Design an app for an amusement park.

1. Ok. let me understand the question first.
   1. So, by amusement park my understanding is that we are referring to tourist spot where there are rides - dry and wet rides - type of swings, slides which tourists can take for their entertainment and enjoyment. It is paid experience. Please let me know if this description sounds fine? Or am i missing any important point.
   2. Is this a water park or dry rides park or both? Only on dry rides
   3. Just to understand better, who is trying to design the park? govt. or a private org? [ you can assume.] Ok so I'll assume this is being developed my a private organization for profit. [Why?]
   4. Any specific location where this has to be designed? No. you can assume. Ok let me assume this is coming up in bglore.
   5. Any specific goal you have in mind?
      1. Assume. Ok since it is a new product coming up, I'll like to focus on adoption and activation.
2. Now lets think on who are user groups interested in an amusement park-
   1. Kids [5-15] -like to take rides like swings. Accompanied by parents or come on school picnic with teachers.
   2. Young adults - 15-30. Have come with group of friends, couples.
3. Prioritize user group
   1. Out of the 2 user groups, Kids will be a bigger segment. Adults are more interested in water park not that in amusement rides.
4. Lets now think of the main user needs of kids and their parents since the decision maker are parents in this case also with kids.
   1. Parents (as they are decision maker mostly and guide the kids)
      1. Reaching the place and buying the tickets is a hassle due to so much of crowd. [med. med]
      2. Figuring out which ride the kid should take and how to reach the ride, are there eligible rides for my kid? [high, high] [Parents and kids]
      3. Where to get hygienic food for the kids? [med, med - people might not want to eat outside and prefer bringing own food or packaged food like chips etc.]
      4. Rides are very crowded.. too much wait time... kids not ready to wait for so long. [high, high] [Parent and kids]
      5. Is the ride safe? [High, high]
   2. Prioritize pain points
      1. Severity of the pain point, reach.
   3. Let me come up with some solutions for the prioritized pain points
      1. Have best quality rides setup with good coverage of all age groups [high, high]
      2. Have rides with regular audits to determine wear and tear. [high, med]
      3. Have rides with sensor, that can detect upcoming issue that will break the ride or cause it to mal function. [high, high - can be setup overtime]
      4. Develop an app for the amusement park that has information of each ride, ride experience so that u can figure out whether u want to go for the ride or not. Along with information like allowed age and height so that rides can be filtered accordingly for your kid and navigation directions to reach the ride. along with safety instructions for each ride and last safety audit date. [med - more time consuming,med]
      5. Wizard approach where u key in kid's details - age, height, time duration of the visit and the interests like high speed rides and the wizard come up with a curated list of rides from which user can choose. [high, med ]
      6. AI experience where the parent can type in their query like which ride to take, which direction to follow up. [med, high]
      7. Along with rides show estimated wait time so before we decide to travel to the ride, we know how much time it will take. [med, med]
      8. Pre book seat in the ride through mobile phone and then reach on or before the expected time so that u din't miss out on ur chance to swing. [high, high]
5. Prioritize the solns.
   1. impact and cost to implement based on these will prioritize option i, ii, v, viii
6. Trade offs
   1. The experience assumes that users would mostly have smartphones since smartphone penetration is high in the market. I could have gone for kisoks but those are difficult to maintain.
7. metrics
   1. Adoption metrics like unique user visits growth month on month.
   2. Satisfaction score - CSAT can be taken when users have completed the ride and over all at park level - imp to get feedback and further improve the park.
   3. month on month wear and tear in the rides - to keep track of ride quality.

To begin with, we can discuss some assumptions and clarifications.

1. We shall be considering a mobile application as it would be more convenient for people to use it on the go – even in the amusement parks.

2. The amusement parks are big enough – attracting lots of visitors.

3. The goal of the application is to increase the overall customer experience – so exploring only the customer segments (ignoring the needs of the amusement park owners, staff, etc.)

Some of the primary user groups can be the following: 

1. Teenagers: People going to the parks to enjoy and spend some leisure time with their friends.
2. Couples: Wanting to enjoy their time together.
3. Picnic groups/school trips: Large groups of people going to the parks to have an outing.
4. Families: Planning to spend a family outing at the amusement parks.

Out of the groups mentioned above, we should focus on the Families segment as:

• They are likely to make more visits
• They are expected to come in groups (with other families as well)
• This group is likely to have more concerns than other user groups due to the various needs of the individuals in the family (children, male, female, etc.)

