Flamingo
FLAMINGO: MOBILE SERVICE DESIGN FOR A PEER ECONOMY
BRIEF
Create and design a novel mobile application serving parking peer economy participants.
Our solution, Flamingo, is a mobile application that helps homeowners earn extra income and drivers save time and money. Homeowners can rent out their driveways to other members of their community, and commuters avoid wasting time circling the streets or paying expensive garage fees. In additional to the financial incentive, Flamingo helps drivers & homeowners donate and collect goods for local charities. Our team focused on the community-building aspect of a peer economy as a unique way to encourage people to participate.
SCOPE
4 weeks
3 person team
MY ROLES
UX/UI designer
UX researcher
SKILLS
Guerrilla research, ecosystem and competitive research, interviews, rapid sketching & storyboarding, scenario ideation, wireframing, visual design, motion design
TOOLS
Sketch, Illustrator, Principle, InVision
We selected the parking peer economy out of four provided target areas with the goal of serving two provided personas, Madeline and Rebecca.
Madeline is a grandmother living in a bungalow in a trendy Portland neighborhood. She is concerned about her increasing cost of living. Parking can be difficult to find, but Madeline always has access to her home's driveway.
Rebecca is a nurse at at a Portland hospital working rotating shifts. Finding parking near work is always a challenge and can be unsafe. The hospital has a convenient and safe garage, but it is too expensive.
PROCESS
Ecosystem Research
As a team, we began by compiling our collective knowledge in the form of an "ecosystem dump". Together, we fleshed out background knowledge about the problem space, including the people and objects involved, context, activities, and desired outcomes.
Interviews & Competitive research
To answer lingering questions, I conducted interviews with people who commute via car, people with driveways at their home, and visitors to cities who arrive by car. The team also conducted competitive research on peer-economy services and conventional city parking garages.
The additional research validated a concern that first arose in our ecosystem dump: if competitive rates for drivers are not high enough to motivate spot-owners to rent, how can we further incentivize participation for both personas? This problem led us to further explore the community-building potential of our design.
Scenarios & Storyboards
Next we developed scenarios and storyboards to depict Flamingo's different value adds. In addition to saving time and money for our driver Rebecca and providing additional income to the homeowner Madeline, Flamingo could facilitate charitable giving within Portland's community. I sketched the first two scenarios below.
Wireframe development
Since Madeline and Rebecca had different levels of comfort with technology and different service needs, our team began developing two experiences - one for spot-owners and one for drivers. Both experiences highlight the charitable aspect. Our team sketched out navigation concepts on a whiteboard, and divided the work of sketching low fidelity wireframes. I also created all high fidelity wireframes and UI elements.
FINAL EXPERIENCE
Feedback in critiques validated our "do good" concept, however, homeowner security and driver safety were significant concerns. For example, we had to consider what would happen if a driver had too much to drink at a bar. Would he/she overstay the reservation and risk inconveniencing the spot owner, or worse, drive home drunk? To encourage good citizenship, we proposed a multi-tiered approach:
- Detect if the driver's destination is a bar and require an agreement to avoid drunk driving
- Drivers and spot-owners are able to contact each other in case of emergency
- Drivers are able to extend in-progress reservations (if available)
- Rating system to hold drivers and hosts accountable
Our team also added an animation to draw attention to a host's participation in the charity partnership. I was responsible for motion design and implementation. I also made adjustments to color choices and other UI elements based on feedback for a cleaner look. The prototype below includes screens for both the driver and host interactions.
Credits
Icons sourced from The Noun Project under Creative Commons: Flash by artworkbean, Celebration by Creative Stall, Flamingo by Lane F. Kinkade, Help by Juraj Sedlak, Speech Bubble by Makarenko Andrey, Phone by lipi, Flag by SBRICONS, Cancel by Piola
