Air XP
OVERVIEW
A personalised application that helps users save time at the airport and improves their air travel experience.
ROLE
UX Designer, UX research, Product design, Concept design
The Challenge
The goal of the project was to improve the user's experience who engage in the air travel journey. Another part of the goal was how to improve ways for the users to utilise the air travel journey productive and a pleasing experience.
Target Users
The target population considered here are the people travelling in economy class, the reason behind the choice is the volume of people who travel in this segment and abundant opportunity for improvement are much higher. Also, the solution cast at this user group can be largely implemented to other user groups as well.
Accordingly to the statistic data, the no of passengers travelling domestically in the air has increased from 144 million passengers at 2014 to 234 million passengers
User Research
The research was conducted using IDEO method cards, these IDEO cards help in approaching research methodologies more user-centric way. Among the categories, research methods under the below-mentioned topic were found suitable.
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01. LOOK
02. ASK
03. LEARN
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01. LOOK
A day in the life
Catalogue the activities and contexts that users experience throughout an entire day
WHY?
+ Useful way to reveal unanticipated issues.
+ Understand a routine of the users.
+ They also reveal what kind of circumstances the user has to experience. Paves the way to get empathy and identity the pain points being in the user shoes.
TASK
TRAVEL: Made a journey from Chennai [MAA] to Madurai [IXM] Dated: 11/02/2020. Journey time: 1.30 hrs.
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Visited café, book stalls, washrooms, and other places in the Chennai Airport/Madurai Airport.
Insights
Observed and noted my experience as a user, there were crucial points noted down.
Drop point location not clear regarding the airline spot. Some places signboards are not clear enough.
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Extremely cluttered & no clear communication for the airline whether the baggage has gone thru checking.
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Kiosk not working properly. Someplace airline representative was there to help. Kiosk purpose lost.
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Baggage drop point time consumption.
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No necessity of security check at that point created a stop and crowd in line.
New travellers are not clear regarding the instructions. Chances of a wallet lost. Feel of insecurity.
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Boarding pass the gate location was not visible enough.
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Last-minute gate change was not clearly communicated, became a rush and panic.
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The flight attendant has less compassion. There was an extreme monotonous feel in the way they talk.
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Delay in the arrival of the baggage.
Fly on the wall
Observe and record behavior within its context,
without interfering with people activities.
WHY?
+ It is useful to observe people within the limitation of the context.
+ It also helps to get the actual behavior rather than things explained by the user.
TASK
LOCATION:
Chennai International Airport & Madurai International Airport
Time Spent: 4.5 hrs.
[Cumulative time spent at both the airports]
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Sat at multiple locations and gate points to observe the behaviour of the users at these spots. Made notes out of it.
Insights
Airport visit & Observation
LOUNGE FOR ECONOMY
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There are less or no lounge for the economy class. There are only paid services.
KIDS ENGAGEMENT
Kids in the gate location have less engagement and they dint have many places for engaging.
EXPENSIVE FOOD
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There were a considerable amount of people who inquired the price of the
food left without buying cause of expensiveness.
LESS DINE AREA
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Food dines places, most of the food outlet has only given way. There is very less location to actually eat.
WORK STATION
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While observing, there were a lot of working people who kept working with the uncomfortably on the laptop.
02. ASK
Narration
As they perform a process or execute a specific task, ask
participates to describe aloud what they are thinking.
WHY?
+ Useful way to reach actual users.
+ Its casual way of understanding the users perspective while in the process.
+ It also helps in giving out the concern of the users.
TASK
TRAVEL: Made travel from Chennai [MAA] to Madurai [IXM] Dated: 11/02/2020.
Time utilized: 1 hour
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Made random conversation with other passengers during my visit at the airport.
Insights
The conversations were more like meeting strangers at different locations and introduce myself, initiate a conversation about different experiences faced in air travel.
USER 01
AGE: 37 YRS
LOST BAGGAGE
/AIRLINE: SpiceJet.
He lost his baggage, they were not
able to track it. He followed up with
airlines multiple times yet they
couldn't track the bag. He made a
point clear, he has no idea his
baggage is packed with him is his
same flight. It is known only when he
reached the final location.
USER 02
AGE: 30 YRS
INSTRUCTION LANGUAGE
/AIRLINE: Indigo
The traveller a female with a kid,
doesn't understand much English and
Hindi. As most of the cabin crew
information is in English/Hindi.
When her daughter felt to vomit she
didn't know the paper bag provided is
for air sickness.
USER 02
AGE: 42 YRS
RUDE & DELAY INFORMATION
/AIRLINE: Indigo
The flight was delayed by 3 hrs the
passenger was not provided with
sufficient information and the crew
members were rude when he inquired
to know the information. The airline
made them wait and he said the
the whole travel experience was bitter.
Questionnaire
Ask a series of targeted questions in order to ascertain particular characteristics and perceptions of users.
WHY?
+ It is a quick way to get the answers directly from the users.
+ Gives an upper hand-selecting the targeted users.
TASK
A quick 5 -minute question survey was asked and took into consideration. All the users given questionnaires are people who were asked to answer accordingto domestic airports.
