How on-the-ground observation helped an airline soar
When you’re a budget airline, even the smallest inefficiencies can have a big impact on your business. So when a Melbourne-based airline realized that it was time to replace their clunky kiosks with newer more efficient models, they turned to IBM’s local studio for a solution.
“They initially approached us because IBM does a lot of work with kiosks around the world,” explains Jennifer Martin, the project’s User Experience Design Lead. “But instead of just starting with the solution they wanted [a new kiosk], we took a step back to understand the real problem they were trying to solve.”
Research
That is why, even before the client team’s pitch to the airline, the multidisciplinary team came together for some on-the-ground research. Simply taking the time to observe gate agents board planes produced some great insights: “We noticed a lot of pain points, just doing this day-in-the-life observation,” Jennifer explains. “Things we wouldn’t have gotten just from interviews.”
Here is what they saw:
Gate agents dressed in form-fitting pencil skirts (a byproduct of the company’s latest rebrand) struggled to maneuver clunky car-battery-powered kiosks over to the boarding gates.
While the kiosks could be plugged in, the gate attendants would simply kick the plug under the unit because their restrictive uniforms prevented them from reaching the outlets. This meant that before every flight they were racing against the clock — and potential fines — to board 150+ passengers in 12 minutes or less from a single kiosk that could lose power at any moment.
The team knew that the airline wasn’t looking for a solution to their new uniforms, so they asked themselves: “How can we design a better way for gate agents to board planes?” In other words: would a new kiosk really solve their problems?
Keeping battery life, speed, and accuracy in mind, and leveraging IBM’s partnership with Apple, the team drafted a proposal for an iPhone in a ruggedized sled with a scanner, pistol grip, and additional battery. The mobility of the iPhone eliminated the need to lug around the large kiosks and made it easier for multiple agents to manage travelers simultaneously, while the additional battery solved the problem of the system losing power in the middle of the boarding process.
Buy-In
Armed with this new portable solution, one that kept the end users in mind, the team pitched the concept to the client and ended up winning the deal. Not only did it showcase IBM’s commitment to human-centered design, it also set the foundation for a smoother sales and delivery experience.
According to Jennifer, being part of the initial sales process was huge for her entire team. Their early involvement helped ensure that the solution that was ultimately offered to the client was one that IBM could realistically deliver on, and paved the way for their iterative development cycle.
“Since research was part of the sales process it helped [the client] understand the importance of involving real users,” she explains. “We knew we would need to get early feedback from the gate agents — which meant we’d need full buy-in from the airline.”
Delivery
Over the course of four agile sprints, the team spent hours testing the prototype side-by-side with gate agents in each of the carrier’s domestic locations: Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. This meant bringing developers and designers together to iterate on the spot.
Working together as one team — not two separate groups of designers and developers — helped them maintain alignment, account for things like basic functionality and accuracy, and fine-tune the overall user experience.
“One perfect example had to do with the audio levels,” Jennifer says. “We initially developed the app here in the studio, which is louder compared to other floors at IBM. But when we ran the test at the airport it was very clear that you couldn’t even hear the audible cues. So between flights the dev team made updates pushed them out to the devices so we could test the new versions in real time.”
Continuous, on-the-ground research and rapid prototyping also helped the team uncover some key regional differences between users: “Audio sounds that work fine in Australia were confusing in other regions like Japan or New Zealand,” Jennifer explains. “We found that we needed to localize features like alert sounds, which we wouldn’t have known if we didn’t actually travel to the other airports.”
Outcomes
Since rolling out the new product the airline has already been able to surpass their goals and bring their boarding time down to 8 minutes. The gate attendants no longer have to lug around the heavy kiosks or worry about the costly impact of late departures.
Moving forward, the team will continue to gather feedback as they roll out the next series of updates and improvements, but they know that the time they spent on the ground, side-by-side with their users, is making all the difference.
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