Parking Ticket Pal
Project Overview
The Product
Design an app and a responsive website for people to find, dispute, and pay their parking tickets. The target audience of Parking Ticket Pal is individuals with unattended parking tickets between the ages of 18-65 years old.
Project Duration
I began to work on this project in January of 2024 and have completed it over the course of a month. I dedicated approximately 20 hours a week to completing Parking Ticket Pal.
Project Vision
Challenges
Eliminate barriers to address user needs regarding their unattended tickets.
Design a cohesive interface for both familiar and unfamiliar users regardless of internet literacy.
Create a minimalistic UI while providing seamless search and transaction processes.
Parking Ticket Pal is an automotive app that allows any user to find, pay, and dispute their parking tickets. For this project, I created a concise platform which streamlines the parking ticket process with a clear interaction flow.
User Research: Summary
I conducted user research before wireframing in order to find pain points that could be addressed by my designs. Before conducting user research, I assumed that finding and paying for a parking ticket would be a simple process for most adults if they were aware of an app that could aid them in this task. After my research I realized that individuals of varying demographics did not possess equivalent internet literacy which could impact some users experience finding and paying a parking ticket.
User Research: Pain Points
1. Internet Literacy
2. Qualifications
3. Time
Individuals of varying demographics do not possess equivalent internet literacy. I counteracted this issue by making my UI cohesive and concise to allow for easy comprehension.
When finding and paying parking tickets, users worry that they will not be able to access their ticket information or properly pay. I assuaged these concerns by prominently listing their ticket information on the 'Your Ticket' page and making the UI of the 'Payment' page similar to the payment pages of other websites to increase recognizability.
Users are often busy with work, familial obligations and household duties. For this reason, I made the user journey simple and quick.
Persona: Greg
Problem statement:
Greg is a husband and a father of 2 girls who works as a software engineer and cares for his elderly mother. With limited time, he needs locating and paying this parking ticket to be simple.
Overview:
Education: Bachelor's Degree
Hometown: Tampa, Florida
Family: Wife, 12 year-old daughter, 8 year-old daughter, elderly mother.
Occupation: Software Engineer
Quote:
“I just don’t have a lot of time between work, watching my daughters while my wife works, and caring for my mother. I just need something that will be save time and be easy.
Goals:
Wants to quickly and easily find and pay his parking ticket.
Frustrations:
Has limited time to do activities outside of the daily routine, has several familial obligations.
User Journey Map:
Throughout the process of creating Greg’s user journey map, I realized that Greg was feeling overwhelmed with the task of finding and paying his parking ticket. To assuage these feelings, I talked Greg through signing into to the website, and the process of searching and paying for his ticket. I recognized that the cohesive UI made the user journey seamless and Greg was able to pay for his ticket with minimal instruction. Once the ticket was paid, Greg felt relief that the task was complete.
Wireframes
Usability Study: Parameters
Study Type:
Moderation usability study
Participants:
5 participants; 2 men, 3 women
Location:
United States, remote
Length:
20-30 minutes
Usability Study: Findings
The usability study found that participants understood the user flow, and were able to find and pay their parking tickets.
Understood the User Flow
Participants were easily able to navigate from one page to another.
Finding Tickets
Payment
Participants were able to complete the search process from start to finish.
Participants were able to complete the payment process from start to finish.
Mockups
Interactive Prototype
Key Takeaways
Overall, I am happy with the end product of Parking Ticket Pal. I believe that Parking Ticket Pal could be a useful app to aid any driver in attending to their parking tickets in a streamlined and efficient manner. For my next project, I would continue to grow my design skills and get more familiar with design software in order to hone my abilities. This is my first UX design project and it was exhilarating to bring my designs to fruition after months of iteration! I know that I have so much more to learn and cannot wait to create more projects and grow my career in the UX design field.