AirPorter

Helping Travelers Fly Smarter, Not Harder

Designing an IoT system that creates a unified user experience to help travelers successfully navigate airports and make it to their flights on time

person

role

UX Researcher & Designer

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timeline

4 Months (Jan. - Apr. 2024)

work

skills

UX Research, UX Design, IoT Design, Prototyping, Storytelling

group

team

5 UX Researchers & Designers

brush

tools

Figjam, Qualtrics, Photon Kit, Figma

overview

As part of our Pervasive Interaction Design course (SI 612), we worked in groups to tackle a problem space that had opportunities for improvement using ubiquitous computing. Our group decided to improve the airport experience, specifically the frustration and stress travelers experience while at the airport.

As a UX Researcher and Designer, I worked with our team to conduct user research and draw insights that informed our final product. I also led the design of both our beacon and mobile app prototypes, which we ultimately used to present in a final demo.

the problem

Ask anyone, and they're probably ready with their most recent airport horror story.

Airports are notorious sources of stress for travelers. From long security lines to unexpected flight delays to lost baggage, people often have had at least one negative experience at the airport.

research

contextual inquiry

We began our research by conducting contextual inquiry with 5 participants who had recently traveled through an airport.

Questions revolved around:

A common theme that came up was:

Travel Needs May Vary, But Clear Information is Key

Frequent flyers prioritize getting timely information to manage potential delays. International travelers face language barriers that impact how they navigate in airports. Anxious travelers struggle with the unfamiliarity and over-stimulation of the airport environment. However, all travelers valued clear and timely information for a smooth travel experience.

cultural probes

While contextual inquiry provided a good starting point for brainstorming, we needed more user insights. Since interviewing travelers at airports wasn't feasible for us, we used cultural probes to conduct further qualitative research.

Participants reflected on pictures of various areas of the airport so we could better understand their thoughts and emotions at each stage.

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Qualitative data to understand travelers' behaviors, emotions, and values regarding airports

Qualitative data to understand travelers' behaviors, emotions, and values regarding airports

group

14 participants of digital and physical cultural probes

14 participants of digital and physical cultural probes

surveys

At this point, we were still unsure on who our target audience should be, so we continued conducting quantitative research with surveys to identify diverse travel needs and pinpoint our target audience.

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Quantitative data to understand travelers' experiences and pain points in airports

Quantitative data to understand travelers' experiences and pain points in airports

group

120 responses to Qualtrics survey

120 responses to Qualtrics survey

key insights

01

Stress is a shared experience for travelers in airports, regardless of how often they've flown before.

"While the boarding information was displaying the correct gate in this instance, since I received the email that said that my gate was changed, I didn't trust the information displayed here.

Generally speaking, I usually trust the information here, but this time I didn't because of the email I received."

— Cultural Probe Participant

02

Many variables are out of travelers' control at airports, but missing or unclear information escalates them from inconveniences to major pain points.

03

Travelers currently cope with stress by juggling multiple apps to get as much information as possible. If they're traveling with others, they also opt to rely on others to take care of everything.

"Truthfully, my mom led us through this entire airport experience. I would have been extremely lost otherwise. I was nervous but trusted my mom."

— Cultural Probe Participant

ideation

persona

Based on our research, our ideal user is a tech-savvy travelers who would benefit from precise and timely flight updates, schedule reminders, and airport navigation assistance.

These include:

  • Travelers who fly infrequently and are unfamiliar with airports

  • Travelers who are running late and need immediate and accurate information

  • Travelers who find comfort in planning ahead

possible solutions

Ideating Functionality to Streamline the Airport Experience

Taking our research insights, we ideated over 20 ideas, spanning the entire airport experience, from the user planning what time to arrive at the airport to the user finally sitting in their seat on the airplane.

