Background
United’s Check-in/FLIFO team is dedicated to providing passengers with flight information and the convenience to make itinerary changes during their travel. The self-serve kiosk is part of a larger initiative to modernize United’s lobby experience by offering passengers access to more information and capabilities.
Opportunity
Creating a welcoming home screen for the Gate Kiosk gives passengers reassurance and control in accessing information.
Immersion
I was onboarded to the team and immersed in the existing research, brand philosophy, and style guidelines. The kiosk supported features (i.e, flight status, seat changes) that overlapped United’s mobile platforms, and a unique rebooking function for delays and cancellations. So, it was clear that the kiosk currently provided value to passengers and gate agents during flight delays and cancellations.
Challenge
A visual design that fosters trust and encourage passengers to facilitate their travel needs through technology. Ideally, a single design that adapted to both normal travel days and flight delay/cancellations.
Design principles
- Design for future use - design solutions that are adaptable to different travel conditions and airport ecosystem.
- Design for empowerment - create ways for active engagement that makes passengers feel recognized and in control.
- Design contextually - limited yet specific functionalities are better than broad functionalities.
Experimenting under deadlines
Early explorations aren’t pretty, but I felt the best way to approach this was to brain dump as many ideas starting from the most conservative to experimental, and pick out what best conveyed trustworthiness, excitement, and innovation. The exploration evolved from utilizing the brand’s core colors from the style guide to extrapolating colors from marketing assets for inspiration.
Technical considerations
- Render dynamic text - allow enough space for flexible word count to accommodate adaptive messaging.
- Dedicated functions area - allow for 1 or 3 functions.
- Maintain brand guidelines - logo usage and size, and visual accessibility.
Refinement
After reviewing with the Senior Designer, we proceeded with the plane design because it carried the excitement we’re looking for and the design's adaptability for flight delays by incorporating darker sky tones.
Prototyping and testing
As the design took shape, I enhanced it with motion design for a special touch to engage and spark curiosity. Then, worked with the developer to the create the design in a test environment.
Outcome
Due to Covid-19, my contributions came to end with the home screen. But, the project continued and a few months later my Senior Designer informed me that my work was in beta testing at O’Hare Airport.