Parking Meters,

need change?
Having a look at the world of parking meters…

How many roads to Rome? About this study

They are everywhere and, admit it, nobody likes to use them: Why?
13 November 2008 is World Usability
parking meters. The focus of this article is to compare parking
Day. This year transportation is the
meters around the globe and to find the basic commonalities or theme.
remarkable differences in their interfaces, and whether
improvement is needed. The UXalliance (www.uxalliance.com)
wished to observe this by looking into
When thinking about the task of using a parking meter, you a common transportation design
challenge, the Parking Meter.
might expect this to be a universal design challenge. Getting a
parking ticket in Brazil shouldn't differ much from getting one in
What?
New Zealand, should it? Are parking meters all over the world
The focus of this study is to get an
basically the same or are there a lot of variations of the concept? insight into how the common task of
Are there patterns in the design of parking meters all over the paying for a parking space is
world and is it possible to create a universal meter that could addressed globally. Do parking
potentially be used everywhere by anyone? meters differ between countries or are
they all facing the same design
To get an overview of what variations there currently are in the challenges?
parking meters all over the world, we asked usability
professionals in various countries to describe a typical parking How?
Usability professionals in nine different
meter in their country. These parking meters were then
countries went out and tried to use a
compared to find common challenges and solutions to the local parking meter. They took pictures
problem of making people pay for a parking space, or at least of this process and reported their
allowing them to. findings to us. We then compared the
different reports to find common
What we have found is that no two parking meters in our survey patterns and problems.
are completely the same and that the complexity of operating the
parking meters varies considerably. There is a world of difference Authors
between the auto-detecting parking meter in Tokyo and the - Chris Pierson
- Martijn Klompenhouwer
complex and error-prone parking ticket dispenser in Amsterdam.
- Jacco Nieuwland

User Intelligence, the Netherlands

(www.userintelligence.com)
 Parking meters, need change?

Areas of complexity Contributors

To compare different meters we focused on identifying common This study was conducted with co-
areas of complexity in the process of using a parking meter. operation between a number of the
What exactly are some of the design challenges that meters UXalliance partners & associates:
need to solve? When looking at the parking meter interfaces in
our sample it begs the question: Why are some meters so much Brazil:
Brazil:
more difficult to use than others? More importantly, why are Mercedes Sanchez Usabilidade
(www.mercedessanchez.com.br)
they complicated at all?
China:
China:
When comparing the various meters in our sample, we User Experience
identified some common factors that contribute to the (www.userexperience.cn)
complexity in interacting with these machines: France:
France:
Axance
• Space selection (paying for a specific space) (www.axance.com)

• Instructions (complex printed instructions vs. interactive Germany:

Germany:
SirValUse
displays) (www.sirvaluse.de)
• Buttons and flows (does the hardware support the task?) Japan:
Japan:
Mitsue-Links
• Number of tasks (just inserting coins vs. selecting ticket (www.mitsue.co.jp)
type, paying for the ticket and printing the ticket)
The Netherlands:
Netherlands:
• Payment methods (cash, parking card, creditcard or a User Intelligence
choice of any of those) (www.userintelligence.com)
New Zealand:
Zealand:
• Feedback (does the meter provide feedback and is it Optimal Usability
useful?) (www.optimalusability.com)
• Displaying the ticket (is it clear what to do with the ticket?) UK:
UK:
Serco Usability Services
• Error correction (does the meter allow actions to be (www.serco.com/usability)
undone?)
US:
US:
These identified areas of complexity in the interaction will be User Centric Inc.
explained in more detail in the following chapters. (www.usercentric.com)

Space selection
One factor that seems to influence the complexity of the meter is the number of parking spaces it has
to provide ‘metering’ for. The meters in our sample that are dedicated
to one or two spaces were considered much easier to use than
meters that serve multiple parking spaces (Pay and Display).

