Firescale

A whisky brand made in America but with a ubiquitous smokiness attributed to scotch.

Overview

Drivers often waste significant amounts of time, pay unnecessary fees, and add stress to their lives searching for parking. What began as a self-starting exploration into emerging technologies developed into a mobile app to help solve this issue.

my role

UX Research
UX Design
Visual Design

team

Sean Sullivan
(UX & Product Designer)
Beny Hafkamp
(Developer/Technical Lead)

timeline

12 months

platform

iOS concept

tools

Figma
Adobe Creative Cloud
Pen & paper
Physical tools
Zoom

deliverables

Research
Design system
Interactive prototype
Case study
‍

the product

Jump to the interactive prototype below.

Here's a sample of SlotSpot at work.

Jump to Prototype
Essential Flows Snapshot
Locate
park
save

AT A GLANCE

What it's like
using SlotSpot

The experience centers on three moments: finding parking, getting there with confidence, and understanding savings.

Navigate with Confidence

Turn-by-turn directions guide drivers directly to the most likely area tofind a space, rather than to the exact destination. This minimizes circling around.

see costs upfront

Compare time, price, and walking distance before deciding where to park.

COMMUNITY HELP

SlotSpot users anonymously share real-time parking data intel to help SlotSpot narrow down likely available parking spots.

our challenge

Finding parking is harder than reaching
the destination.

Parking isn't just finding a place to leave your car. It can be a stressful series of decisions about proximity, cost, safety, and convenience, all while navigating traffic and uncertainty.

How might we make finding parking feel
faster, clearer, and less stressful, even in
high-demand areas?

DISCOVERY

We investigated
how drivers make
parking decisions.

To better understand the problem, I spoke with commuters and audited current parking apps. Clear patterns emerged across nearly every conversation.

User interviews

Six conversations revealed remarkably consistent
parking frustrations.

While each driver's experience was unique, the same concerns surfaced again and again: wasted time, unnecessary cost, and stress.

01

KATHLEEN

Busy mother of five

"I usually choose
the area that feels
safest, even if it means walking farther."

KEY INSIGHT

Safety often outweighs convenience.

02

JAMES

Rideshare driver

"I often end up paying more than
I want to for parking because free spots
are hard to find at peak hours."

KEY INSIGHT

Drivers constantly balancing cost
against time.

03

JACK

Bartender in busy town

"At work I always have to circle around for like 25 mins or so before finding a spot, and it's so stressful."

KEY INSIGHT

Uncertainty creates stress long before drivers arrive.

pain point identification

Three recurring themes
emerged across every stage
of the parking journey.

Affinity mapping revealed recurring themes that consistently shaped parking decisions, regardless of where people were driving.

insights into direction

We turned research into
actionable design principles.

Research findings were synthesized into a focused set of design priorities to guide every feature decision, ensuring the experience consistently reduced time-consuming uncertainty, increased cost transparency, and helped drivers make confident parking decisions that reduced stress.

01

TIME

Drivers consistently
valued speed
over proximity.

KEY INSIGHT

Reduce time spent searching for parking.

02

COST

People preferred free over paid and transparent pricing
over guessing.

KEY INSIGHT

Prioritize free parking and make costs clear.

03

STRESS

Confidence and less decisions mattered more than finding the absolute closest space.

KEY INSIGHT

Reduce uncertainty and guesswork through predictability.

user personas

A single persona
captured the patterns
shared across participants.

The main themes from the interviews were distilled into a primary persona that represents the shared goals, frustrations, and decision-making patterns observed across participants. It served as a reference point throughout ideation and design.

competitor audit

Current parking solutions leave gaps in finding the best spots.

We evaluated six parking platforms to understand the current landscape.
While each solved part of the parking experience by finding garages, helping users pay for parking, and some other useful features, none highlighted predictive availability of free and curb spaces, transparent pricing, restrictive areas, or real-time adaptation.

Experience Synthesis

Mapping the parking journey uncovered moments where better decisions could happen.

By combining insights from competitive analysis, user research, and common parking behaviors, I synthesized our users' end-to-end experience to identify where SlotSpot could reduce uncertainty and create the greatest value.

Drivers weren't simply looking for parking, but for predictability, transparency, and confidence.

