Parking Meter Redesign

Personal Project, Jan 2020

I redesigned a touchscreen display of a parking meter with the following constraints:

No advanced touch screen gestures (pinch, zoom, hardpress)
Meter accepts credit card payments but has neither internet nor bluetooth connection

Challenge

I imagined new touchscreen parking meters being installed throughout the city and I wanted to design a touchscreen interface that removed as many pain points as possible from the current process.

With this interface drivers should be able to pay for their parking spot for a certain duration, and parking attendants should be able to give tickets to cars who do not pay, or whose parking has expired.

I've assumed there is one meter for every 6 parking spots, in consideration of operational efficiencies.

Problem

Online research on existing parking meters revealed how parking meters function. Several pain points expressed in online articles and forums were noted as well.

The five whys interrogative technique verified the root cause of the problem and aided in the formulation of the solution.

With a better understanding of how parking meters are used and operated, additional insights were obtained on the pain points related to street parking in Toronto through user interviews. Ultimately, the following pain points were chosen as the focus for this challenge.

Drivers have to juggle with parking zone codes/license plate numbers
Difficult to accurately predict duration of stay, which leads to drivers overpaying for parking
Drivers often come back to the meter to feed it

When a driver parks on the side of the road and walks up to the parking meter, they're greeted by a representation of the street they've just parked on. This enables the driver to easily identify the space they've parked in. Additionally, numbered shapes have replaced lengthy and confusing parking zone codes. These design decisions achieve the goal of lessening the cognitive requirement of paying for street parking.

The driver taps on the spot they've parked in and confirms their selection.

The driver can now tap their credit or debit card to start the meter. With a tap-on and tap-off system, the driver is no longer required to predict the length of their stay or display a physical proof of payment.

After the driver has visited their destination, they must tap their credit or debit card once more to end the meter, which prompts the following screen. Those who forget to tap once again are charged the maximum daily rate.

Please view the prototype below to explore the parking attendant's flow.

Reflection

Limitations in technology and the lack of stakeholder consideration and input were the most challenging aspects of this redesign exercise.

Given more time, it would be beneficial to understand and incorporate the opinions of all parties that are likely to be affected. For example, the City, businesses, property owners, operations staff, and pedestrians are all stakeholders that could provide additional input. Considering their opinions would further inform and refine the proposed solution.

Areas of further exploration include:

what happens when a driver forgets to tap their credit or debit card to end the parking session
how the parking attendant digitally retrieves payments from the parking meter

If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!

jung20oh@gmail.com

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Challenge

Problem

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Solution

Reflection