Prototyping Smart Track

After making use or our evaluation criteria, we did a user evaluation with the top three concept chosen. Users gave enough feedback to determine Smart Track as the concept they consider it would be the best for a better user experience at the airport.

Subjects of evaluation were presented with the concept and a wizard of oz representation of what we wanted to achieve with the system.

When developing the prototype the feedback obtained during evaluation was taken in consideration.
At the beginning our concept was relaying in the use of NFC technology, users were concerned about the cost of using such technology might increase tickets prices or airport taxes. So we kept the concept simple and considering only the technology currently used in airports, such a barcode scanners instead.

Users were also interested in the idea of being able to track their bag location, and also pointed out it could be useful to send notifications to family members or friends to keep them updated.

Below is the low-fi prototype we end up developing for the smart track app.

The interaction is simple. User is able to find the status of their luggage by searching within the app with their booking information: Booking number and Last name.

Users pointed out that remembering or obtaining the booking number was sometimes hard when traveling, since we wanted to keep it simple, we are giving the user the option to scan their boarding pass within the app for searching their booking and baggage information.

Once the system finds the user information, it displays a basic summary of their flight and luggage, users then can choose to receive instant notifications in their mobile device when the system detects a change in the status of their luggage, for example if the luggage has arrive to the destination.

User Evaluations and Final Concept Selection

This post outlines the process of receiving user feedback on our top 3 concepts, and how we used the evaluation criteria and the user feedback to inform our final decision.

User Evaluations

We presented our 3 concepts to 6 users:

User 1 - Male, 30, high tech use, flies approx. once a year, often checks baggage

User 2 - Male, 33, professional, frequent traveller, proficient with technology, uses smart phone to do online check in.

User 3 - Male, 31, professional, only used airport a few times before, mostly domestic, usually only takes carry-on for domestic.

User 4 - Female 58, retired, doesn’t fly often, not very confident with technology, usually gets her husband to help her use her smart phone and iPad.

User 5 -Female 26, non-native English speaker, flies more than once a year.

User 6 - Male, 60, flies sometimes within Qld for work, fairly confident using tech. Sometimes checks baggage.

We presented and explained our 3 concepts - then allowed them to interact with lo-fi prototypes:

• For the modular seating, had the user move around and arrange real chairs
• For the AirSpoon and Baggage Status Notification concepts, we used the POP app (https://popapp.in/) to create a prototype for a smartphone.

We then observed and asked for feedback about the 3 concepts. The questions asked were based on the Ben's Design Thinking lecture on user evalution, and the team's evaluation criteria :

General questions to ask users:

• What do you like/dislike about this?
• Why would you/wouldn’t you recommend this to a friend?
• What problems can you foresee with this as a system in airports?
• What about this concept could be improved? How?
• What do you think are its best features?
• where would this be most useful? what for?
• Why would you not want to use this? In what circumstances?

Questions for users to rate using evaluation criteria:

Please rate the concepts from 1–5 (1 being the lowest, 2 being the highest)

• Experiential: Do you think it provides you with a real physical experience? How social and public is this experience?
• Interactive: How much can you input feedback into the system and get feedback in return? Do you think the quality of this feedback will be high?
• Engaging: How much does it hold your attention? Do you think this concept is enjoyable ?
• Innovative: Does it incorporate new ways of approaching an existing product/system? How much can the concept transform into a useful application?
• Relevant to Airport: How useful is the concept in the context of a new Brisbane Airport, Domestic Terminal for low cost carriers - considering the possible size of the terminal, types of passengers, and passenger numbers.
• Feasible: How practical is this solution? Will it be cost-effective for the Airport Corporation to implement?
• Original: Is this a completely new concept, different and unique to what already exists?

The final resulting scores, rated out of 100:

AirSpoon: 74.6

Modular Seating: 81.7

Baggage Tracking/Notifications: 78.2

Surprisingly, a few users highest rated concepts differed to their choice when asked which they preferred the most. Baggage Tracking/Notifications was preferred by 3, Modular Seating by 2, and AirSpoon by 1.

One user commented that he found the baggage collection his highest frustration and felt this concept had the most need and practicality, and that is why he preferred that concept over his highest rated which was the Modular Seating.

