JustPark

Find parking in seconds

01. The Problem

JustPark is a mobility platform that allows people to rent out their underutilised spaces for everyday drivers to park at.

When I joined JustPark in late 2018 as the design lead, the company was plagued by a number of issues, the most pressing being a poor conversion rate stagnant at 2.5%, and a lack of repeat bookings with most users booking only once.

My role was to outline a strategic vision to fix the issues via design overhaul, and build the design team to execute on the vision.

“I downloaded the app because I had to, the borough I was visiting was managed by JustPark. I entered the location code and got on with my day. I’ve never visited that borough again, so I never had the need to use the app.” – JustPark user

02. Empathise & ideate

Our Mixpanel data made it evident that users weren’t using JustPark for what it did best i.e. reserving underutilised spaces/driveways owned by others (P2P – think of it as “Airbnb for parking”).

Instead it was being using for more traditional council parking – where you drive up to the spot, and are forced to download the app to enter the “location ID” of car park you are at (as the quote above explains).

User testing revealed the issue was our home screen, which obscured JustPark’s USP in the name of simplicity. It was also not well suited for the most common use case of “finding parking around me”.

03. Solution

We fixed the experience by plunging the user straight into what the app had to offer – with three key entry points for:

I want to find parking nearby/around me
I want to reserve a parking space in advance
I’m at a car park and I want to enter my location ID

04. UX & accessibility

We also dove deeper into the UX and accessibility after several high fidelity tests and diary studies revealed:

1. Accessibility was an issue for traditional parkers (entering a 6-digit code, with a line of cars hooting behind you)
Solution: We geofenced our council spaces, so users would be proactively presented with the correct location.

2. Our P2P parkers (a large proportion of who were daily commuters) had to book the same space every other day.
Solution: Proactively presenting a space previously booked by them more than 3 times, for easy repeat booking

When reserving in advance, the biggest drop off was between selecting a suitable space and checking out.

1. The space details focussed on information that wasn’t useful to the user and didn’t aid decision making.
Solution: A five-second impression test + red route analysis helped us re-architect the space details.

2. The checkout was too long and convoluted, missing key information like price summary on the first step.
Solution: We condensed the 2-step checkout into a single screen with all vital information above the fold.

05. Outcome

Increased metrics, customer satisfaction and set industry standards.

Our suite of solutions took conversions from 2.5% to 6%, and increased repeat bookings by over 60%. Our new app experience was also met with rave reviews and set the standards that other parking apps like YourParkingSpace, EasyParking and others later adopted.

06. Micro-animations & interaction design

Micro-animations can give the user spacial sense of where they are, and where they need to be.

Careful thought was put into identifying areas in the UX which would benefit from micro-animations and transitions that would not overwhelm but delight the user. We also spent a lot of time polishing these interactions – right from the duration and synchronisation to the transformations and animation curves.