONA
Understanding the user
Based on our research data, we created a persona that represent the problems faced by our respondents.
Framing the problem
The major problems and needs are listed as follows:
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Users want to minimize the amount of time they spend searching parking spaces on campus
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Users need a solution that benefit all commuters rather than just those that live around downtown
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Users want options that will allow them to commute to campus for a lower cost
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Users want a convenient solution that requires less effort on their side
BRAINSTORMING
Exploring ideas & opportunities
We took the main features from our data analysis sessions and brainstormed about the possible solutions.
STORYBOARDING
The goal was to take the ideas we have generated in the brainstorming sessions and sketch an actual use case on how a user would move through this part of the story. Finally after storyboards, we were able to decide which functionality suits most for our scope and serves best to the user.
SELECTED SOLUTION
Carpool Mobile Application
Our final decision came out as designing a carpool app for IUPUI students. The idea of designing carpooling application was chosen because:
1) Most cost-effective way as students can save money on
a) Vehicle maintenance
b) Gas and parking fee
2) Increase in carpooling will result into reducing parking space issue
3) Although carpooling is not a novel concept, we didn’t find any existing system focused on carpool for students, faculties and visitors of university.
4) Reduces stress of commute and allows you to read, work, enjoy or relax while commuting
5) Help you meeting new people and make new connections
6) Reduces traffic congestion and air pollution, benefiting all of us
Defining the functionalities
We finally decided the main features of our proposed solution ‘IU Ride Carpool’.
We finally decided the main features of our proposed solution ‘IU Ride Carpool’.
Schedule upload and matching
Schedule matching feature of system will facilitate finding another best match user/users to carpool with.
Instant Messaging
This solution will facilitate contacting best match users through messages
Real Time Notices
This solution will facilitate posting notices and get everyone in the group updated for the same.
Vehicle Tracking
By tracking the carpool vehicle through GPS feature, other passengers will get to know exact arrival times and distances
WIREFRAMING
Low Fidelity Prototype
Based on our requirements and scenarios, we created initial prototype using paper and pencil as this technique allows quick edits. All team members came with one wireframe each and selected best suited screens as per our requirements. We followed this process, because we wanted to invest each of our design thoughts into the app screens, to come up with the best application flow.
Link Schedule
Link IU schedule to facilitate results according to schedule match, also allows manual editing of schedule if needed.
Results according to schedule match
Get results of individual users or other already formed carpool groups whose schedule matches with yours.
Instant chat and group forming
Firstly, user can know more about another user through instant messaging and then can form carpool group.
Group Information & Real-Time Notice
Get to know or change group’s driver from group screen. Also, members can post urgent notice to all the group members if any.
Group Chat & Trip Tracking
Members can chat within group.
Ongoing trip or vehicle tracking is possible through ‘Tracking’ option in the menu.
TESTING
Evaluation & Walkthroughs
We conducted cognitive walkthrough and user testing. Cognitive walkthrough was done on initial paper prototype, we ourselves evaluated it to find major improvements and flaws with the designed system. With this round of evaluation, we could gather some valuable feedbacks of all our team members for further exploration and design.
User Testing
We recruited five students & one faculty of school to test our high fidelity prototype. We asked each of them to complete three tasks that utilize primary functionalities of the app and to think aloud the experience, ideas or thoughts regarding the prototype.
This testing helped us in answering below questions:
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Are the features of the application useful for users who are willing to do carpool?
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Is this application easy to use? Will the user know how to navigate through the interface and use it?
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Are there any changes needed to improve this application?
Key finding from testing
Our application and idea was praised by all of our participants. They found this concept very novel and especially useful for college students/faculties.
Most of them did not face issues in completing the tasks. When checking menu options, one participant wanted to see the screens for payment flow too. Furthermore, one participant provided suggestion regarding adding more options on profile screen especially for drivers such as information about their car, ratings/verification of drivers and modifying the group notice system to have members of a group check in to confirm attendance rather than report not being available.
CONCLUSION
Reflection
The different types of evaluations provided us with many insights on ways we could improve our design. Cognitive walkthrough was useful, but the think aloud was probably the most valuable source of insights. Hearing from the users directly means that the feedback from this method is usually the most prevalent. Taking into account the opinions from real users ensures that the final design will meet the criteria that users will have in mind when using the app.
I also learnt that It is important to mock-up the interface as early as possible because by interacting with the mock-up, you get clear information about the information architecture and other uncertainties.
Next Steps
We had few concepts that we wanted in the app, but they weren’t high priority and due to time limitations, they weren’t included in our prototype. If we were to continue working on the app, we would want -
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Feedback/rating System- Drivers/riders should be able to give ratings to one another
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Reward System- Incentives to students to motivate them for carpooling
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Payment- For groups to organize a way of compensating drivers, preferably by linking Paypal or Venmo through our app.
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