Insights
As it was a random location, a quick question session was only possible but was able to identify one key bad experience registered to their mind
USER 01
AGE: 49 YRS
PROFESSION: Doctor
TRAVEL: Moderate
Few choices of food, there are
not much food items also
most of the food items are
containing high preservatives.
The cabin crew has no idea
what ingredients are there in
food.
USER 02
AGE: 35 YRS
PROFESSION: Marketing
TRAVEL: Frequent
Being an extreme travelling
person, there is no rest point
sometimes early morning flights are
troublesome as wanna relax
for sometime before travel but
seating is bad.
USER 03
AGE: 28 YRS
PROFESSION: IT
TRAVEL: Moderate
WiFi is limited, though I use
mobile data. Sometimes the
data gets our quick because I
am a high consumer of
internet. A single movie eats
roughly 400MB.
USER 04
AGE: 20 YRS
PROFESSION: Student
TRAVEL: Less
There is no entertainment
points inside the airport,
sometimes I have to connect
flights, I have to spend hours in
airport.
03. LEARN
Secondary research
Process of reading articles, blog, threads, paper and
magazine.
BAGGAGE
+ Most of the articles speculated that
baggage part is the most displeasing
experience in air travel.
+ Baggage getting lost.
+ Baggage getting damaged the cause of
handling.
+ Delayed arrival and too high charge
for extra baggage.
+ Issues pertained to hand carry
CUSTOMER SERVICE
+ Sometimes unruly behaviour of the
cabin crew.
+ Rude.
+ Poor Cabin assistance.
+ They are not warm and welcoming,
there is a passive approach.
+Poor airline food.
PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED
+ Toilet facilities in aircraft.
+ Comfortable seating arrangements.
+ Uncomfortable crew service
sometimes.
AIRLINE SCHEME KNOWLEDGE
+ Extra baggage cost is cheaper in
online than doing before.
+ Refund or repay delay. Couldn't
track with the system.
+ Misconnections help, deductions
+ Reschedule with or without warning
+ Delays or gate change.
AIRCRAFT
+ Crampy seats.
+ Noise in the aircraft.
+ Bad odour.
+ Boredom at airplane.
TECHNOLOGY
+ WiFi connect.
+ Online streaming features.
+ Entertainment factors.
During the visit, the research and insights signified there are 11 key spots in the flight journey to be noted. The insights or pain points were falling under one of the key spots when they are grouped to form the affinity diagram.
From the affinity mapping, tracked the customer journey at each location points.
Following the research and analysis of the findings from each method. It was clearly understood that there is a significant scope for improving user experience in the airport, which is a major part of the journey. The newly redefined goal was to provide or improve the experience of users during their time at the airport.
The Solution
As a solution there cant be one way to enhance the experience at the airport. Assuming a change in space design focusing only from Indian airport context incorporating more private workstations, proper working kiosk, self baggage dropping sites was a solution able to identify with the above study understanding. Also one of the key solutions was to make a universal Indian airport application which can ease the access of these facilities at their fingertips.
User personas
The persona that was created to encompass the user group who travel or take up a flight as a mode of transport.
THE BUSINESS TRAVELLER
HOLIDAY TRAVELLER
THE OTHER TRAVELLER
They are the most tech-savvy, socially driven, shared economy smart travellers. Who plans their travel with a clear purpose.
Their primary motivation is to take a vacation, might be weekend travellers or types who take a break from everyday life.
These are the other category of people who travel cause of emergency or need. They are some time casual travellers or tryouts.
FEATURES
While ideating the below-mentioned features were decided to be incorporated while developing the application, a quick questionnaire was also circulated to correlate the findings.
AIRPORT
RESTAURANTS
WIFI
RECHARGES
PRIVATE
WORKSPACE
BAGGAGE
TRACKING
INSIDE
AIRPORT MAP
ECONOMIC
LOUNGE
Architecture
The flow shows from the login to the access of all possible features and options till the payment page. Making the user path is an important step before wireframe ideation.
Wireframing
A low fidelity wireframe was done before going on full design to understand the flow.
High Fidelity Screens
Users can enter their mobile number to access or register your basic details if your a first time user to experience the AIR-XP.
LOGIN, SIGN-IN OR SIGN UP TO START USING ALL THE FEATURES
SYNC YOUR TICKETS TO TRACK YOUR BAGGAGE
Use your PNR or QR to sync your ticket with the application. They use the scanner to scan the code from the baggage kiosk to track the condition of the baggage and the personnel handles it at each stage.
Look and explore the features in the landing page. There are multiple feature for users to use at ease. .
SAMPLE SCREEN OF OTHER FEATURE IN THE APPLICATION
THE LANDING PAGE GIVES ACCESS TO ALL THE FEATURES
FEATURES AT THE NAVIGATION BOX
Information and schedule about the airport can be viewed in the notification. Other navigation point like dashboard to monitor the progress and cart can also be viewed.
MAP TO NEVER TO GET LOST IN AN AIRPORT
The map gives levels and also options to choose your need right away. Just select your choice and push go to reach the location easily.
Sample screens