IXD/PD project with Accenture The Dock
Brief
We were working on a project entitled 'The future of travel', I was paired with an Interaction designer and together we worked around the challenge: 'How might we improve the traveller's experience as they move through airports and onto airplanes?'
Research
Once again research was split between the entire class to ensure we had a range of data to work from in a short period of time. The topics were split between short haul/long haul/ individual/group trips and their pre trip/in airport experience. Our group were looking at the individual, short haul, pre trip experience; I split the pre trip stage into four sections - dreaming, planning, packing and deciding which served as a base to help me divide tasks between my group. We visited Dublin airport and conducted 36 interviews between T1 & T2 arrivals and were able to back up our findings with our secondary research in which we browsed various travel blogs, airline sites and travel advice sites.Overall we learned that people described the perfect airport experience as calm, efficient, smooth & easy.
Journey map
Concepts
After analysing every teams research, I created actionable insights to inspire me to ideate 23 initial concepts. We then had to cut these concepts (& my team members ideas) down to three concepts to present to Accenture The Dock and our tutors. Our strongest concepts were the interactive information point, aertracker and full route planner.
'Interactive information point' - These large freestanding touchscreens would be dotted throughout the terminal drawing passengers attention and providing live information about airport amenities, a map of the terminal, worldwide weather updates and flight/gate info.
'Aertracker' - this is a rental tracker provided by airlines at the check in desk, a member of staff will assign your contact details to the tracker they give you and attach it to your bag for you. For extra peace of mind and security you could prebook and rent this tracker for a low fee and get live location updates to your phone via email/sms eliminating the need to download an app like every other tracker on the market.
'Full route planner' - this is an app that would help you navigate within the airport and also give you the ability to check and prebook available modes of transport to/from your airport to your accommodation/home.
Development
After positive feedback we decided to develop the aertracker concept while also eventually incorporating an app feature inspired by the 'route planner' concept. I did plenty of 2D & 3D sketches trying to cement a look, feel and size for our tracker while also designing front of house interactions and back of house operations that would help explain how this system of a rental luggage tracker could be implemented. We were encouraged to dream big with this concept and ideate/develop it to be worldwide which massively helped us design for the future of travel.
I used a 3D resin printer to produce a prototype. This was my first time using this technology and it was really interesting and definitely helped me explain and sell this idea more as I could pass around a physical prototype to the audience as I presented and explained it further in a short space of time.
I also helped my partner develop the app that would be used in conjunction with the luggage tracker. (A video of the walkthrough app interface can be found below).
Outcome
Introducing SPOT - our innovative, sustainable, reusable & returnable luggage tracker!
How it works:
Firstly, the user would be made aware of our service (SPOT) through a pop up on the airline site reminding them they can avail of this service once they booked their flight. The user then pre books or picks up their rental tag at the bag check in desk at their departure airport (ex.Dublin). Here, airline staff at desk provides the user with their SPOT tag loaded with their information (name & contact details) and attaches the tag to their luggage before sending it to the plane. The user/passenger downloads the compatible app and taps their phone off their tag (using NFC) to connect their phone/app with it and receives a notification on their phone confirming their tag is successfully paired.
AI rendering of potential collection/deposit point for SPOT tags
Next, the user is sitting on the plane and can see on the SPOT app that their baggage has made it onto the plane with them.They relax and once they land at their first destination (ex.New York) they get a notification confirming their luggage has landed with them and will automatically be transferred to their second flight by airline staff. Once they are seated on their connecting (2nd) flight a problem arises as they realise they never received confirmation that their luggage made it onto this plane with them and they can see on the app's map that their bags are still in the airport. They start to worry as they take off however luckily through the SPOT app chat feature the user is connected with the appropriate airport representative who quickly helps solve the problem by sending the passengers luggage on the next flight out to their destination (ex.Montreal). Since SPOT is partnered with travel insurance companies they can provide the user with a meal voucher to use in the airport once they land and are waiting for their luggage which helps ease the inconvenience. Finally the user receives their luggage, removes the SPOT tag from their bag and brings it to the drop off desk in the airport arrivals section where the attendant at the desk wipes its info history and disinfects the tag ready for the next user.
Example of smooth journey updates
How a problem in the journey would be communicated via the app
CMF board of SPOT tag
Reflections
For this project in partnership with Accenture, I was grateful for the Dock staff for delivering helpful tips and feedback, I was also able to embrace this project with more confidence to adapt to a group project working with people from different disciplines and feel I worked very well in leading my team to keep up the momentum throughout this 6 week project. I also enjoyed pushing myself more to balance my pre existing skills with being open to learning new ones such as 3D printing for the first time, experimenting with figma, improving my cad skills and broadening my horizons taking this project in more of a service design direction which I really enjoyed learning more about in depth.
3D printed luggage tag demo
Bill of Materials/GA drawing of physical SPOT tag