UX Researcher, UXUI Designer
User interviews, Wireframing, High fidelity designs.
June - July 2023
Figma
As a motorcyclist in Singapore, finding a parking spot can be difficult. Many areas such as CBD buildings, Sentosa and even shopping malls are off-limits to us. The preference for cars over motorcycles is reflected even in online searches where searching for motorcycle parking often yield car parking information instead. This is unsurprising - according to LTA’s Annual Report (2020), there were 161k motorcycles vs 642k cars registered in Singapore. This means that for every motorcycle on the road, there are approximately 4 cars.
Fueled by my passion for motorcycling and a desire to ease the parking woes of fellow riders, I embarked on a personal project to design a mobile app that locates available motorcycle parking lots in specific areas.
To kickstart this project, I reached out to five of my biking buddies. I wanted to understand the considerations and frustrations of the average biker looking for parking in Singapore. Here are some of the questions I asked:
Studying the responses from the interview, I found that there were 3 main things that bikers take into consideration when looking for a parking lot:
With the high cost of living in Singapore, 5 of 5 participants prioritise affordable parking to minimise their expenses.
All 5 participants place high importance on finding a conveniently located parking lot which can save them significant time and effort.
2 of 5 participants prefer parking in a sheltered carpark, as it provides protection against rain, sun, and other weather conditions.
I shared my lofi designs with some friends to get some feedback on the design. Here are some of the changes I made, based on their feedback. Scroll down to view all screens!
One person found the map view a little confusing at first, and was unsure which marker to click on to start. I realised this was because map markers have limited space to show detailed information about each parking lot.
I decided to give users an option to Switch to List view. This format allowed me to display cards in a slider to provide more detailed information like the distance and rates. For some users, this is a more straightforward manner, and they may prefer to view available lots without having to zoom or pan around the map.
I retained the option of a Map view as it provides users with a visual representation of locations, allowing them to quickly understand the geographical context of the information, pan across different areas, and explore the surroundings.
Most of my friends did not realise that they could click into the map marker pop up to reach the parking info screen. Thus, the parking info screen seemed to be an unnecessary page, and I decided to combine it with the map marker pop up instead. This would also give users the info they need quickly, without having to access into a separate screen.
I added a photo, and displayed all necessary parking information into the pop up itself, making sure that the content is not overwhelming to the user. I also increased the CTA sizes to make the click target bigger, so that it is easier for bikers on the go to select their option.
Instead of scrapping what was previously the parking lot information windows, I retained it as a minimised version of the direction page, as users may find the route easier to visualise by looking at the map (vs. a list of directions).
Right now, I'm still gathering feedback on my design. Given the time, I would love to improve the design, and maybe even create a desktop web app version. Watch this space!