Design evolution

The first
solution is rarely
the right one.

Research clarified the problem, but the solution came after a deep exploration.

defining our approach

How do we turn research
into effective design?

Recurring research themes became guiding principles for every design decision. These principles helped create an experience that remained consistent, understandable, and easy to use throughout.

Design Goals

Coherence

Consistent patterns
across every interaction.

CLARITY

Straightforward UI,
no hidden steps.

simplicity

Only the essentials,
easy decisions.

Coherence

Consistent design language across flows.
‍

Clarity

Straightforward UI,
no hidden steps.

Simplicity

Only the essentials,
easy decisions.
‍

concept exploration

We diverged into bold ideas that took users right to available spots.

Our research indicated that finding available spots in real time before arriving was what drivers needed most. We initially explored technologically advanced concepts to solve this problem, looking into ideas such as park-sharing marketplaces and augmented reality head-up displays. We even began prototyping the latter using sticky notes, AR apps like Adobe Aero, and AI image generation.

how users interact

User flows required intricate wireframes detailing many steps.

We mapped out our augmented reality concepts into wireframes that displayed a complex system of interactions. During this phase, we also debated the product name, ultimately choosing SlotSpot over Carcloud.

impact vs. effort

We realized that high-effort design could have low-impact results.

Having explored divergent models, we stepped back and evaluated our developing solution, asking, "Will these ideas actually benefit most drivers?" While exciting, our advanced concepts depended on specialized in-vehicle hardware with limited adoption, resulting in high-effort, low-impact outcomes.

reality check

Earlier ideation presented challenges; later revisions
provided solutions.

Initial ideas led to problems involving feasibility, safety, and adoption. Instead of forcing ambitious ideas forward, we leaned into those limitations to refine
a more practical direction.

01

TECHNICAL
FEASIBILITY

  • Specialized hardware
  • Limited compatibility
  • Difficult to scale
  • Higher cost

NEW DIRECTION

Prioritize technology people can use today.

02

DRIVER
SAFETY

  • Possibly distracting
  • Drivers inexperienced
  • Limited testing on AR HUDs

NEW DIRECTION

Keep attention on
the road through
a simpler interface.

03

ADOPTION
FRICTION

  • Uncommon technology
  • Limited accessibility
  • Unfeasible?
  • Untrustworthy?

NEW DIRECTION

Design for every
driver with a mobile-
first experience.

Our current design might not be the
best solution for our user base.

Pivot point

We transitioned
into the most
scalable design.

We explored futuristic concepts like augmented reality and park-sharing, but the more we tested and evaluated them, the more one insight became clear: drivers didn't need more visual complexity, they needed clearer, more trustworthy guidance in a product they already carried every day.

mobile-first triumphs

As familiar an experience
as getting directions.

Having decided that our previous concepts weren't compatible with
our implementation goals of making a widely used parking solution,
we pivoted into a new mobile-first design, salvaging all our previous
research, wireframes and design goals.

why mobile came first

  • Broadest accessibility
  • Fastest path to validation
  • Foundation for future
    vehicle integration
  • Lowest impact risk

new wireframes & ideation

We recycled our initial wireframes but scaled them to iOS mobile.

With the platform established, we set out to translate the design we began for the AR concept into a mobile app interface, using inspiration from common wayfinding apps to provide a seamless parking space finding experience.

basic user flow

User needs parking, so what are the steps to take?

We distilled the general user flows into simplified roadmaps that solved the main dilemmas drivers face when trying to find parking.

01
Choose Destination
Enter where you're going to begin planning before you leave.
02
Locate Available Parking
View nearby parking
options before arriving
at your destination.
03
Compare Time, Cost, & Value
Evaluate price, walking
distance, and estimated time savings side by side.
04
Navigate to Selected Spot
Receive turn-by-turn
directions to the parking area most likely to have availability.
05
Park & See Estimated Savings
Review the time, cost, and stress you've saved compared with
a conventional search.

designing the interactions

Mid-fidelity wireframes helped work out the main interactions.

The core flow prioritized speed, confidence, and clarity. We explored how SlotSpot could work within iOS Maps for more universal compatibility, as well as how it could surface better parking options in real time, adapt during the drive, and make the outcome clear.

