SpotHero
SpotHero is an iOS/Android/Web app that helps connect everyday people to nearby parking garages. I was hired as a product design intern over the summer of 2022.
Role:
Product Designer
Tools:
Figma
Client:
SpotHero
Date:
May 2022 - Jun 2022
01
The Problem
SpotHero mobile website's low conversion rate from search to checkout suggests poor UX in search and checkout flow, resulting in user frustration and abandonment.
02
Our Goal
To improve conversion rate, we will use user-centered design process, including research, multiple design solutions and user feedback
03
User Interviews
Our first step was creating a research plan to pinpoint any current UX and UI weaknesses. This involved conducting a usability test with 8 participants from the suitable user demographic (ages 20-50 in cities where SpotHero was available).
04
Interview Guide
We created an interview guide that allowed us to follow a structured interviewing process, ensuring that team members record their interviews consistently. With this guide, we conducted 8 user interviews, recording video with the online tool Otter.ai which would also transcribe our findings for us.
05
Research Objectives
We conducted UX user testing interviews to identify any usability issues including:
Evaluate if the language is appropriate and is easily understood by users.
Determine whether acquisition process flows in a logical way.
Assess if users can effectively navigate picking a parking spot using the UI elements.
06
Research Participants Demographic
For our usability testing we interviewed 8 different people who were all located near a major city in which SpotHero was based in with a range of experience with technology. Meet Samantha, Jeffery, Ochoa, Kirsten, Sumarpita, Kennedy, Alex, and Adam. We had each user go over the search to checkout flow while observing their behavior and asking questions on the interview guide.
07
Research Syntheses
After our user interviews we categorized user interview data into an empathy map, revealing common themes and pain points in the acquisition process. The main problems we found with users where:
Trouble distinguishing parking spots in both list and map view
Confusion over pricing in checkout
Lack of information on parking cards
08
Design Workshop
I organized a design workshop with the acquisition team to generate and iterate design solutions, allowing for a quick and diverse collection of ideas from project managers, designers, and engineers.
09
User Personas
I created user personas for our workshop to better empathize with our users and quickly identify the main problems with our user flow from interviews. The five biggest complaints were:
10
Ideating Problems and Solutions
As we presented our user personas to the workshop, we had team members come up with what they thought were the problems and possible solutions we should be focusing on.
11
Identifying Key Problems
We then grouped all ideations into three groups to identify the three main pain points on how we could have improved SpotHero's mobile acquisition. These key problems were:
There is not enough context with just a price and distance.
Parking spots should be differentiated more to aid user choice.
Rate and time presentations are confusing to users.
12
Sketch Session
During our design workshop we had the acquisition team quickly sketch possible design solutions based on the key problems we agreed as a team were most important.
13
Lo-Fidelity
After going through all the sketches from the acquisition team's design workshop, I was tasked to start sketching the final solution in lo-fidelity with every design change being supported by the data gathered.
14
Hi-Fidelity
I was later tasked with creating a Hi-Fidelity design and presenting it to the acquisition team. Here is the design I came up with.
15
Product Launch
While I was not able to see the final product launch through, I am proud to have contributed to the design process and seen a significant impact on the user experience. Data analysis determined that my design solution resulted in a 15% reduction in abandonment rate, demonstrating the effectiveness of our design approach and UX skills.
16
Research Research Research!
Research is crucial in UX design! I honed my research skills through the SpotHero project. I spent 90% of my time on research and data analysis, rather than designing on intuition. From in-depth user interviews to ideating empathy and affinity maps. I am excited to bring this mentality to my next role as a UX designer.
17
Optimizing UX with Double Diamond Process
I learned the importance of the double diamond process as a UX designer on SpotHero's acquisition team. It helped me generate and refine ideas to arrive at the best solution. Excited to apply this in future projects.
18
Areas of Improvement:
Though the project was a success it is always important to look back in areas where I could have improved on. Some of these areas include:
Could have conducted more usability testing on high-fidelity prototypes to validate design decisions.
holding a longer design workshop would have allowed us to delve deeper into exploring various design options and would have increased the chances of discovering the best UX solutions.