Case study: Covid impact on aviation industry
The Problem Hypothesis
I got the product problem statement as follows:
The COVID-19 has impacted the aviation industry because of movement limitations.
Please design an app to book flight tickets that delight users empathetically.
My Take On The Problem
The aviation industry has been hit hard by the pandemic and has changed how people travel. Flyzone a popular flight booking app has seen a steep fall in their number of bookings.
As a UX designer, I first wanted to understand the behavioural shift that the pandemic has brought and its impact on ‘leisure travel’. I had to plan a research to identify the problem emerging for the business.
I know, there’s a steep fall in the booking of flights due to ongoing travel restrictions in some regions. But I tried to find out the reason, real reason behind the fall.
User Research
I started with Desk research, analyzed the data available on the internet. Got a fair idea of What’s happening around the corner.
Vistara operates ‘India’s first flight with fully vaccinated pilots & cabin crew’
Covid-19: SpiceJet to start vaccine drive for employees from 17 May
Back on the road: 60% people ready for domestic travel in the next 6 months
Then I validated the research data. Based on the above articles I began framing my questions for the research.
User Survey
Due to limited time, I conducted the survey on calls with some of my friends and family members.
Below are the questions I asked them and the responses I got:
User Interviews
User Interviews are essential to understand the user's concerns from their perspective. I prepared the following set of questions to understand the user's challenges: their needs, expectations, etc. Due to minimal time availability, I conducted this interview with very limited people. Below were the questions and responses I got.
Affinity Mapping
With the help of an affinity map, I grouped similar observations, which later helped me solve each problem by addressing them individually.
User Persona
I created user personas to put a face on Flyzone’s target user and visualize various aspects of their behaviour including their goals and frustrations. These personas were roughly based on the user interviews.
How Might We
A How might we (HMW) question can generate lots of creative ideas. I came with the following HMWs. These HMWs gave a direction to the solution.
- How might we let the users know the latest updates regarding lockdown restrictions and travel guidelines?
- How might we make the users feel safe and secure?
- How might we help the users to get their RT-PCR tests done without any hassle?
- How might we help users overcome their deteriorating mental health caused by Covid-19?
Information Architecture
This Information architecture aims to organise content so that users would easily adjust to the functionality of the Flyzone’s app and find everything they need without much effort.
Ideation
After doing HMW, it opens up the Ideation stage to explore the ideas and generate solutions that could help me solve my user’s problems.
Most of the users are conscious of their health than ever before and are looking for hygiene and safety measures when travelling.
Moreover, after going through the interviews, I was able to interpret that users wanted to go and travel, but they were still scared especially after the second wave. They need some kind of motivation for travelling.
Paper Prototyping
Style Guide
High Fidelity wireframes
HOME
- OFFERS: I specially curated these offers that encourage users to make a booking keeping in mind their safety as well as that of other passengers.
During my interview, I understood that many users were unaware that most of the airlines were providing a PPE kit or a face shield during the journey. That is why I stated the obvious fact which I believe was necessary for the users to know. This was a free hand sanitizer, PPE kit and a face shield for every passenger.
When a passenger is completely vaccinated, it reduces his chance of getting infected hence making it safe for the user itself as well as others. So offering a 5% discount to fully vaccinated people encourages them to make a booking.
Another offer I mentioned was regarding uploading a travel photo to get an additional discount, I will talk about this section later.
2. STATE-WISE TRAVEL GUIDELINES: Being a responsible airline, it becomes our duty to let users know the latest travel guideline of a particular city that they wish to travel to. I added the option to directly search for a particular city and know their latest protocols.
3. WE CARE FOR YOU: I added this section to make the users feel safe. Informing users regarding our sanitization practices encourages them to make a booking, knowing the fact that they're safe. Also mentioning that our airline is vaccinating its pilots, cabin crew and ground staff eventually reduces infection risk, hence taking the sales up.
4. HASSLE-FREE TESTING: Users expressed their problems with the RT-PCR testing. They don't like wasting time on testing by standing in queues getting their test done. So giving the option to directly book a test through the app eliminates their trouble and saves their time.
EXPLORE
During the research phase, I understood that users were willing to travel but were a bit scared too, hence they needed some extra push. So, I decided to add this section, Explore.
I further divided this ‘Explore’ tab into two categories:
PLACES:
This section shows the articles featuring some of the best places which make an impact on our target audience, for example; it shows the article of Top places for your next solo trip’ with an attractive image. The articles give the option to directly book the flight to the nearest airport on the desired day. This section also saves users a lot of time by directly recommending them locations of their next trip.
PEOPLE:
How this section works: The 5% discount encourages users to upload a picture. Now, this picture is a public post that can be seen by anyone who opens the app. For instance, a person visits Goa and uploads an exotic beach photo, later other users see this picture and feel the urge to travel to that location.
This creates the effect of FOMO, i.e. Fear of missing out on other fellow users which encourages them to take a trip leading to higher sales.
Prototype
The prototype can be viewed here.
Major takeaways from this project
It was an overall roller coaster ride for me to complete this project within 3 days. A great learning experience for me too. I hope you find this study insightful!
