Open to Work
As a gov-tech company, Automotus primarily does business with city parking or transportation authorities.
Since curbs (sidewalks) are highly regulated and unfavorable for smart curb management technologies, Automotus is unable to scale effectively. A new opportunity space needs to be tapped.
HMW increase operational efficiency for parking authorities in the near future so that Automotus can scale in the cities they operate in?
8 Weeks
Launching Q3 in 3 cities
Through user research and synthesis, I found several pain points and opportunity spaces; notably within enforcement. For instance, drive-by enforcement is highly ineffective due to the 'catch me if you can' effect.
Research revealed that parking authorities are in dire need of low cost solutions that optimize enforcement
AFSW immediately enable enforcers to catch violations effectively so that loading zone abuse reduces and revenue increases. Realtime vehicle occupancy (RTO) feature is designed to deliver value while revealing the need for urgent policy changes.
This is going to save us alot on patrol costs
The hypothesis was that a solution that optimizes city operations will expedite policy changes and enable Automotus to scale.
From Sales Team
Cities are hesitant about charging loading zones
From Client Success
Cities want low-cost solutions that improve operations
From Metrics
Current solutions have not hit GTM metrics
From Product Manager
A light-weight solution that optimizes operations is needed
Conducted discovery research and contextual inquiry with 3 parking authorities to test our hypothesis
When enforcement revenue does not offset costs, parking authorities are unable to improve operations
While RTO feature was highly desired, it was unclear who'd benefit from it the most since enforcement managers, parking enforcers, and operations analysts - all worked closely with each other.
Collaborated with PM early on in the product development process to co-author PRD
Proposed workflows centered around the idea of realtime occupancy and worked with PM to finalize a workflow
Itemized priorities within the final workflow so as to inform the MVP PRD
Introduced the feature and proposed workflow to the larger company during 'All hands meeting', addressed engineering and customer success questions
Speed is very crucial @ Automotus. Therefore, ideation and testing for desirability was done in parallel
Encountered several design challenges during ideation and testing
How do we ensure that real time data is reliable given the ML accuracy limitations?
How do we make glanceable information - rich, and discovered information - actionable?
Due to the nature of camera vision technology, there are tradeoffs when setting accuracy threshold for realtime information display.
Low Accuracy Threshold
More, Unreliable Data
High Accuracy Threshold
Less, Reliable Data
Teamed up with CV engineers to breakdown CV/ML pipeline and identify ways to resolve data population issue
Co-developed a functional accuracy framework based on the notion of "one size does not fit all"
A state-based approach allowed marker definition to be simple and user friendly
Low Accuracy Threshold
More, Unreliable Data
High Accuracy Threshold
Less, Reliable Data
State based accuracy score allowed RTO to deliver on client requirements while accommodating CV constraints
The curb is a constantly evolving context and there is always a probability of a big vehicle blocking a small vehicle. This situation causes ambiguity problems for realtime display of data.
Low Viewing Angle
Less Vehicle Detection
High Viewing Angle
Low Vehicle Accuracy
The simple solution was to introduce a dedicated state for ambiguity. Collaborated with PM and mapped all possible permutations to determine underlying UI logic for the occlusion state.
Resolved both the challenges in the development phase.
Designing a layout that maximizes glanceability and allows the user to develop an accurate understanding of the system's status, current activity, and metrics is crucial for meeting user goals.
To help users focus on the right information, colors, states, and information hierarchy is vital. Next, the information must be useful and acted upon - requiring the need for proven interaction types that invite action.
User goals is kept that center of RTOs design. Each information and interaction must be relevant and simple.
The designs predominantly used components from our MUI design system. Additionally, annotations and callouts were added to aid engineers.
Due to the nature of this feature, only one new component was created - map markers.
When viewed at zone-level, an enforcement coordinator can analyze a zone/event from high level to the details. Each zone displays the state based on priority. To enhance user's perception, markers are structured to show violation > occupancy > available, in that order.
Enforcement coordinators can view the same zone as spaces (if provisioned). This provides visual insight into utilization patterns in an area/zone. In the space view, the user dives into the vehicle details right away.
Citation Preview feature allows users to gather more information about the event and subject vehicle - especially past offenses so that enforcement action can be informed.