Finding the Best Spot

01

START 
THE SEARCH

1. Search a destination
or choose a recent trip. Community reporting lets drivers flag spaces as they open up.
‍
‍

02

COMPARE
OPTIONS

2. Parking markers and ranked options layer into Maps, helping drivers quickly judge distance, cost,
and availability.
‍

03

ADAPT
EN ROUTE

3. Live updates can redirect drivers toward a better parking area when a stronger
option appears.
‍
‍

04

SEE THE 
SAVINGS

4. After parking,
SlotSpot shows the estimated time, money, and unnecessary driving saved.
‍
‍

The slotspot system

We established a new way to
think about finding parking.

Moving away from augmented reality forced us to simplify the experience without sacrificing its usefulness. Rather than projecting open parking spaces on high-tech windshields, we translated SlotSpot to surface individual opportunities as they become relevant onto the map's UI, guiding drivers toward better decisions one small moment at a time.

system thinking

How could the concept
work in the real world?

Our concept takes technological intel to work. We conceived this to rely on multiple sources of information: computer vision from various data feeds (Tesla vehicles, smart home devices); traffic cameras; historical data; and other pipelines such as AI-interpreted GPS and crowd/user-sourcing.

accessibility considerations

Inclusive information architecture designed for every driver.

It was important for us to come up with a visual system that communicated parking availability through multiple visual and aural cues, rather than just by color alone. Confidence levels combine color, shape, labels, and hierarchy for drivers with varying vision abilities and accessibility needs. Voice features were also prioritized for visual challenges, as well as safety.

We redesigned with intent, prioritizing
intuitive affordances and accessibility for
an optimal user experience.

Feedback & validation

We tested what worked
(and what didn't).

Sharing the prototype with prospective
users revealed what felt intuitive, where uncertainty remained, and which ideas
deserved another iteration.

early feedback

How did people
respond to the concept?

Prospective users explored the prototype while we recorded their reactions and looked for recurring themes rather than isolated opinions.

What we learned

Feedback uncovered
three recurring patterns.

Participants responded positively to the concept in general, but their
feedback consistently centered on confidence, transparency, and clarity.
These themes guided the next iteration.

01

CONFIDENCE

"How do I know
the prediction that
the app makes
is accurate?"

KEY INSIGHT

Users uncertain about
how recommendations
are generated.

02

TRANSPARENCY

"I like seeing
parking costs before
I arrive, especially
for the free spots."

KEY INSIGHT

Users want cost information presented alongside parking recommendations.

03

CLARITY

“The colors made sense after a minute, but I'd still want a legend.”

KEY INSIGHT

The visual language needs to be simplified for a more intuitive interface.

Users provided valuable insight from
our first prototype that are directing
our next round of iterations.

The finished experience

What it's like
using SlotSpot.

The experience centers on three moments:
finding parking, arriving with confidence, and understanding costs before committing.

navigate with confidence

Turn-by-turn guidance directs drivers toward the area most likely to have available parking, reducing unnecessary circling.

see costs upfront

Compare price, walking distance, and estimated time before choosing where to park.

clear legends

The app uses a familiar and interface to make the details clear and intuitive.

parking markers

Understand the parking
landscape before you arrive.

Rather than simply showing where parking exists, SlotSpot visualizes the entire parking environment in real time. Color communicates parking type, confidence predicts availability, and larger markers highlight the strongest recommendations—helping drivers make informed decisions before reaching their destination.

Prototype

Try the interactive prototype.

Explore the complete parking journey, from destination search through parking recommendations, navigation, and arrival.

next steps

Building toward a
real-world MVP.

The concept has been validated, but several milestones remain before it can become a production-ready product. Beyond making an MVP, we envision the future of SlotSpot to be used in autonomous vehicles, AR, municipal APIs, and smart cities.

Research
Prototype
Expanded Validation
MVP
Pilot Program
Pilot Launch

Final reflection

The best solution
was not the most ambitious one.

We began by imagining everything the future of parking could become. The breakthrough came when we focused on solving one problem well.

Our ambitious vision of parking's future evolved into a practical concept to be used by everyone.

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Thank you for visiting!

Have something interesting in mind? I'd love to hear about it:

swdsull@gmail.com