India had over 21 crore registered motor vehicles by 2015, and the parking hasn't kept up. In Pune, around 25 lakh registered vehicles share roughly 1,800 public parking spaces near offices and markets. Finding a spot is a daily design problem.

Three goals

Task analysis first: finding a space, paying for it, and extending the time are the moments that make or break the experience — and they show us the cognitive effort each step asks for. Then reliability, because trust is fragile and one failed booking is enough to lose someone. And finally, know thy user: people learn, think and solve problems differently, so the design has to work for different abilities, regions and levels of confidence.

Approach

We started with a literature review and the conversations people were already having on social forums, and narrowed a long list of stereotypes into three personas: the capable professional (aim for ease of use), the person with a disability, and the beginner (aim for learnability).

We asked people to describe a day with the car and a day without it, how they choose a spot, what they'd add to a parking space of their own, and how they book in the busiest hours. Three scenarios came out of it: in a rush, curious about parking apps, and needing the confidence to park at all.

What we found

Choosing a space depends on more than distance: payment modes, timing and duration, covered or uncovered. Sometimes the driver's ability itself is in question — angled, perpendicular or parallel bays can need a valet. And many cars now carry Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, which means the design has to work hands-free, inside the car, not just on the phone.

*Originally published on Medium.*

Read the full piece

This note is a summary. The full essay — with the research, the sketches and the reasoning — lives on Medium at medium.com/@amitchotia9.

Physics taught me you don't get to call it right until it's proven. Most of what I write is me trying to show the working.