Improving air travel service for unaccompanied minors
Hats Worn
Service Designer • UX Researcher • Product Strategist • User Testing
Platform
Mobile and Desktop applications, Physical deliverables
Collaborators
Deepthi Jojy, Luna Lu, Joyce Zhong
Mentor : Miso Kim
Timeline
4 months
Context
Current Datapoints
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Each year, more than 4.5 million children travel alone on commercial flights worldwide, with over 400,000 unaccompanied minors flying in the USA alone.
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Airlines typically charge an additional fee for unaccompanied minors, ranging from $50 to $300 each way.
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The minimum age for an unaccompanied minor to fly alone varies by airline and country, typically between 5 and 14 years old.
This led to the concept of...
How we curated Little Wings, a service that allows unaccompanied minors to go on an exploratory journey by themselves while keeping their safety as the top priority.
Started with the initial phases - DISCOVERY & INVENTION*
* Research Methodology - Literature Review, Competitive Analysis, Mapping Diagrams and Systematic Analysis
Understanding Potential Conflicts
👧🏻🧒🏻 ↔️ 👩🏻✈
Getting lost or separated from their assigned escort during transit, particularly in busy airports or during connecting flights.
✈️ 🕦
Delayed or cancelled flights, which can result in unexpected wait times and potentially missed connections or transfers.
🚑❗
Medical emergencies, such as a sudden illness or injury, that may require immediate attention and care towards the minors.
🤷🏻♀️ 💬
Miscommunication or language barriers with airline staff or passengers, mainly if the child travels in a foreign country where they are not fluent in the language.
🔒🚨
Security concerns or other safety issues, particularly if the child is traveling to a destination with a higher risk of crime or terrorism.
Leading to the problem statement ...
How can we design an experience that not only ensures the safety of unaccompanied minors during air travel but also makes the experience enjoyable for them, while addressing challenges like escort separation, flight delays, medical emergencies, language barriers, and security issues?
Stakeholders and their painpoints
👧🏻🧒🏻 Unaccompanied Minors
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Fear and anxiety of traveling alone
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Existing health-related issues
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Separation from their parents
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Discomfort of being by themselves
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Discomfort of being watched by unfamiliar people
👩🏻🦱🧑🏻🦱 Parents + Guardians
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Anxiety and worry about their kid
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Difficulty coordinating with different stakeholders
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Cost of service
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Unclear about the entire process
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Can’t keep track of their child
✈️ Airline Company
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Ensuring policies and procedures are followed
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Dealing with delays or cancellations
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Addressing customer service issues
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Assigning staff for the service
👩🏻✈️ Airport Staff + Airline Staff
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Ensure security protocols are followed by staff and passengers
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Address concerns from parents
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Coordinate with the airline and other staff present in the airport
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Adhere to embassy guidelines
👬🏻 Other Passengers
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Concerns about the safety and behavior of unaccompanied minor
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Potential disruptions during the flight journey
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Delays during departure and arrival of the flight
🏢 Embassy
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Ensuring policies and procedures are followed by airline companies
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Showcases rules related to unaccompanied minor air travel
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Communication and guidance to parents or guardians
Below are mapping diagrams used during these phases. (Feel free to take a look at it by clicking on any of the diagrams.)
Current Customer Journey Map
Service Ecology Map
Precendent Study
Taxonomy Chart
Perception-gap Analysis
Cost-value Analysis
Started gamifying our approach as we entered the phase ARRANGEMENT in our process!
What we did?
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Characterization of our stakeholders, leading to our service's personas
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Creating a hero's journey, allowing us to try another form of storytelling
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Helping us create the storyboard for the service
Personas for the service
Hero's Journey Map
Storyboarding
Building the Solution: MEMORY & DELIVERY phases*
* Design Methodology - Service Concept, Service blueprint, Information architecture, UI Spec, Service Branding, VD spec, Service prototype and Physical deliverables
Below are all methodologies used during these phases. (Feel free to take a look at it by clicking on any of the diagrams.)
Service Blueprint
Information Architecture
Entire UI Spec
UI Spec - Home | Welcome Kit | Guidebook
UI Spec - Treasure Map | adventure Card
UI Spec - Communicate: Help | Feel | Talk
VD SPEC
Mobile + Desktop Application • Welcome Kit + Items • Exploratory Experience
Design Intervention 1
Building trust and communication through transparency
From the start till the end of the journey of an unaccompanied minor, their parents and guardians as well as the minor are fully aware of the status of their journey using the Treasure Map - linked to the minor's Adventure card, containing a unique QR code.
Touchpoints designed:
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Interactions between the app and stakeholders
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Gamified experience using maps
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Building transparency and bringing context
For Unaccompanied Minor:
For Parents and Guardian:
Design Intervention 2
Gamification at every touchpoint for the minor
During the experience, the unaccompanied minor is introduced to various milestones they need to complete in order to reach their destination and receive trip-related items, making their journey filled with fun and adventure!
Touchpoints designed:
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Gamified experience using puzzle pieces and characters to represent different stakeholders
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Giving the feeling of accomplishment when finishing tasks at each milestone of the trip
Design Intervention 3
Being your companion and safe space
The experience can be daunting for an unaccompanied minor who is not familiar with the people, the place, and how to navigate through the spaces.
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Whenever the minor is in need of something, they can use the I Need Help feature under the Communicate space of the application.
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Whenever the minor requires immediate attention, they can use the SOS feature in the Communicate space to call the Air hostess, who can help mitigate the problem.
Touchpoints designed:
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Communicate space with features like I Need Help
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SOS feature to alert the air hostess
What's Next?
Making a Design System
Establish a guideline which lays down the foundation of our concept, the process, things to be kept into consideration and give access to all our design assets.
Different Apps for Persona
Consider all stakeholders and design different platforms to cater to their needs. Create a collaborative platform which connects all stakeholders and improves communication.
Service Standard
Establish a guideline which lays down the foundation of our concept, the process, things to be kept into consideration and give access to all our design assets.
✴︎ Project Takeaways
🤨 😉
Rhetoric → Persuasion
The way we designed this service acts as a system of persuasion - be it the guided application design to the physical deliverables like the hand-off puzzle pieces
👧🏻 🧒🏻
Child's Growth
In services for unaccompanied minors, children's experiences are often overlooked. Little Wings prioritizes children's growth and memorable memories through adventure-based tasks.
📹 🧐
Minding the details
The entire design process led us to understand which features were of prominence and which ones could take a backseat, especially during our experience prototype phase. The way of performing the design convinced others and convinced us as well.