One of the properties of a dedicated parking meter is that it's

assigned to a specific parking spot. However, some parking meters
are placed between two spots and allow users of both spots to pay
at that meter (left and right of the meter). This means that the user will
have to select for which of the two spaces they are paying. The only
China: select where you are
meter in our survey that requires this is the Chinese parking meter
parking: in the space left or
right of the meter. and it provides the user with a very straightforward way of selecting
the space they are paying for.

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 Parking meters, need change?

The meter in Tokyo, Japan was able to detect

New York:
York : the
when a car had parked in 'its' space. This made it meter is placed
possible to automatically indicate which meter to exactly between
use. A light would flash on the meter the user just two parking
parked at and would not stop flashing until you've spaces. In the
inserted enough coins. picture, this meter
does not belong
In New York, the parking meters are also placed to the white van,
but to the empty
between two parking spaces. The angle of place behind it.
placement of the parking meter determines for
which parking space it is. We feel this could be
made more explicit.

Instructions
Looking at the interface of various parking meters in this study, one common complication seems to
be the number of information items that have to be ‘taken in’ and understood in order to use the
meter. A meter from the Netherlands for example shows five
or more areas on the interface with instructions used to
explain how to use the machine.

In many cases it is necessary to give instructions on how to

use the parking meter. This in itself suggests the interface
design could be better. However, if instructions are required
the design of this information is as important as the design
of the rest of the interface. In some cases the instructions are
displayed in a flow, which makes it easier to follow.
However, in most cases users need to read text that offers
little structure.

The instructions on parking meters that are dedicated to one

or two spots are in general much shorter and simpler. For
Amsterdam:
msterdam: Instructions on when to pay, most users, these types of machines should be relatively
different available tickets, how to pay, easy to understand. Of course, language can still be an
what to do in case of a defect and what issue for foreigners. Most non-English language machines
happens if you forget to pay.
offered instructions in different languages, but this is not a
general rule (e.g. Brazilian and Japanese meter).

In some cases instruction are not very easy to understand. On one of the UK meters the instructions to
explain that it is illegal to insert new coins after your initial time has expired is worded as:
"Subsequent insertion of a coin is a contravention".

Parking during (public) holidays is sometimes free. Although this is mentioned on the machine, some
machines did not actually list which dates are considered holidays.

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 Parking meters, need change?

Examples of differences in the layout of instruction texts

Parking meter in Chicago offers Meter in Brazil only offers text. The
text and icons. small colored dots indicate the color
of the button to use.

Buttons and flows

Another common element in the designs we have
Amsterdam:
msterdam:
looked at is the use of buttons (only some of the to start, select
dedicated machines didn't need any buttons at all). ticket using the
Using buttons to let users operate parking meters yellow button;
makes sense; we did not find any meters that made
increase desired
use of other input mechanisms (e.g. voice control or parking time by
interaction by mobile phone). Although the use of pressing the blue
buttons is not a big surprise, the way buttons are used button;
(in terms of colour, placement, shape and size) greatly
confirm by
affects the ease in which the interface can be pressing the green
understood and used. button.

What we found is that the order of the buttons rarely matches the flow users need to take. In the
Dutch meter, users first need to choose what kind of ticket they want. This isn't the first button of the
four, but the second one.

One issue observed with the buttons is that the size of the
buttons didn't always correspond with its importance. On
the German machine, the button to increase the time you
wanted to park was a small blue button.

All machines that had multiple buttons used colour to

distinguish different functions. Colour was also used in the
instruction to refer to the buttons. There was however often
no other indication on the buttons themselves, such as
labels. In cases of people having difficulty recognizing
colours (colour-blind / poor lighting conditions) this could be
an issue. Using different shapes and labels could address
Munich:
unich: size of the blue ‘add time’ button this issue.
is much smaller then the green ‘confirm’
button.

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 Parking meters, need change?

When looking at the various parking meters, we

observed that some countries used similar models. It
appears that some manufacturers service multiple
countries. The meter in Brazil used the identical model
as the one in the Netherlands, New York and Paris.
The meter from Chicago was the same basic model
as the one found in Germany and Pantin (France).