Selection of the final concept / problem space 

After much discussion regarding the results of the user evaluation and our team's evaluation criteria, we proceeded with choosing the Baggage Tracking/Notification concept (renamed to "Smart Track"). Although we had some reservations about some criteria, our resolutions were as follows:

Feasibility:

If NFC or RFID tags were used to track bags - then this system would preferably need to be implemented in airports Australia wide, in order for users get the full experience of tracking bags from check-in to arrivals. Instead we decided to focus on integrating existing baggage scanning technology to provide "check points" informing users the location of their luggage. Airport baggage handling systems already implement tracking, where scanning stations providing feedback about the bag's location to handlers. When the bag tag is scanned by the automatic scanners, that is linked to it's owner's booking number and the location information sent to Smart Track. For example on arrival, the tag is scanned once it is taken off the plane, and again just as it is put onto the carousel. 

If Smart Track can integrate with other domestic airport baggage systems, then passengers can use the app at both the departure and arrival legs of their journey. As Smart track integrates with existing systems, there may be little extra cost for the airport.

Originality:

How is this different from existing baggage tracking applications? The applications that allow users to track their bags all involve additional cost to the passenger. For example purchasing an electronic tag that the passenger attaches themselves, or the purchasing special luggage which itself has an inbuilt tracker.

Our concept uses existing the baggage scanning system at no extra cost for users. All they need is a device that can connect to the internet. Most passengers smartphones are connected to the phone network or those that do not can connect to airport wifi. All they need to know is their booking number which the baggage location data will be synced to.

Social aspect:

An important factor in the brief was the social criteria, which we believed our concept was lacking. From the user feedback there was a suggestion for notifications being sent to a user's friend or family. This would be useful if a friend or family member was picking a user up form the airport, and wanted to know the best time to meet at the pick up area - they could time their pick up to save waiting time for both themselves and the passenger. This would be even more useful if the passenger didn't have access to a phone to notify the person picking them up.  We thought this was a very useful application, and felt it also made the concept more social, so we included this feature in our final prototype.

Concept Selection Process: Criteria Evaluation Stage 1

After completing all of our concept cards, we now had the job of narrowing the field.

Using the brief to form the basis of our evaluation criteria we took some attributes we thought most relevant and rated it from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), considering the following:

Experiential: Does it provide users with a real physical experience? Do users actually do something? How social and public is this experience?

Interactive: How much can users input feedback into the system and get feedback in return? What will the quality of this feedback be like?
Engaging: How pleasing is the concept to users? How much does it hold a user's attention? Is it enjoyable?

Innovative: Does it incorporate new ways of approaching an existing product/system? How much can the concept transform into a useful application?
Relevant to Airport: How useful is the concept in the context of a new Brisbane Airport, Domestic Terminal for low cost carriers - considering the possible size of the terminal, types of passengers, and passenger numbers.
Feasible: How practical is this solution? Will it be cost-effective for the Airport Corporation to implement?
Original: Is this a completely new concept, different and unique to what already exists?

After all reviewing each concept and rating using the criteria above, we all chose a top 3 or 4 individually. We shared our preferences and tallied the concepts that appeared the most in the top.
The resulting top 8 (in no particular order):

1. Modular Seating
2. Entertainment Area
3. SmartTrack (Baggage Status Updates)
4. Line Markings
5. Interactive Wayfinder
6. Airspoon
7. Physical Locater
8. Pool/Sauna

In order to further refine down to a top 3 concepts, we then went through and considered which out of these attributes ranked more important than others in our expectations for the final concept that fulfilled the brief. We ranked this higher or lower depending on importance - where a ranking of 3 was "neutral".

Experiential x3

Interactive x5

Engaging x2

Innovative x4

Relevant to airport x5

Feasible x3

Original x4

Relevant to Airport and Interactive ranked the highest, whereas Engaging ranked the lowest. 

An interactive experience is a top priority as made clear in the brief. Relevance to Airport is also an important factor as it serves as the environment and context for the concept, with factors such as traffic, size of terminal, types of passengers informing the design decision we make. 

While Engagement is an still important attribute, we felt it not as important since some of the most useful systems in an Airport are those that may go unnoticed - such as systems that reduce waiting times. A concept that is enjoyable is a nice thing, but not always a necessity.

Experiential and Feasible were thought of "neutral" attributes and were left ranked in the middle. All of our concepts have an experiential aspect so this didn't need a higher or lower ranking. Feasibility is a definite consideration but also a factor we already considered in our original concepts, so for the most part this was already covered.

We then multiplied the concept scores by this extra ranking to produce a final tally.

Our top three, based on the highest scores were.......

1. Baggage Status Notifications (renamed to "Smart Track"): 105 points

2. Modular Seating: 99 points

3. AirSpoon (app to pre-purchase food): 95 points

Now that we have our top 3 concepts chosen, we now have to choose one. 

The next step is getting some users to evaluate these 3 concepts.

