Finding a parking spot in central Damascus can mean circling for the better part of an hour, then walking the last stretch on foot. DamaPark is our answer: reserve a spot before you head into the city, then check in by QR at the gate. Building it taught us how much a product has to bend to local reality.
The first constraint is the driver. Someone behind the wheel cannot type a card number or fish a one-time code out of a text message. So login is by mobile number over WhatsApp, and payment runs through a pre-charged in-app wallet rather than a card prompt at the moment of booking. Booking becomes two taps because the friction was moved out of the moment that matters.
The second is connectivity. Connections drop, so the gate check-in has to work from a QR code that was issued earlier, not a live call to a server at the exact second the car arrives.
The third is the operator. The garage side is just a web dashboard — no separate app to install or maintain — so a staff member can confirm arrivals and manage availability from any screen.
None of this is exotic technology. It is a Laravel backend and a Flutter app. The work that mattered was deciding what to leave out so the core loop — book, arrive, scan, enter — stays effortless for a driver in a hurry.