Context CMU MHCI Capstone Project with Pittsburgh International Airport
Focus Service and Product Design | Generative and Evaluative Research
Role User Research Lead | Interaction Designer
Timeframe 8 months
Americans spend an average of 37 billion hours a year waiting in line.
Problem
The security queue snakes in front of you, seemingly 100 people deep, and there are even more behind you. Your feet are starting to hurt, and there’s a baby crying somewhere. If this airport scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Lines aren’t usually the stars of the airport experience, but there’s good news — our team is on the case. In partnership with our innovative client, Pittsburgh International Airport, we’re reimagining the airport waiting experience for the 21st century.
How might we reduce users’ frustration and anxiety in the security line by providing more transparency, control, and efficiency?
Solution
PIT+ is an innovative service ecosystem designed to reduce traveler frustration and anxiety in the security line and throughout the airport. It is designed for PIT travelers who are anxious going through the airport and those who have the need to plan in advance.
Plan your flight
Custom itineraries, quick access to wait times, and integration with premium services help travelers prepare for any trip
Skip the line
Use Quickline to reserve a security time up to 48 hours in advance and skip the main queue — or access Quickline on-the fly as a walk-in.
Navigate the airport
Access terminal maps with overlays for food, amenities and your custom itinerary, or get quick, simple maps via MMS.
There are 2 parts to PIT+ — the Quickline security reservation system, and a set of new tools to help travelers plan their trip.
To maximize accessibility and account for different types of users, we envision two ways to access the features of PIT+ — a traditional smartphone app, plus an SMS/MMS-based messaging service called Arch Chat. Arch chat lets users reserve a Quickline time and plan their trip without downloading an app.
Process: Why PIT+?
From the beginning of the project, we began generative research to understand people’s behaviors when traveling, in lines, and at the airport through a variety of methods including semi-structured interviews, airport contextual inquiries, diary studies, and surveys. I, along with my co-research lead, created a table of research goals and questions we wanted to answer and weighed the pros and cons of each research method to fit our needs.
Highlighted Research Activity 1 — Diary Study
We gave travelers a portable diary to bring with them on their journey, which included a scale to rate their emotions at each part and some space where they can take notes.
Goal:
Understand people’s emotions and thoughts at each stage of their airport journey
Findings:
Emotions are rated positively when the line is short at the security and when they encounter unexpected pleasant experiences.
Highlighted Research Activity 2 — Experience Prototyping
We simulated a waiting experience where participants could choose to either wait in line or get a buzzer and come back when it’s their turn.
Goal:
Understand how people behave in lines and how they perceive time while waiting
Findings:
Wait times feel longer when unoccupied
Fairness impacts how people perceive their overall experience.
Overall Insights
The airport journey begins from home
Travelers are in the mindset of traveling way before they set foot in the airport. Oftentimes, the anxiety starts from when they are packing and planning their time to leave.
Travelers want to be guided in situations of high cognitive load but still want the option to be in control when needed
Travelers want to feel supported and taken care of when they are under stress or have a lot on their plate. They want to know that they are making the best decision.
Anxiety from inconsistency, unpredictability and other people while waiting in line makes the experience less positive
The elasticity and unpredictability of the security line make people anxious because they do not know if they will catch their flight.
Ideating and Storyboarding
We ideated on our solution direction based on all of our insights and findings. To understand how our users feel about these ideas, we conducted more than 20+ storyboards to verify our pain points and whether they meet our user’s needs.
Furthermore, we did a co-creation session with our clients to identify how new, useful, and feasible each concept is. From these four concepts, we decided to move forward with the transparency tool and line elimination reservation system as we found those two to provide the most value in testing. We identified both of these concepts as having high impact while also being the challenging to design.
Parallel Prototyping
Testing our design remotely
With the onset of COVID-19, conducting research at the airport became impossible. However, it did not stop us from moving forward. We saw this as an opportunity to design remote methods to conduct research. This was a virtual airport I took charge of creating and leading to simulate the environment of the airport. We gave participants a “flight” to catch and asked them to walk through the airport with their avatar. They were given the task of booking a Quickline security reservation before their flight.
Quickline time window takes the guesswork out of planning, providing peace of mind.
Having a security check reservation provides travelers with a benchmark to plan around, allowing them to control their own time and reduce anxiety about missing their flight.
“It really takes stress out around planning my day and I know exactly when to leave the house.“
Having a time window gives people more control
People are able to plan around their time window instead of having the security line be a huge unknown in their journey.
“Now I can wander around and not worry about the line because I know that when my time window begins I can go through security.”
“It really takes stress out around planning my day and I know exactly when to leave the house.”
How does PIT+ work?
Quickline as a service - the “OpenTable” of Airport Security
Travelers can reserve a time window to go through security ahead of time, then arrive at the airport during that time window and bypass the main queue. They can access the service through different channels including their mobile phone (PIT app or text) and the kiosk. A security reservation system like Quickline could nudge travelers to arrive earlier or later than they typically would, which could help smooth the arrival distribution and avoid wait-time spikes.
Planning Tools - providing transparency to travelers
The planning toolkit is a series of tools to help travelers navigate through the airport. It helps meet users’ need for transparency about security, where to find things at the airport, and what to expect. It consists of functions such as itinerary planning, map of the airport, and various services that the airport offers.
Know the expected time for each step
Save trip profiles with customized preferences
See your destination and stops on the dynamic map
Value for PIT
Stronger passenger relationship
Predictive parking and line traffic models
Increased non-aeronautical revenue
Reflection
It has been a pleasure and wonderful journey working on this project. Our research and solution were well-received by our clients and we were invited to present our work to and collaborate with higher executives to roll out an implementation plan. As a Research Lead, I’ve learned to constantly think critically and ask the right questions in order to truly understand what the users need.