Developing Personas

This post explains how our team developed our final 6 personas.

We conducted a survey of users' demographics, behaviour and airport use.  The survey was conducted online and distributed through email and social media channels.  There were 40 responses, 2 were discounted as they were duplicate entries.  The survey was mainly completed by friends and family of group members.  

Points of consideration when creating personas:

• Due the the distribution modes, questions around technology and social-media use are likely to be biased towards high use of both.  This will be taken into account when personas are created to ensure that users who are low-moderate technology and social-media users are represented.  
• The question ‘Have you visited the Brisbane Domestic Airport before?’ had a ‘Yes’ result of 95%.  As our brief is for a new airport and our survey consisted of people who mainly live in Brisbane, we have also include personas of users who are visiting an airport for the first time.
• The survey was in English, so all responses will be from people who are fluent in English.  This is not reflective of airport users so will take this into account.

The results were compiled, and user attributes/behaviours were clustered as illustrated below:

Persona 1 data

Age	50-59, 60-69 (8 total)
Gender	Female (6/8)
Language	All native English speakers
Occupation	4 Part-time, 2 full-time, 2 retired
How often visit an airport	A couple of times a year (6/8)
How often fly	A couple of times a year (7/8)
Last time you flew	within past year
Check-in method	1 staffed, 3 online, 4 kiosk
Check-in time	more than 1.5hours before flight (5/8)
Reason for travel	Personal (3 holiday, 4 family, 1 both)
Travel destination	3 interstate, 4 within qld
Waiting	3 tablet, 2 magazine, 3 smartphone, 2 cafe/food, 2 paper book
Smartphone	7/8
Tablet	6/8
Personal computer use	multiple times a day (6/8)
Social Media use	4 multiple times, 2 once a day, 1 once a week, 1 never.
Transport to Brisbane Airport	Friend/family pickup by car (5)
Transport to a new aiport to you	3 Had friend/family pick up by car, 2 Rental, 2 public transport, 2 airport transfer
What would you change?	“That they do not load you on plane and then have to sit in plane for an hour or have you queue at the gate for ages waiting to board” “Customs queues” “Not having to check in so early.” “Food dear and not good always.”

Persona 1 Summary: Retiree Judy

Female in late 50s, works part-time transitioning to retirement and travelling more.  Flies a couple of times a year for personal reasons, sometimes for a holiday, sometimes to visit family either interstate or within qld. Checks in at kiosk at airport but arrives more than 1.5 hours early when they only need to be there 30mins ahead of time.  The don’t like being rushed and want to allow time to check-in, security, find their way. They own a smartphone and most likely a tablet but their social media use is sporadic (used mainly to see photos family posts). Queues and waiting are their main pain points.

Persona 2 & 3 data

	Persona 2 20s, native english 5 results	Persona 3   20s, non-native english 7 results
Age	20-29	20-29
Gender	4 female, 3 male	Female
Language	Native English	not native english, but fluent
Occupation	3 Working full time, 2 part time	Student, works part-time
How often visit an airport	A couple of times a year	A couple of times a year
How often fly	A couple of times a year (4/5)	A couple of times a year (7/8)
Last time you flew	within the past year	within the past year
Check-in method	2 Online, 1 app, 2 kiosk	3 online, 2 kiosk, 1 staffed desk, 1 app
Check-in time	1 hour (4/5)	1.5 hours (4/7)
Reason for travel	Personal Holiday (3/5)	Personal Holiday (4/7)
Travel destination	3 International, 2 Interstate	International (6/7)
Waiting	4 Smartphone, 1 laptop, 1 tablet, 3 food, 1 ebook, 2 paper book, 1 Magazine, 1 Nintendo DS	7 Smartphone, 1 magazine, 3 food, 2 tablet, 1 laptop
Smartphone	all	all
Tablet	all	5/7
Personal computer use	multiple times a day	multiple times a day (6/7)
Social media use	multiple times a day	multiple times a day (6/7)
Transport to Brisbane Airport	Friend/family pickup by car	2 Airtrain, 2 airport transfer, 2 taxi, 1 bus, 1 friend/family
Transport to a new aiport to you	2 airport transfers, 2 public transfers, 1 rental car, 1 family/friend	4 public transport, 2 friend/family, 1 taxi, 1 UQ service
What would you change?	“Better chairs” “Faster lines” “Better seating or sleeping areas” “Uncomfortable seats” “More charging stations for phones, laptops etc.”	“Paying methods (multiple currencies)” “Entertainment during transfer between two flights” “Do something to shorten the waiting lines.” “free wifi”

Persona 2 Summary: Weekender William

Male, 20s, works full-time, travelling interstate for holiday, travels a couple of times a year, owns multiple devices, high technology user.  Checks in online or on app. Pain points: wants comfortable spaces at airport and somewhere to charge devices.

