Phil and the Archinauts

Final

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:04:00 -0400

Final

Reading response

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:58:49 -0400

According to LukeW, Sturgeon’s Law states that the easy way to do things is to make them crappy. However, if you flood the market with “crap” then eventually the users will revolt and demand / circle in on the good. That being said, we looked at the competition apps and figured out ways to better the experience so that our user could be easily persuaded to convert to the MySpot application. Not to mention you could always bad mouth your competition in the process of persuasion. Haha…

Market Maturity is heavily depends on phasing. For our MySpot application, we have several phases to help our clients / users adapt to the product and eventually the new infrastructure. Phase 1 would be users just use the MySpot app to check the parking lots for spaces, creating efficiency and timeliness. Phase 2 would be inserting the MySpot poles with their input devices on the farther lots, giving students the ability to reserve spots for a certain fee. Phase 3, as the percentage of smart phone users goes up, so do the percentage of lots that have the ability to reserve parking until eventually every lot on campus is a MySpot parking lot.

The Kano Model talks about having happy customers. Very much like banks who offer prizes for certain investments, MySpot could have the ability to randomly distribute free one day parking passes as a raffle of sorts. Or maybe “park 10 times, get one free!” type of deal. Excitement generators are the best way to get a potential client interested in a product, so MySpot should be able to be flexible enough to do so too.

MySpot should also have a feedback system that once a year asks for the reflection of its users, maybe even rewarding the completion of a survey with a free parking pass for a day. The feedback would be valuable to improve usability and interaction.

Home screen

Tue, 29 May 2012 17:04:12 -0400

Home screen

A certain number of parking spaces are reserve-able for a...

Tue, 29 May 2012 17:03:20 -0400

A certain number of parking spaces are reserve-able for a fee.

For example; say you are running late for an important exam, and want to be sure you have a space by the time you get to school/work. You would find a lot near your destination with available reserve spots, then tap on Make a Reservation. If you’ve inputted your billing information in the settings screen, you can automatically charge your card and reserve a space. When you arrive at the space, you will input a confirmation code.

Apparatus mock up.

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:57:24 -0400

Apparatus mock up.

The map view automatically changes to reflect the parking pass...

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:55:00 -0400

Guest view (pay-to-park only)

Faculty view ('A' Pass)

Student view ('C' Pass)

The map view automatically changes to reflect the parking pass type of the user. Lots show the number of vacant spots and reflect the general availability in color.

App settings screen.

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:51:34 -0400

App settings screen.

The first time you load the app, you’re greeted with a...

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:50:33 -0400

The first time you load the app, you’re greeted with a login screen (for parking-pass-holding students and faculty). Guests can also use the app to view only pay-to-park spaces. Then follows a short tutorial for using the app.

Mock ups from mid-review.

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:41:39 -0400

Mock ups from mid-review.

Wireframing/Paper prototype user testing.

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:15:00 -0400

Wireframing/Paper prototype user testing.

PRIMARY GOALS -locate via GPS on map-identify nearby parking lots-display parking vacancies GUIDING...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:11:00 -0400

PRIMARY GOALS

-locate via GPS on map
-identify nearby parking lots
-display parking vacancies

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

-legibility (understandable at a glance)
-simplicity (as little fiddling with phone as possible while driving)
-accessibility (keep eyes on the road; voice controls)

Personas

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:04:00 -0400

Janice

AGE: 21
JOB: Student
LIKES: Boy bands, Skipping, Daydreaming, Text Messaging, Vlogging
EXPERIENCE w/ TECH: Cellphone is attached to the hand indefinitely.

Janice is a 21 year old junior in college. She loves puppies and kittens, cooking, listening to pop music, and skipping around in fair weather. She is an average student with a 3.14 grade point average. Janice loves using her smart phone for EVERYTHING: calendars, games, notes, recorder, instruments, maps, fake light sabers, flash lights, and etc. Janice can even text while she drives, while keeping both hands on the wheel! She loves going to school every single day, but horribly detests finding parking on campus since she also loves to sleep in. If Janice doesn’t arrive by 7:30am every morning, she will be forced to circle around the campus parking lots fighting and praying for a spot to open up. Seeing how she usually arrives to campus minutes before her classes starts (and coming earlier to campus at the expense of a couple minutes of sleep is unacceptable), Janice needs an application to help her find a parking spot quicker in order to make it to class on time so she can graduate and lead a successful life. Enter the mySpot application.

Carl

AGE: 63 years young
JOB: Professor with tenure
LIKES: Jazz music, Classical music, Museums, Biophysics conferences, Travel
EXPERIENCE w/ TECH: Dang these kids and their newfangled eye phones and facespaces!

Carl is a 63 year old professor teaching at Janice’s college. He has a PhD from Harvard and received fellowships and honorary degrees from various prestigious schools all around the world from his travels in his golden days. He specializes in Bio-molecular Genetic Engineering and Post Bi-pass Heart Transplantation Surgery Kinesthetics, and enjoys recreational polo on the side. Even though Carl is unparalleled in the knowledge of biophysics and an exquisitely well traveled citizen of the world, he is completely clueless with the modern day advances in technology and detests all the “crazy little sounds and beeps and updates and customizations and whathaveyous” that are all the craze with the “younger peeps”. For Carl, advancements in technology are just ways for big brother keep tabs on you. Carl is also a conspiracy theorist. However, what Carl hates even more than technology is his inability to find parking during high traffic times on campus. Enter the mySpot application.

App Proposal

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:31:22 -0400

Team “Phil and the Archinauts” (Adam Welker and Norman Ai)

Problem: How often has this happened to you; you’re late for class, and frantically trying to locate a parking spot on campus. It seems like every lot you try is already full! If only there was a way to know how many parking spots were available at each lot in order to save time, gas, and sanity.

Enter: mySpot, the app that helps you park.

mySpot uses a familiar interface to locate your current position using GPS.

mySpot can then identify parking lots in the vicinity with vacant spots. The app displays this data in a simple, easy to read manner.

By zooming in further, mySpot shows a view of the layout of the parking lot with occupied and empty spots highlighted. (We’re imagining a pressure-sensitive chip to supply this data; similar to those in Japanese parking garages.)

Depending on availability, with mySpot you can even view a live webcam feed of the parking lot to show the current weather conditions. (Or just for funsies!)

mySpot, available soon from the iTunes App Store.