Although this in itself is an interesting observation,

what was striking was that this made it clear that
these machines are made as 'can-do-all' machines.
Depending on the wishes of the owner, some options
Chicago: Besides different colors, the buttons
have different shapes and labels. are 'turned off'. However, these 'inactive' buttons are
sometimes still visible. In our sample we found
examples of buttons that were made black and didn't serve any purpose. Removing these completely
from the interface would reduce the complexity of these machines.

The same model can be found in different countries

Paris, FR São Paulo, BR Amsterdam, NL New York, US

Also note the black ‘inactive’ buttons on the French, Brazilian and American machines.

The parking meters that had the most clear button flow were the machines from China and New
Zealand. The Chinese meter had the buttons ordered from top to bottom, creating a clear flow. The
New Zealand meter used a clear LCD display that showed the options the user has with clear buttons
to make your choice.

Examples of two clear

displays and use of buttons.

Left: Beijing, CN

Right: Auckland, NZ

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 Parking meters, need change?

One minor point with the Chinese display was that the buttons were hard to press. Some strength
was needed to make it work. The same can be said of the ‘Cancel’ button on the Dutch, Brazilian and
the New York meter. This button needed to be turned which needed quite some finger strength

Number of tasks
One key aspect that was considered to cause the most complexity is the variation of ‘tasks’ that have
to be achieved with that meter. Some machine made it possible to buy different types of tickets or
allowed other options like checking the balance on your bank card or charging a special card used to
pay for parking.

UK: Example of a simple parking meter

In the simplest case, the parking meter only allows the
located on Park Row, London. purchase of one type of ticket with only a single method of
payment. In some cases there was even only one pre-
defined period of parking time. To the left is an example of
one of the meters from the UK, of one of the simplest
parking meters that was part of this study.

In contrast to the ‘single tasks’ meters, in many locations

the parking meter enables the user to purchase various
types of tickets and using various payment methods for
varying lengths of time. This means the tasks that can be
accomplished makes the process more complicated, as
do the challenges for the user interface.
Only one type of ticket and just one payment
method possible.
We found that with more variation in the tasks the
interface becomes much more complex. There are more
‘elements’ to understand and instructions become necessary.

In the sample studied, there were two meters that

allowed users to get different types of tickets. One Amsterdam, NL: NL :
users have to choose
meter in France had different rates for residents and between five different
visitors. The meter in the Netherlands allowed users to tickets (A-E).
get five different types of tickets (e.g. an ‘evening
ticket’, ‘Sunday ticket’ or a ’24 hour ticket’). Note that not all
tickets are always
The question arises whether the variation in tickets is valid (e.g. Sunday
ticket).
needed and cannot be solved in some other manner.
The meter could for instance let the users just 'tell' the Also the ‘discount’ of
machine how long they want to park and then give an all day ticket is
them the most appropriate ticket. In one of the New exactly one hour. If
you park after 10:00
York meters, the machine would automatically charge you’re better off
the reduced rates when users indicated to park during paying per hour.
those times. All of a sudden your quarter would
automatically allow you to park longer...

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 Parking meters, need change?

Payment methods
As remarked above, different payment methods increase the complexity of a parking meter. Besides
that this means that extra elements need to be added to the interface (e.g. an additional slot to enter
your card), the flow is often influenced based on the desired payment method.

Of the parking meters

we observed in our
review, four of them
Parking costs
only accepted coins What does parking your car cost?
(Japan and all the three
UK meters). Two meters The prices below are all converted to
Euros and are the costs of parking
only accepted a specific
your car for one hour.
card (China and Paris).
All other machines Beijing, CN:
CN : € 0.25
allowed payment by
Auckland, NZ:
NZ: € 0.45
some type of card as
well as cash. None of São Paulo,
Paulo, BR:
BR : € 0.50
UK: Example of a very simple way of
the machines accepted
operating a coin-only parking meter on Paris, FR:
FR: € 1.00
Greenwich South Street, London. bills. If you want to park
for a long time, you Munich, DE:
DE: € 1.00
either need to be able to pay by card or carry a lot of coins...
London, UK : € 2.30
The coin-only operated meters are generally easy to use. The
Chicago, US:
US: € 2.35
standard method is: add coins until the desired parking time is
reached and, if needed, press a button to get a ticket. Tokyo, JP : € 2.40

