DFW Airport Innovation
Role
UI/UX Designer
Project Type
Concept and Design
Tools
FigJam, Figma, AutoCAD
Introduction
Overview
The DFW airport is one of the most frequented travel hotspots in the United States with an annual average of more than 70 million visitors. Although the airport is highly visited there are always areas in which the airport can be improved to enhance the visitors’ travel experience.
Objective
The purpose of this study is to identify pain points within the DFW airport and develop solutions that translate to a more enjoyable and efficient travel experience.
Gathering Information
Personas
We developed several personas to look into the various goals, motivations, and pain points for the typical traveler. These personas comprised of individuals from different backgrounds and demographics.
Card Sorting
We consolidated the suggested and existing features to perform a card sorting exercise. The card sort was given for nine participants to categorize into groups based on relevance and importance.
Service Ideation
After creating a series of personas we looked into features that were within DFW’s existing service infrastructure or features that would provide an additional level of accommodation for visitors.
Concept
Information Architecture
Based on the card sorting exercise, our team concluded that the areas of greatest innovation was to develop a boarding pass mechanism and to enhance the features of the existing kiosk service at the FW airport. A series of information architecture diagrams were then developed to provide a hierarchical flow of the categories and features.
Boarding Pass Wireframe
Kiosk Wireframe
Wireframes
Low fidelity wireframes were designed for both the boarding pass and kiosk based on the information architecture. These screens would assist the team in understanding the premise of the user flows.
High Fidelity Screens
After the low-fidelity screens were reviewed and prototyped, high-fidelity screens were designed that highlighted existing features and additional design recommendations.
Design
Brainstorm Sketches
The team decided that we should create a physical prototype to optimally capture the nuances of the boarding pass and kiosk concept. This initial step required us to begin brainstorming using sketches.
Product Drafting
The sketches were then reviewed and revised so that it could be translated into a set of technical drafts for a physical prototype. The technical drawings were made using AutoCAD.
Boarding Pass Sketch
Kiosk Sketch
Boarding Pass Draft
Kiosk Draft
Physical Prototype
The drawings were then compiled and translated into a physical prototype by using a 3-D printer. This would give stakeholders a sense of scale and primitive functionality.
Implementation
User Stories
Once we had the general premise of the design alongside its functional capabilities, we composed user stories to showcase the devices purpose within an airport context. The following user stories reflect various scenarios that the boarding pass and kiosk would be able to address.
User Flows
The following user flows played a key role within certain user stories and display the progression of the following functions: flight information, notifications, navigation, and entertainment.
Home Screen and Alert User Flow
Storyboards
I created a series of storyboards that would provide a visual representation of the user stories alongside the use cases of the user flows. The storyboards show various features such as emergency notifications, the rebooking process, and navigation.
Map User Flow
Games User Flow
Return on Investment
The designs and functions featured in this case study were proposals that were intended to provide further insight into the obstacles that. travelers within the DFW airport face on an ordinary basis. Due to the hypothetical nature of this project, we looked into the efficacy of its implementation resulting in an R.O.I. analysis.