conceptual case study | adding a feature
Delta is a major US air line and one of the oldest air lines in operation today. With over 300 destinations in more than 50 countries, Delta serves as many as 200 million passengers per year.
Recognizing the importance of a seamless customer experience, Delta has invested heavily in their companion app, viewing it as the most important touchpoint between passengers and the air line.
(Note: this is a conceptual case study with no official affiliation to Delta Air Lines)
Layovers can often become the most stressful part of travel for passengers. The FlyDelta app currently features very little information for passengers making a connection. Users can view details about each leg of their trip individually, but critical information about connection times, security checkpoints and wayfinding information during layovers is missing.
Most of the information that I anticipate passengers may be looking for is already available in the app. Delta maintains a huge amount of data about all airports that they fly to, however that data is buried under submenus. The good news is that the information is already there, it just needs to be made more intuitive and accessible to users.
I began this project by gathering some basic data about Delta Air Lines, the FlyDelta app, and reviewing industry surveys about the passenger experience during layovers.
To get insight into traveler needs during layovers, I talked to Delta frequent flyers to learn how they use the FlyDelta app, what they enjoy and what they struggle with during travel, and how they spend their time in airports.
Summary of interview subjects and findings:
How users spend their time in airports / most sought after facilities:
view full
interview debrief report
Taking the feedback that I heard during user interviews, I charted some of the common points of stress, confusion, joy and sometimes boredom that users associate with airport travel into an empathy map that would later inform my persona development.
My interview subjects varied in age and location, but all are frequent Delta flyers with Medallion status and already very familiar with the FlyDelta app. Most travel regularly for work and, as often as they can, for pleasure as well. Mark is in many ways the average of those interviewed.
Through my research and user interviews, a number of different priorities came up that I hoped to address with this project. Knowing I wouldn't be able to implement all at once, I charted the proposed features on a matrix to determine which features might be the most feasible and add the most value for users.
I wanted to get a picture of the full user journey from their first notification about their flight status to their arrival at their final destination. The annotated journey helps to illustrate at what points the user is most likely to interact with the app, and what points in the journey might cause the most stress or frustration.
The layover portion of the journey marks the lowest points of user happiness - but there is an opportunity here to better support the user by offering them more information and better setting expectations during their time in the airport.
Before beginning to outline the user flow for this new feature, I started by outlining the existing user flow. Airport navigation is already an existing feature in the FlyDelta app, but it is not easy for users to find.
The proposed user flow is a radical simplification of how users could navigate the app - and the airport.
Designing the new feature began with rough hand sketches to explore ways to integrate new functionality
into the existing Delta app. The focus was on making the map and wayfinding experience more powerful
and more intuitive with the option to find airport facilities en route to the departure gate.
In the course of developing my intial wireframes, I was able to simplify my user flow further than previously expected, making the navigation experience even faster for travelers on the go.
I intended to conduct user testing with travelers who already use the FlyDelta app regularly so a high-fidelity prototype was critical to show users a realistic flow.
The flow developed for testing allows users to ascertain the amount of time they have between flights and find points they may want to stop at as they make their way to their next gate.
I tested the prototype with 2 frequent Delta flyer and 1 less regular traveler to get a broader perspective on usability.
Given Task:
You have just landed at Atlanta International Airport after an international flight.
As you’re taxing to your gate, you want to orient yourself for what to expect during
your layover. You want to figure out the following things:
- How long will it take to get to your next gate (and how much time you
have to get there)
- You want to make a pit stop at a Delta lounge
- You also need your iced coffee fix – see if you can find a Starbucks on the way
Results:
Before I completed this project, Delta actually did implement a few of the improvements that I proposed here.
Delta's Update: The "YOUR GATE" card is now clickable and does take you to the relevant airport map - a huge improvement from locating maps in the menu and then searching for the one you need.
What could still be improved: Auto-populated fields for the user's arrival and departure gates would save users from needing to toggle back and forth between screens and figuring out what gates they need to input themselves.
Delta's Update: A button has beeen added to the Today screen for live security wait times.
What could still be improved: Wait times are not yet included in the total transit time between gates. At this time, wait times are not available for international security checkpoints such as passport control.
My research uncovered a lot of opportunity for improvements, not all of which fell within the scope of this project. Given more time, here are some of the features I would like to explore more:
GPS based navigation would be a major improvement for users, and figuring out how to make that work in indoor, multi-level environments presents an intersting UX challenge.
Helping users orient themselves and be able to intuitively toggle between floors as they go would likely be a huge undertaking from a tech perspective but a leap forward in personal wayfinding.
One of the biggest variables to consider in air travel are security requirements in various airports.
I would love to explore how to empower travelers with information for each airport about what security checkpoints to expect, what documents or forms to have ready and a live estimate of how much time to allow.
The FlyDelta app already has very effective notifications about boarding, but an idea for improvement came up while talking to users for a notification to alert passengers before boarding actually begins.
Not all travelers I spoke to like to wait at the gate. A 5-10 minute notification prior to boarding would allow those travelers to spend their airport time elsewhere, but still make it back in time to board promptly and avoid crowding at the gate.
One of the most valuable lessons that I learned on this project is how valuable screen real estate is on mobile.
This was my first time thinking about how to design a navigation system. There are great map-based apps out there, some of which I referenced frequently for existing design patterns, but I never truly appreciated the complexity of these platforms.
A lot of fixed elements are reqiuired for a navigation system to function well: destination, time estimates, buttons to see layers or start navigation and more. The priority is to make the map as large and readable as possible, so when thinking about adding a feature, every remaining pixel has to be carefully considered.
In many ways, this project was an exercise in restraint. There's so much data and functionality that I want to put at the user's fingertips, but figuring out what information is the most critical and what elements deserve the most prominence on screen was a great exercise in UX problem solving.
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