Some of the main pain-points of the prioritized user group are:

Parking Issue: Not able to locate a parking spot, difficulty in finding the parked vehicle after coming out of the park.

Waiting lines: Long waiting times in queues (for the ticket purchase, food purchase, getting on a ride, etc.).

Getting lost: Losing contact with the family members, wasting time in finding each other if separated in the parks.

Finding locations: Challenging to find areas such as washrooms, eateries, rides, etc.

Losing Tickets: People (especially kids) lose their tags/tickets

Now, we can prioritize the user needs, based on parameters such as the impact on the users, revenue/engagement potential, level of effort needed to address the needs.

Based on the user prioritization matrix, we should target the solutions for 1,2 and 4 in our MVP. Additionally, these three needs contribute to reducing the overall wait/idle times in the park

Solution: To minimize the wait time-

1. Parking issue:

• While going to the park:

- Pre-booking of parking spaces for a pre-defined time periods to increase parking convenience 

- Feature giving a real-time update of all vacant parking spaces once the car reaches the park

• While leaving the park:

- Tracker to show the location of the car on the map 

2. Waiting Lines:

• At ticket counters:

-  Pre-booking of tickets through apps to remove the counter touchpoint itself

-  Enable mobile banking feature (if not available) through the app to reduce wait times

• At food counters:

-  Online booking of meals to eliminate the need for waiting in lines.

-  Push notifications/alerts from the food counter when the meal is ready.

• At rides:

-  Real-time update on the traffic at each ride zone with an estimated wait time

-  Option to mark rides as favorite and get notifications when the traffic is minimum

3. Finding washrooms:

-   Maps and routes to navigate through the park, with option to find/select what the consumer is looking for (washroom, food outlet, rides, etc.)

Finally, some of the metrics for evaluating success can be:

1. Number of downloads

2. Feedback on app usage

3. The difference in return rates of consumers who use the app vs who do not use the app  

Here's my approach to this Google product design interview question.

Approach:

1. Clarify
2. User types 
3. User needs
4. Solutions 
5. MVP

1. Clarify

Is it a mobile or a desktop app? - mobile

Does Google have an interest in building it or it's a general question? - general question 

Do we plan to have many amusement parks in the future? - This is an app for an existing amusement park

Is there any deadline or other resource constraints? - negative

Why do we need to build the app, goal? - improve customer satisfaction 

2. User types

- Family with kids

- Teenager friends

- Couples

- Park employees: entertainers, help personal, security, customer service, ticket office etc

- Park administration: managers

- 3rd party advertisers

- Park suppliers 

Let's assume that "family with kids" have the lowest satisfaction rates as they need the most comfort. We also like this group because it spends more money and time in the park and is more likely to come back because of the kids.

3. User needs

- Food

- Interaction with entertainers & family-friendly shows

- No lines

- Good memories together: photos, souvenirs 

- Phone chargers

- Mother rooms to feed or change the baby

Let's assume we ran a survey and learnt that the top concern that our families had is "waiting in lines" 

4. Solutions

Goal - minimize or eliminate wait time in any line in the park for families to improve their satisfaction rates. 

We have the following lines:

- Parking 

- Ticket purchase

- Food

- Shows, rollercoasters - entertainment

- Restrooms

Entertainment and parking lines take the most time, so we will brainstorm solutions within our mobile app for that.

1. Guided parking with advanced reservations for families 

2. Show nearby street parking 

3. Vallet service 

4. Real-time attraction line updates + notifications

5. Augmented reality objects in the waiting line area (gamified like PokmonGo concept)

6. Filters with the attraction's main characters to take and share selfies

Prioritization criteria:

Reach, Impact(customer satisfaction), Confidence, Effort/Resources - 4,5 are prioritized.   

4. MVP

User journey:

1. View the park map with main attractions

2. Filter by kids height (out of scope)

3. View attraction's ratings by kids (out of scope)

4. View "Time to fun" (wait time)

5. View time to get to the attraction (out of scope)

6. Select an attraction of interest (out of scope)

7. Receive a notification when the line is short for those attractions  

Wireframe:

Mocks
 

Success metrics:

1. Family segment satisfaction rates those who use the app vs those who don't (NPS)
2. $ spent in the park
3. Time spent in the park
4. Willingness to come back (survey)