FlyEasy

Reducing the burden of long waiting hours at the airport

App designed as part of an online course

Team : Individual Task (Ideation, Research, Designing)

Tools used: Figma (Wireframes), Adobe XD(Prototyping)

Each one of us, at some point in our lives, has been on the airport, clueless of where to go, due to availability of multiple options or sometimes, the non-availability of the required option.
Airports serve much more than just taking you to and from a destination. The business of an airport is heavily influenced by the numerous shops, spas, coffee shops, bookstores, etc, present at any medium to large sized airport

Despite the assistance of the airport website, sign boards and helpers everywhere, the sheer size and rules of urban airports make it a daunting task to navigate through it. Also, not knowing the entire list of options available at a particular airport makes it more stressful.

The challenge was to design an app that solved a transport related problem faced first hand by the participant and elaborating it based on further research.

The Problem

The Idea

The idea is the design of an app that would categorically provide airport facilities, like shopping, spas, food and drink places. The additional features in the app design are :

Recording flight history
Sending flight details to select contacts
Setting reminders for flight departure (especially important for late night flights where travellers generally tend to doze off)
Getting GPS enabled directions to the selected outlet

I stumbled on to this idea on one of my long 5-hour waiting episodes at the CSI Airport in Mumbai. I was at the domestic terminal, waiting for my flight to Bangalore, and was on the lookout for a bookstore. I had to resort to asking around 5 airline helpers to successfully make it to the said bookstore while navigating through the maze that is the CSI airport.

User Interviews

User Research was done in the form of user interviews, to understand the problems faced by the people who commute often and to get a first hand perspective. Out of five interviews, two interviews, that contrastingly and clearly depict the two major kinds of problems faced by travelers have been narrowed down.

Interview 1

Interviewer : Niharika Mathur

Interviewee : Aisha Shridhar

Duration : 2 minutes 19 seconds

Location : University Dorm

Age : 19

SOUNDCLOUD LINK TO THE INTERVIEW

(CLICK HERE)

Flying Frequency : High

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Interview 2

How often do you fly?

The place where I study is very far away from my parents’ house, so I usually resort to taking flights rather than long trains. So I would say I fly pretty often, around 3-4 times a year, to and fro.

Do you usually have to wait at the airport?

Yes! My hometown does not have an airport yet, neither does my university town, so I fly to the nearest airport and then take a bus or a train to my home. Because of timing restrictions, and/or dislike for late night flights, I do end up spending a lot of time at airports waiting for my flight.

What is the longest that you have waited at the airport?

I was flying from KI, Bangalore to CSI Airport, Mumbai, my flight got delayed by 2.5 hours. I had arrived on the airport around 3 hours before the actual departure
So that made for a total of 5.5 hours at the airport.

That’s huge! What did you do during?

I finished reading a book that I had been reading for a while. I also ate a bit since I am not very fond of the plane food. And I shopped a little too.

How did you explore all options?

It was very tough initially. I took help of some of the directions and some airport staff to guide me. And I don’t think I was able to explore everything that the airport had to offer.

Although, my frequent visits to Bangalore have made me a little familiar with the layout of the airport, but in a new airport, it is very tough finding something particular.

Did you find what you were looking for?

After much effort, yes. I was looking specifically for stores to shop for some Indian outfits, but I couldn’t find them anywhere in my reach. But I was later told that the airport did have a store but I missed it.

Did you plan shopping before coming to the airport?

In a way, yes. It had been on my mind for a while. Considering I had a lot of time to spare, I figured I would shop on the airport, with the obvious assumption that the airport would have a store that had the required collection of Indian outfits.

Thank you for your time! I hope to come up with solutions to solve your problems.

Sure, thanks.

Interview 2

Interviewer : Niharika Mathur

Interviewee : Prahlad Rajhans

Duration:1 minute 56 seconds

Location : University Cafeteria

Age : 26

SOUNDCLOUD LINK TO THE INTERVIEW

(CLICK HERE)

Flying Frequency : High

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

How did you explore all options?

It was tiresome. Specially carrying around the cabin luggage after security. I got tired after a while and dropped the idea.

Did you find what you were looking for?

I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, was hoping to find something interesting. Perhaps like a spa something where I could maybe relax a bit before boarding the flight. But I was too tired to go around navigating the entire terminal. You know how huge IGI Airport is.

Did you plan shopping before coming to the airport?

Thank you for your time! I hope to come up with solutions to solve your problems.

Cool

How often do you fly?

I’d say on average 2 times a month. I usually visit my parents who live in a different city.

Do you usually have to wait at the airport?

It depends. Sometimes I reach the airport just in time to catch my flight but there have been times when I have had to wait long hours due to uncertainty in the time required for security and immigration.

What is the longest that you have waited at the airport?

I think I waited for 4-5 hours once. It was an international flight to Melbourne from New Delhi, so I reached the airport early because I was expecting a long queue at immigration due to the holiday season, but luckily, I got done with immigration in less than an hour, and had a lot of time to spare.