For payment with a card there was no standard way of using Amsterdam, NL: NL : € 3.80
the meter. In some cases users first needed to indicate how Note: For the countries in this study with multiple
long to park and then insert their card to pay. In other cases parking meters, the most expensive meter is
displayed. Only rates for the meters within this
users needed to insert their card first and then start the process study are shown.
of telling the machine the desired parking time. The order in
which to do this was not apparent from the interface and explanatory text was needed.

To pay at some meters, a special kind of card is needed. These machines did not accept standard
credit or bank debit cards. The Chinese meter for example requires the 'Beijing municipal
administration and communication card' to pay for parking. Even though the most basic instructions
on this meter are available in English, the instruction on what card to use, and how to use it, is only
available in Chinese. Even in Chinese, it is not very clear that the card needs to be placed in front of
the machine (over the instructions).

In case a special type of card is needed, machines do not explain how to get hold of such a card. In
Brazil for example, the meter tells you to get a card at the 'Customer Service of Autoparque', but
doesn't explain what the exact address is.

Feedback
In this case ‘feedback’ is referring to the elements of the parking meter interface that let the user know
what is happening. Where they are in a process and what they should do next. This element in the
meters we have reviewed often involved some sort of LED / Digital display.

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 Parking meters, need change?

The information the machine displays is important to give the user a sense of progress and
accomplishment. Most of the meters we have seen in this survey use a very simple (LCD-based)
screen to show some basic information like the current time and the end of the parking period paid
for.

Two examples of digital displays.

Left:
Left: UK (Greenwich South Street)

Right: US (Chicago Illinios).

For the dedicated meters, this screen also shows how much parking time is left for that spot. This is
important information for both the user and the parking attendant who needs to determine whether
someone has paid for that spot.

The Japanese meter has an extra, very visible indication that the parking time is up: a blinking light.
This makes it very easy to spot parking violations.

Tokyo, Japan

Left: The meter automatically detects

when a car is parked in ‘its’ place (see
sensors bottom of machine on the left).

Right: When a car is detected, a red light

starts blinking until user has paid (see
image on the right).

The meter in Beijing and Auckland both used a

more advanced display. Each step in the process of
paying for the parking space is supported clearly
through this screen. This removed the need for
printed explanatory text on the meter itself.

As mentioned earlier, one problem to be solved is

how to create a parking meter that can be used for
various tasks in various locations (countries). The
display focused design from New Zealand is a
good possible solution. It would allow the variation
to be in the display (software) allowing the rest of
the interface to remain simple and easy to use.
New Zealand:
Zealand: No instructional text on the parking
meter itself. All interaction is done through the
display.

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 Parking meters, need change?

Displaying ticket
For ten of the fourteen parking meters we reviewed, a ticket needed to be printed and displayed in
the car (Pay and Display). Not all instructions on the meters explained what to do with the ticket (e.g.
where to display). Users that are unfamiliar with this might
place this ticket underneath their windscreen wipers, running
the risk that someone else will 'borrow' their ticket and display
it properly behind their windscreen.

Some tickets did have this information printed on the ticket

itself. The ticket in Chicago was a sticker which allowed two
wheeled vehicles to use stick the ticket to their motor.

Besides missing explanation of what to do with the ticket,

there were no big issues with actually printing and receiving a
US:
US: Example of a ticket to be displayed ticket. So even though this step is not a huge challenge in
on the driver’s side of the dashboard. itself, any reduction in steps will be an improvement.

