Project Recap
Recently, I began research on my personal project. To recap the problem I intend to solve, many people struggle to find parking spaces, especially at large events such as festivals, sports competitions, and concerts. This can lead to significant time delay and a loss in revenue for parking garages with open spots that are overlooked. To address this issue, I created the following definition statement:
“The solution must be easily accessible and easily applicable/adaptable in multiple locations. It must generate revenue, either through additional booking fees, ads, or subscriptions. The solutions should be most suitable for major events, where pre-planning can take place. Parking lots must make sufficient money to compensate for empty spots left by reservations, and open spots must be detectable.”
The target audience for this project is adults and parents, in particular, those who actively participate in such large events. Those living in urban areas or near major sports/concert venues will be a prime target.
Potential Solutions
Below are the potential solutions and drawbacks that I initially foresaw.
- Create an app with a subscription-based program that allows you to reserve parking spots in advance.
- Set up sensors to detect whether a spot has been occupied.
- Collaborate with parking lots to share additional revenue generated from reservations to compensate for the money lost from empty parking spots.
- Generate app revenue through additional fees for reservations on the app, depending on the time prior to the booking, through ads, or subscriptions.
- Market in social media and through parking lots, as this is a fairly common problem that most people living in urban areas or near major sports/concert venues experience.
Drawbacks
- Parking lots, especially in populated areas, may lose revenue because parking spots are left empty for reservations.
- Ensuring customers arrive and leave on time.
I intend to keep the majority of these solutions. However, I plan to put a greater emphasis on getting in contact and collaborating with parking garages, rather than marketing the product on social media, as I believe I should approach this project to demonstrate my skills and passion, rather than from a purely business standpoint.
Current Progress
The majority of my original research had been on existing competition, as shown below:
- Spot Hero:
- A leading digital parking lot booking service in North America, helping to book garages, lots, and valets. Founded in 2011, it operates in over 400 cities in Canada and the United States. Spot Hero makes money by taking a 10-35% commission from parking lot operators for managing reservations, with pricing that varies by location, time, and the local economy.
- BestParking:
- A prominent parking lot booking service in North America that searches and compares the pricing of different lots to locate an optimal garage. BestParking operates near populated cities, airports, and stadiums. Similar to Spot Hero, it makes money by taking a commission fee from lot operators for connecting and overseeing the interaction between the user and seller.
Recently, I have focused on researching and testing potential website creators and domains. I initially intended to use Squarespace for accessible and flexible use, but its short free trial and requirement of a paid plan to continue usage presented a major downside.
Currently, I’m considering the use of AI website creators, in particular Bolt or Claude, as a simple way to set up the foundation of the website. These AIs have a message limit per day, thus I must draft detailed prompts before each use. The main purpose of Bolt.AI is to create a website with basic features, such as a booking page, search page, home page, payment form, etc. It is also possible to integrate simple AI chatbots into the website to aid navigation.
Example of an AI Chatbot made by EdCafe for the purpose of my project.
I am also working on the domains provided by Bolt.AI to launch my app on, as shown below:
Through my testing, I discovered that Bolt.AI and other similar AIs excel at creating organized pages of a website, but struggle at including imported images, videos, links, and other external items. I plan to then import the generated code into VS Code or another website creation tool that allows the use of such material.
Documentation
I have also begun documentation for my project, including recording recent progress and planning for the future. This was done on Notion, where I have set up a project overview, timeline, and to-do table
Link to full Notion documentation
https://www.notion.so/Project-Overview-3109b50b8f9680ce875bf333be4e61c4?source=copy_link
Challenges
The most significant challenge I am facing at the moment is managing the limited number of messages Bolt and Claude AI provide per day. To accommodate this issue, I must set up a list of pre-written, detailed prompts that I can paste into the AI each day. This process must be started as early as possible to account for any potential delays. I must also learn to export the code and to import the appropriate code language into VS Code.
Next Steps
In addition to addressing the above-mentioned challenges, I plan to focus on researching and testing potential domains to launch my website. More importantly, I must learn to convert my website into an app for better accessibility. The purpose of first creating a website is to be able to test necessary features flexibly, but it may require time to convert the code to fit the requirements of an app.
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