Parkers
Parkers, Phase 1: Requirements Gathering
Introduction
Parkers
Jesus Alvarado
Marko Ramos
Michael Spears
Executive Summary
- Investigated the process of finding parkings at school
- Design an app that will show real time parking
- Task Analysis of four studied individuals who were observed in their process of finding parkings
- Online Survey of seventeen individuals who shared their frustrations and struggles with the parking structure in Chico.
- Majority of the participants (83%) were dissatisfied with the current parking situation.
- Uniformed students will spend too much time finding a parking spot and result in being late.
- Students tend to park the most in three locations: parking lot B1, C, and D.
- Students rarely parked in these five locations: parking lot A2, A1, D2, E1, and E2.
- There is a certain time period where the students are more likely to arrive and leave.
- The majority of the students said that they will arrive at 9:00 am and leave at 5:00 pm.
- Another struggle that the students faced is that there is not enough parking spaces and those that have a parking permit struggle against those that buy the daily pass.
- Designed personas and scenarios to represent three customer archetypes with different priorities:
- Tommy: A student who is in a hurry to get to his class, but is being held back due to taking too much time in finding an available parking space.
- Susie: A student who lives far away and drives to different locations trying to find an available parking spot. Finds a parking spot a location further away from her class, thus is walking by foot and late to class.
Methods
- Task analysis
- Used this in order to analyze time(s) to perform tasks of parking for CSU students
- 4 total students analyzed
- Voluntary online survey.
- Collect more quantitative data from students
- 17 total students surveyed
Findings
We created a task analysis form in order to ride along, monitor and track efficiency of voluntary students as they find parking spots at CSU parking structures. The findings are the following:
- Observed on Monday and Tuesday of a regular semester(Fall/Spring)
- Parking lots B, B1, C, C1, D,D1,E,E2 were all visited (44% of all available CSU parking lots)
- On average, a student visits 2 parking lots before successfully parking
- Minimum parking lots visited: 1
- Maximum parking lots visited: 4
- The earliest a student enters a parking lot is 8:30 AM
- The latest a student leaves a parking lot is 5:00 PM
- Average time spent parking is 13 min. 15 sec.
- shortest time to park is 5 minutes
- longest time to park is 37 minutes
We created an online survey where the voluntary students gave their feedback on their process of finding a parking spot. It entails the location, time, and additional comments where the students offer their opinion on the current CSU parking, along with suggestions on any changes.
- Young and male
- 82.3% 23 or younger
- 82.4% male
- On campus Monday-Friday
- Most people are on campus Monday-Friday
- 94.1% of students on campus Tuesday & Thursday
- 88% arrive at the earliest 9:00 AM or later
- 35.5% at 9:00 AM
- 23.5% at 10:00 AM
- 29.4% at 11:00 AM
- 80% leave at 5:00 PM
- 100% have of participants have a smartphone
- 76.5% iphone
- 23.5% android
- Most not satisfied with parking
- 58.9% rate less than average
- 35.3% plurality rate 3/10
- A plurality spend 10-20 min finding parking
- 29% 1-10 min
- 47% 10-20 min
- 24% >30 min
- Most park on the south side of campus
- 35% use parking structure B1/D
- 29% use 3rd & Orange Lot C
- 23% use 1st & Orange Lot B
- Others lots used to a lesser but even degree
The most used parking spaces are highlighted in red and orange
Conclusions
According to the results from the survey and task analysis, the participants spend too much time searching for a free parking spot which results from 10-30 minutes. Limitations brought upon by Covid-19 and Chico State restrictions have forced us to collect data from a small sample size of students. Our personas and scenarios may not best reflect the large majority of students. For this reason, we conclude that more research has to be done in order to collect information from the larger population of CSU students. Going back, we need to collect more data like: whether or not a student is a parking pass holder, student’s declared major, how far a student commutes, students who park in the other 66% of parking lots available. Because 100% of our survey participants have smartphones, we’d like to improve the problem of CSU parking by offering a mobile application. Going back to collect more detailed information will improve our approach in order to develop and meet the requirements for our key personas and scenarios.
Caveats
- This is all mock data. The Pandemic and restrictions have forced us to collect mock data from fellow classmates.
- Geographically, we’ve only captured data from students who visit 44% of the chico state parking lots. It may not fully represent the entire population of students.
- The students who did take the survey, all have similar majors. This results in their classes being the same so not all parking spaces are being used.
- Our purpose is to track the students activity not the parking lot activity