Project Overview
After being awarded a grant from the Department of Transportation, the City of Pittsburgh in partnership with transportation start-up Automotus were in the midst of pilot testing the early iterations of a new concept. Smart Loading Zones, which convert existing permit loading zones into billable, temporary parking spots for quick pickups, was founded on the idea of improving municipal curbside management to lower vehicle emissions.
I was part of a research team that employed mixed-methods research techniques to improve compliance with the new public policy in an effort to reduce emissions. I gained valuable experience conducting hands-on field research as well as qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing the results in order to develop refined insights that drive to the core of the true problem.
The Problem
Through our mixed-methods research, we uncovered a significant issue: First-time users were unable or were unwilling to comply with the SLZ program.
Operationally, complying with the SLZ system was a cumbersome process, involving the downloading of the CurbPass mobile application. Once in the application, a first-time user (who would be parked in their vehicle) would need to navigate through the more than thirteen UI parts in order to create an account, register their vehicle, set up billing information and provide their contact information in order to pay effectively the first time. All of this required the provision of a lot of personal data through a lengthy onboarding process.
Original SLZ Street Sign
The Proposed Solution
After interviewing a variety of Pittsburgh residents, city officials and delivery drivers, we came to an affordable, low-tech solution through a human-centered design process. Determined to respect citizens' privacy, improve public awareness, understanding, and compliance we proposed a three-pronged solution:
1- Replacing the CurbPass mobile application with a Toll-By-Plate system, familiar to users given the existing Toll-By-Plate system on the nearby Pennsylvania Turnpike, to ensure automatic compliance.
2- Providing payment transparency to improve public understanding of how to use the space and remain compliant with the Smart Loading Zone policies by modifying street signs.
3- Implement some type of free parking period for free parking to encourage use and adoption of the Smart Loading Zones while mitigating the economic impact to low-income citizens in Pittsburgh.
While we did consider alternative solutions, when considering limited municipal resources and the simplicity of providing a lower-tech solution to a lower-tech problem, we felt comfortable making our recommendations to the City of Pittsburgh.
The Process
Definition of Scope and Research Questions:
Initially, we set out to learn about the impact of taking what were previously considered a free public good, loading zones, and working with a private enterprise in order to privatize them to generate revenue for the city. We defined our scope as delivery drivers, as the median wage for drivers in the US would categorize most as low income. Knowing this, we were concerned about the potential of the program to disproportionately impact residents of lower socioeconomic standing. As such, we began our research attempting to answer the question: "How might we ensure that the SLZ program is not a form of regressive taxation?"
Background Research:
To start, we began by first conducting background research. We did this by looking through local news articles, social media sites as well as official resources on the program from Automotus and The City of Pittsburgh.
Contextual Inquiry:
As part of our contextual inquiry, we conducted Guerrilla Research tactics and interviewing people on the street who were going towards or leaving parked vehicles there. Interviewing residents on the street in use of SLZs or near SLZs allowed us to gain an insight: Many people were not aware of the program, and even fewer were willing to give up personal information in order to comply with it.
Heuristic Analysis:
In order to experience the system as a user, I downloaded the CurbPass application and attempted to sign up. However, the app has many UI parts prior to setting up an account and loading a balance. The entire application required 13 parts in order to complete this process. We found many instances in which the app violated basic usability heuristics, often times obscuring help & documentation resources and requiring redundant information from users.
Sample CurbPass Onboarding Process
Selecting Research Methods:
We chose interviews, speed dating, storyboarding and moderated user testing as our primary research methods. We chose these methods as we felt it brought us closest to those most impacted by the Smart Loading Zone policy changes, which was delivery drivers and residents.
Sample Storyboard
Synthesizing Data:
After walking the wall and clustering our insights together into an affinity diagram, we realized that socioeconomic impact wasn't a concern of the drivers. However, we did discover that residents and drivers were reluctant to comply with the policy as intended, given the amount of personal information required to comply, the time it took to go through the process and the amount of friction using an application with such a cumbersome registration process. From here, we decided to pivot our research towards lowering the barriers of compliance with the SLZ policy.
Affinity Diagraming
Speed Dating and Storyboarding:
After we'd pivoted our research focus to Plan B, we re-iterated through our research process discussed above. Once we'd synthesized the data once more, we were confident that we were researching the right question, and began to peel back the layers of the onion in order to find the problem within the problem.
To get there, we each independently drew up a series of storyboards depicting the process of using the SLZs for the first time. From these twelve storyboards of varying risk levels, we were able to discover two problems:
It took a long time (several minutes) for users to set up their CurbPass application and user the SLZs as intended on their first attempt. Users frequently abandoned the mobile registration process due to the time it required to complete and reluctance to provide personal information, resulting in lack of compliance with the SLZ policy.
Residents were unaware and unfamiliar with the new SLZ program, making them reluctant to use the SLZ spaces.
When we concluded our Speed Dating and Storyboarding exercises, we were confident enough in our insights in order to start developing a low fidelity prototype to explore possible solutions to the problem.
Prototypes
Low-Fi Prototyping and Usability Testing:
Based on our analysis of the Storyboarding and Speed Dating methods, we inferred that there was a problem: First-time users did not know enough about the SLZ program which, when combined with the cumbersome mobile registration process, lead many users to abandon the CurbPass application resulting in failure to comply with the SLZ policies. As such, we began devising a new system that bypassed the need for a mobile application, reducing task completion rate of first time users and addressing their privacy concerns.
Sign Prototype
Original Street Sign
High-Fi Prototyping and Usability Testing:
After we received feedback from users during our initial testing on the low-fidelity prototype, we refined our prototype via a digital model. By testing the physical signage that we developed in tandem with this digital model, we were able to more accurately capture first-time user pain points. One paint point that became obvious to us was that users had legitimate privacy concerns, and often abandoned the app due to not wanting to provide their personal information to use a system that they were unfamiliar with.
Street Prototype
Policy Recommendations
Allow for residents to comply with Smart Loading Zone policies without requiring them to download the CurbPass mobile application and provide personal information.
Modify existing SLZ street signs in order to present clear, understandable and transparent billing rates to residents.
Provide a free parking period in order to encourage adoption and use of the Smart Loading Zone spaces.
The Results
While we did not have perfect transparency into seeing which of our recommendations were taken by the City of Pittsburgh, we did notice some changes around town!
Modified Street Signs
One of those changes that we noticed was the small, rectangular addition to the sign, providing transparency into the fee structures of the SLZ program.
First Five Minutes Free
Within this new addition to the SLZ signs in Pittsburgh, we noticed that they first 5 minutes of use are free for all users, promoting adoption, engagement and compliance of the SLZ program.
