September 2022 - December 2022
This project was the culmination of a semesters’ work in a User Experience course (ITP310) at USC. As a team of four, we worked to create a fully fledged prototype of a mobile product for valet services.
UX Designer
Four USC ITP (Information Technology Program) Students
Create a product with a comprehensive business model and working prototype that effectively solves a problem or a need in society.
Modern valet practices are definitely unreflective of the modern appliance of technology. Historically, valet has reflected a response to the demand for parking spaces in urban areas, but currently, it is simply a remnant of the past. A few key issues we found in the system were:
"... long wait times, 🕒
subpar security, 🗝️
and limited payment options. 💸 "
Queue is a back-to-back digital product for the drivers and consumers of a valet ecosystem. With a QR code scanning system at its core, it represents speed, efficiency, and the modernization of valet.
Request your vehicle in advance of your arrival and keep tabs on your spot in the queue
Log all of your vehicle data in-app so car handoffs can be secure, efficient, and timely. Let your drivers know it’s really you!
Pay in app in order to save time - or even as a backup in case you don’t have any cash.
To best empathize with our users, we first created two different types of personas to represent our two main types of users: consumers and drivers. In summary, we predicted which types of people within certain age, social, and economic groups were most likely to use our service and created two archetypes with the most common features.
Below is a storyboard of how we visualized our product to be used by consumers.
Because our resources and time were limited for this project, we found most of our data from three different sources: white paper research, user data, and competition analysis.
After finalizing what we wanted Queue to represent, we transitioned into planning what Queue would offer. Of course, it would revolve around the central feature we predetermined as being a QR code scanning system.
One of our main strategies was to emphasize the principle of repetition (in regards to similar applications) to make the overall user experience more enjoyable and easy to navigate.
After mapping out the user flows in the step above, we began visualizing what the app would look like. The visuals below are simply roughly thought out lo-fi flows that we used to conceptualize the main properties of Queue; including a waitlist, reservation button, QR code, and a payment/tipping function.
After finalizing our low fidelity model of the application, we sent out a Qualtrics form with questions to gauge if users within our projected customer demographic would be able to 1) understand how to navigate the app, and 2) have an efficient and enjoyable experience.
With this newly found information and valuable insight, our team made a strategy to properly apply what we learned from research to our project. We made 2 different points of improvement and set them as goals to look back to as we began designing.
After going through multiple rounds of changes and the class as our panel, we were given many suggestions on ways we could improve our product - both functionally and visually. Listed below are a few of the major changes we made over the course of our project.
As my first full-fledged UX project, I had an equal amount of trails and difficulties as I had fun working with my team. Some noted difficulties included coordinating with my team and making important design decisions separately. To be honest, there were a lot of clashes of opinion and miscommunications because we weren’t able to spend much time together due to our busy schedules. Though I have a lot of experience completing work in team settings, I quickly realized that it cannot be equally compared to a collaborative design setting. If I were to list my main takeaways from this project, it would be the following points:
Thank you so much for following along with me and my team’s design journey and I really hoped you enjoyed reading through this project. You are here for the first of many stepping stones in my design career. If you have any questions regarding this project or any questions for me in general, I would love to answer them for you! Shoot me an email at rsyoo@usc.edu or a message on LinkedIn.