Persona 3 summary: Backpacker Bridget

Female, 20s, fluent in english but not native speaker, international student who travels home overseas and also interstate for holidays, works part-time, competent with technology. Checks in online or on app.

Persona 4 & 5 data

	Persona 4 30-49yrs, online check-in, no business travel 5 results	Persona 5 30-49yrs, not online check-in, no business travel 7 results
Age	30-39 years, 40-49 years	30-39 years, 40-49 years
Gender	Female (4/5)	Male (3/7)
Language	4x native english 1x not native but fluent in english	6x native english 1x not native but fluent in english
Occupation	Working full time (3/5)	Working full time (4/7) Home duties (1/7)
How often visit an airport	a couple times a year (4/5)	a couple of times a year (4/7)
How often fly	a couple of times a year (3/5)	less than once a year (2/7)
Last time you flew	within the past year	1-3 years ago (3/7)
Check-in method	Online	Kiosk (4/7)
Check-in time	1 hour (3/5)	1 hour (4/7)
Reason for travel	personal holiday	personal holiday (5/7) personal visit family (2/7)
Travel destination	interstate	interstate (5/7) within qld (1/7)
Waiting	Smartphone	smartphone (6/7)
Smartphone	Yes	Yes
Tablet	Yes (4/5)	Yes (5/7)
Personal computer use	multiple times a day (4/5)	multiple times a week (2/7) once a day (2/7) once a week (1/7) = < multiple time a day (5/7)
Social media use	multiple times a day (4/5)	multiple times a day (4/7)
Transport to Brisbane Airport	friend/family (4/5)	friend/family
Transport to a new aiport to you	public transport (3/5)	public transport (3/7)
What would you change?	“More obvious signs/ a clearer path to luggage collection points. “ “Food prices.” “Free trolleys for baggage”	“More water bubblers” “Cheaper parking” “Travellators added due to extensive walking with baggage and small children can be complicated. The trolleys are not suitable for pushing with a small child if you are on your own and aren't using a pram.” “In Brisbane - pick up and drop off. Public transport is terrible, the passenger drop off section is a long way from the terminal (sucks if you are running late) and very very busy, taxi lines not well serviced + expensive. “

Persona 4 Summary: International Ingrid

Female, 30s, English as a second Language, but not fluent, works full-time, flies a couple of times a year, checks in online, flying interstate for a holiday. Smartphone use high.  Pain points: More obvious signs/ a clearer path to luggage collection points

Persona 5 summary: Juggle James

Male, 30s, works full-time, partner is a stay at home mum.  Visits airport a couple of times a year, flies less than once a year, last time flew was 1-3 years ago. Checks in at airport kiosk, travelling within qld to visit family.  Uses tablet for personal use more often than personal computer.  Pain points: Travellators added due to extensive walking with baggage and small children can be complicated. The trolleys are not suitable for pushing with a small child if you are on your own and aren't using a pram. Public transport is terrible, the passenger drop off section is a long way from the terminal (esp. if you are running late) and very very busy, taxi lines not well serviced + expensive.

Persona 6 data

	Persona 6 Business travel 6 results
Age	20-49 years
Gender	Female (5/6) Male (1/6)
Language	Native english (5/6)
Occupation	working full time (3/6)
How often visit an airport	couple of times a year (3/6) > once a month (2/6) 4-5 times a year (1/6)
How often fly	a couple of times a year (4/6) once a month (2/6)
Last time you flew	within the past year (5/6)
Check-in method	Online (5/6)
Check-in time	1 hour (4/6)
Reason for travel	Business
Travel destination	Interstate (4/6)
Waiting	smartphone (4/6) tablet (4/6)
Smartphone	Yes
Tablet	Yes (5/6)
Personal computer use	multiple times a day (4/6)
Social media use	multiple times a day (5/6)
Transport to Brisbane Airport	friend/family (4/6)
Transport to a new aiport to you	public transport (2/6) taxi (2/6)
What would you change?	“Amenities more clearly marked - toilets, info desk, transport” “more entertainment value”

Persona 6 Summary: Business Bob

Male, 40s, works full-time, native english speaker, travelling interstate for business, travels once a month, owns multiple devices, high technology user.  Checks in online and arrives at airport minimum amount of time needed before flight.  Pain points: signage is poor, can get bored waiting even though has lots of devices, wants a quick experience.