'ParkinVT', A Concept Mobile Application for Improved Parking at Virginia Tech

Abstract

Parking continually becomes an issue in the modern society. Not only appears in the large cities like New York or Chicago, on-campus parking also a big problem annoys students in lots of universities. With of smartphone development, many mobile applications are designed for solving the parking issues. This final thesis study is a concept multiplatform mobile application called 'ParkinVT', which designs for improved parking in Virginia Tech. This study covers all standard procedures of application design. First, the study of 'ParkinVT' started with the research of the background, equipment, and current parking regulations of Virginia Tech. Second, reviews of two existing parking mobile applications were carried out. Third, based on the materials and knowledge collected in the previous two steps, a working flow chart and wireframe of the UI of 'ParkinVT' were designed. Then, for ensuring the function settings of 'ParkinVT', a usability testing was conducted with the paper-based wireframe work. Three usability test processes in this study were entrance survey, usability testing with video recordings, and evaluation through exit survey. After the usability testing and analysis were finished, the design of 'ParkinVT' reached its final design step, which included logo design, graphic design, and UI design. In terms of the limitations of this study, future directions were also considered at the end of the design of 'ParkinVT'.