Error correction
An issue generally observed is that it's not always easy to correct a mistake. Especially when the
feedback is slow, it's easy to press the 'time' button once too often, resulting in too much parking
time. Most machines did not allow users to go back a single step. The easiest way of correcting a
mistake was often to cancel the whole process and start again. Exception to this rule appears to be
the New Zealand machine. This parking meter allowed users to not only add time, but also decrease
time.

The meter in Japan had no form of error correction. Users only have the option to feed three 100 Yen
coins in the machine. It does not allow other size coins or cards. There is no way to get your coins
back once you've fed this meter your first coin. Also, meters generally do not give change. Paying with
coins means that you need to have exact change to stay the desired time or 'overpay' (feeding the
meter too much).

Left:
Left: China, only the option
to add time (pressing ‘plus
sign’ button). No possibility
to deduct time.

Right: Interface of the

meter in New Zealand
offers the option to easily
change time period.

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 Parking meters, need change?

Other issues
Besides identified areas of complexity in the actual interaction with the machine, there are some other
factors in the use of parking meters that need to be considered. These factors are not directly coupled
to elements on the parking meter interface, but they do influence the usability of the machines.

Environmental influences
Because all of the parking meters are placed outside, along the
streets, they are susceptible to the influences of weather. In the
case of one of the English parking meters, condensation on the
inside of the plastic dome made the LCD screen very hard to
read. Next to that, the outside location makes the parking meters
possible targets for vandalism and “guerilla marketing”. Stickers
and graffiti can seriously affect the legibility of instructions.

The only example in our study that protected the device against
some of the elements was the parking meter in New Zealand; it
offered users protection from the rain and wind.

New Zealand:
Zealand: No umbrella needed
if you are operating this machine in
bad weather.

Left Brazil:
Brazil: The interface on
this parking meter is heavily
scratched, making the
instructions on the LCD
display hard to read.

Right UK: Condensation

inside meter made display
almost illegible.

Forward planning
A factor that generally makes using parking meters difficult is the need for ‘forward planning’. At the
moment you’ve parked your car you need to estimate how long you’re going to need that parking
space. You do not want to pay too much, but you do not want to have to return to the meter to feed
some extra coins in the machine (or run the risk of a fine).

If you compare parking spaces along the road with parking in a garage, one of the big differences is
the need for this planning. In parking garages you generally park your car in an environment that has
control over the exit (e.g. with a barrier). This allows for a process where you can make users pay for
the time they have actually used the parking place. It will register when a user enters (you get a ticket)
and upon leaving this information is used to calculate the exact parking time. You then pay the
amount due and receive the right to leave the garage (e.g. an exit card).

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 Parking meters, need change?

In this case no forward planning is needed. If you need to park longer than expected, you do not have
to return to feed the meter and when you return earlier, you pay less.

Some of the meters we studied did not require any forward

planning. This was possible by greatly reducing the options
given to users. The Japanese meter for example had just one
time period: 60 minutes, take it or leave it. If you only had to
park for 15 minutes, you still paid the full price. This simplicity
took away the need for planning. In fact, it just didn’t offer
users the possibility of planning.

There are some systems in the market already that combine

the principle used in parking garages for regular parking
spaces. Users can subscribe to a special service and pay by
using an SMS based service. To pay for parking, users 'check
in' by sending an SMS that informs the system where they have
parked (e.g. by including a special code displayed on the
Japan:
Japan: No planning needed, users can parking meter). When done parking, users need to send a
only buy one ticket: 60 minutes parking second SMS in which they 'check out'. The system then
for 300 YEN…
calculates the amount due and charges the user accordingly.
A special sticker on the car tells parking attendants that the owner of the car uses this service and can
check with the system to see if the owner has checked in.

Acceptance
When we started this project, we assumed that parking meters were a global phenomenon. It turns
out that this is not the case. Parking meters are a new sight in countries such as Brazil and China.
Parking places in crowded (inner city) areas are often privately owned and manually controlled. In
recent years automated meters have been introduced in these countries. However, since there is little
or no policing and fines are relatively low, users often take the risk of not paying. Combined with
difficulties in operating the machines (e.g. unclear payment methods) this leads to users often
ignoring the use of these parking meters. Offering an easy to use interface could help in the
acceptance of using the meters in these countries.