We focused on improving:

  • real-time updates

  • time management

  • navigation assistance

Real-Time Airport Status

Collect and display accurate information about flight updates and wait times for check-in, TSA, and immigration, using beacons, GPS, and/or BLE technologies

Personalized Airport Assistant

Provide time management suggestions based on estimated wait times and overall travel time between different parts of the airport

Autonomous Airport Transport

Accelerate travel in the airport for anxious or late travelers by using robots or self-driving vehicles

design requirements & constraints

As we were ideating and prototyping different IoT solutions, we also considered the following design requirements and constraints:

Infrastructure Compatibility

Needs to use technologies that are compatible with existing airport infrastructure and federal regulations

Scalability

Should be scalable to plan for future growth and implementation across different airports

Data & Privacy

Needs to ensure the security of users' personal data and travel information

Cohesive User Experience

Needs to provide all the info users need in one place, eliminating the need to juggle multiple apps and products

Offline Functionality

Should still provide access to basic info in situations where Wi-Fi access is unreliable

testing

storyboarding

We created various storyboards to map out how different solutions might help users in different scenarios.

user enactments

We developed a Speed Dating Matrix where we ideated and prototyped different solutions to test their viability. Specifically, we were interested in testing users' comfort with different levels of automation.

Some solutions included smart robots, driverless cars, and beacons/NFC integrations with users' existing devices. Using the Speed Dating Matrix, we categorized key scenarios based on different interactions and intensity levels, and scripted user enactments to test our concepts with potential users.

key findings keyboard_double_arrow_right next steps

01

Users prefer having information and assistance in executing decisions rather than having a system make decisions for them. They prefer having information as early as possible to plan ahead and prepare themselves.

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Provide users with the information they need to make informed choices.

Don't automate decisions for them.

02

Users value features that offer them a sense of privilege and control within the airport, even if these features come at an extra cost. They perceive their flight as being more important and worth the extra money.

keyboard_double_arrow_right

Offer paid options users can use to increase the likelihood of making their flight on time.

Only process payment after the service was successful to prevent financial loss and confusion.

03

When first presented with the prototypes, users were unsure about their limits and thought they could change airport operations (e.g. flight delays, security lines).

keyboard_double_arrow_right

Manage users' expectations of the system's capabilities.

Be transparent about when data may not be accurate so that users can plan accordingly.

04

While the idea of smart robots is exciting, they'd likely make the already congested airport environment even worse.

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Prioritize not contributing to the crowded airport environment for both users and surrounding travelers.

iterations

status notification

Low Fidelity

Low Fidelity

Mid Fidelity

Mid Fidelity

More Mid Fidelity

More Mid Fidelity

High Fidelity

High Fidelity

home page

Low Fidelity

Low Fidelity

Mid Fidelity

Mid Fidelity

More Mid Fidelity

More Mid Fidelity

High Fidelity

High Fidelity

status page

Low Fidelity

Low Fidelity

Mid Fidelity

Mid Fidelity

More Mid Fidelity

More Mid Fidelity

High Fidelity

High Fidelity

final designs

Manage your Time

By connecting to the system of beacons and the airport's Wi-Fi network, users have access to personalized recommendations and alerts.

Recommendations and alerts are based on the user's location, helping them stay on schedule and efficiently navigate through the airport.

Stay Up to Date, All in One Place

Users receive real-time visual and audio notifications about flight statuses, gate changes, security wait times, and more.

This ensures travelers are always equipped with the information needed to make informed decisions, creating a smooth and cohesive travel experience

Navigate with Ease

Users can access the intuitive navigation system on their phone.

The system uses the user's GPS to pinpoint their location within the airport, helping them navigate to terminals, gates, amenities, and services with ease.

Skip the Lines, Save Time

In situations where time is of the essence, users can pay for Fast Pass to quickly go through security checkpoints, avoiding lines.

Smart Cars are available to transport users directly to their gates after the security checkpoints. With connectivity to the gate agents, Smart Cars can alert staff about users' statuses and imminent arrival.

product video

reflection

test early and often

While our group identified many potential areas for improvement within airports, we weren't confident about the direction we should take until we conducted more user research and testing. After we narrowed down on the problem, we also weren't sure of what elements of our IoT system should be made of. We needed to test multiple solutions to figure out which solutions best addressed user needs, as well as which types of technologies existed within users' comfort zones.

lo-fi prototypes are your best friend

Since the product we were developing was an entire IoT system, it involved a lot of moving components interacting with each other. Verbally explaining our ideas was too confusing, and creating hi-fidelity prototypes would be too time consuming; lo-fidelity prototypes were our most useful tool. Lo-fidelity prototypes provided just enough context to make it easy to visualize how different ideas might be implemented while not being too time-consuming to create.

© 2025 Angelica Wang

© 2025 Angelica Wang

© 2025 Angelica Wang