ParkWhiz: Book Parking Deals - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

I developed my first iPhone app 10 years ago, and I haven't stopped since. I made my first native application back in 1995 for Windows 95.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

The most challenging thing about developing any mobile app is making sure we build the right thing for our customers so they walk away with the best experience possible. They are likely on the go, trying to book a spot quickly, and we want to make it as seamless and easy as possible.

_{Patrick McCarron}

Graduated in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University. Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 I have been focused on building exceptional mobile apps and games for Apple's iOS platform. Specialties: iOS, iPhone, iPad, Swift, Objective C, Cocoa, UIKit, Core Data, Core Animation, Game Center, SpriteKit, AppKit, C++, C, JSON, XML, SQLite, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, git, Mercurial (hg), Photoshop, Illustrator & Sketch.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

1Password - I always regarded them as a leader in the Apple ecosystem for user experience, design and security. Plus I can't live without my vault of passwords. It is the app I've used the most over the last ten years without question.

How long have you been working on this app?

I recently joined the mobile team at ParkWhiz three months ago, but this current iteration of the app has been in development for the past year. The ParkWhiz app is in a constant state of refinement and enhancement.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

Make parking awesome. Find parking place fast with minimal friction.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

Our mantra internally is to build the best product we can so our customers want to come back to us. One of our strong suits is our design. The ParkWhiz app doesn't only look gorgeous but it works really well without getting in the user's way. Plus I can't wait to push out some new features into our customers’ hands that makes the parking experience easier. For instance, we just launched an Alexa skill so you can now book parking by talking directly to your Alexa-enabled device like the Echo or Echo Dot; you don't even need to look at a screen. It's this type of innovation that gets me excited for what we're building at ParkWhiz.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

We just released an update for the iPhone X, and we have even more improvements for the app slated for release in the coming weeks to make the user experience even better.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Always feel free to reach out to us with any questions or problems you may have. Contact us from within the app or by going to http://help.parkwhiz.com.