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 Parking meters, need change?

Conclusions
Based on the results from this study we can safely draw the following conclusions:

Generally speaking, it’s striking that not two meters have the exact same interface to support the task
of paying for a parking ticket. Even though some of the parking meters in this global study are built by
the same manufacturer, none function exactly the same. The French, Dutch, Brazilian and US meters
may seem very similar but are not operated in the same manner.

Overall, the parking meters that are dedicated to one or two spots are the simplest to operate. They
provide the user with just one task: put money in the meter! The maximum parking time is always
limited and even though this may be frustrating in itself, it makes payment a lot simpler. Luckily there
is no ticket to display, which adds to the simplicity.

The downside of this type of meter is of course that it needs as many meters as there are parking
spots (or at least half as many) in a city. But from a usability point of view this meter is simply the
easiest to operate!

The dedicated parking meter in Tokyo recognises when a car is parked ‘in its spot’ and notifies the
driver to pay upon leaving his vehicle. Because of its simplicity and the clear advance warning to the
driver, the Japanese meter is our favourite, keeping in mind that the majority of users are locals.

The machines that require payment and placement of a ticket are in general much more complex
than the dedicated parking meters. These pay and display meters do (often) have to cater for multiple
and more complex tasks (e.g., the number and different types of tickets offered) and are therefore
tend to have more complicated interfaces.

Irrespective of their fundamental complexity, we still observed a number of striking differences. The
amount and complexity of the instructions is a complicating factor, as well as the number of tickets
offered. Generally speaking, the pay and display meters with a large display seem to offer the user
the best chance to succeed in their task. Our favourite in this respect is the design from New Zealand,
combining a large variable display with a few very simple buttons. It supports the user throughout the
process and allows for software updates to support functional changes in the future and/or in
different locations.

The pay and display parking meters in Amsterdam succeed in combining all complicating factors into
one machine: plentiful instructions, 5 different kind of tickets to chose from, combined with buttons
that can only be distinguished by colour and are not in line with the user’s task flow. Complexity and
violation of some basic usability guidelines confuse the user. Perhaps the intention is to deliberately
bamboozle this user so he or she will not notice paying one of the highest hourly parking rates
worldwide!

So, one would expect that the machines that support a task that is worldwide so common and
similar, would have similar and recognisable interfaces as well. The opposite seems to be the case:
there are many roads to Rome when it comes down to paying for a parking spot! And some are
longer than others…

With advanced technological initiatives (i.e., SMS payment, GPS and license plate recognition), the
future of parking ticket payment around the globe may become an easier task at some point. Until
then, it seems that users will have to accept some of the impractical hurdles that current parking
meters present.

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 Parking meters, need change?

More information
If you would like more information regarding this study please feel free to contact the authors at:

User Intelligence
Lauriergracht 17
1016 RE Amsterdam
+31 (0)20 – 4080 42 96
www.userintelligence.com
[email protected]

More information about the possibilities of conducting global usability can be found on the website
of the UXalliance, the international network for user experience: www.uxalliance.com

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank everybody that contributed to this article and the organizers of World Usability
Day for their efforts to create a more user friendly world.

Special thanks to the UXalliance and all the usability professionals all around the world that helped us
with collecting local data: José Gil and Mercedes Sanchez (Brazil), Jiarong Ding and Xiaomeng Yuan
(China), Eric Marillet (France), Stephan Engl (Germany), Noriko Osaka (Japan), Caroline Jones (New
Zealand), David Loughlin (UK) and Neha Pathak (US). Without your help and input we would all still be
in the dark as to where best to park…

Also many thanks to all the colleagues in the Amsterdam office of User Intelligence for putting up with
our parking meters anecdotes for the last few weeks…

We wish you all safe and easy parking!

Chris Pierson, Martijn Klompenhouwer and Jacco Nieuwland

User Intelligence, Amsterdam

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