flightpad app
case study - new concept
Resolve the commuter airline crew crash pad renting system
The Problem
When my dear friend, a flight attendant, moved across the country away from San Francisco, he then faced the commute lifestyle. Now amongst many airline pilots and flight attendants, this requires traveling from their home state to their respective airline home base, often referred to as "hub." The airline hub is where each work trip starts and ends for these airline commuter crew members. This means being away from home for up to 18 days a month on average, living in temporary housing. Imagine residing in Chicago, IL but your airline hub is San Francisco, CA (airport code: SFO); this means your commute flight is approximately 4 hours 40 minutes. So depending on your schedule you need to strategically plan your commute flights. Say your work trip starts at 9 AM but there are not any flights out of Chicago to get you to SFO in time for work. You will need to fly to San Francisco the day prior, so now what are you to do? Where will you sleep? How will you get rest?
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Insert crash pads. You're probably now asking yourself, "what on earth is a crash pad?" Let me give you a bit more insight. Crash pads are cost-effective housing alternatives to hotels. They are generally homes with communal living and sleeping spaces. Commuter flight crew members often rely on crash pads​ but encounter obstacles finding a crash pad rental with availability. So how do they find crash pads? Well, there are a handful of websites focused on crash pads (e.g. crashpad411.com) for this very reason and a few mobile apps but these prove to be unsuccessful options. Networking, word of mouth, and Facebook are the most successful techniques to finding crash pads with availability. This is the problem I wanted to solve as I've heard many struggles and at times helped a few out for a night or two with a warm place to sleep.
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Welcome, flightpad app (previously called crash- changed during the process), designed to resolve the cumbersome crash pad renting system for the user (pilot, flight attendant) and the host (property owner) with development of an all-inclusive mobile app identifying availability, price and location details, user feedback, as well as offering a messaging system between renters of the same crash pad.
Users & Audience
Calling all commuter pilots, flight attendants- current renters, seekers; and crash pad hosts
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I released two different screener surveys (user and host specific) to identify the strongest users for interviewing. Candidates considered were both current crash pad renters whom I scheduled one-on-one video calls to gather a deeper breathe of their work/commute schedules to better understand needs and desires for my app design.
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Unfortunately, I did encounter obstacles connecting with any crash pad hosts to interview. One host was open to the opportunity but required agreement to signing a 10-page NDA in which I declined for this case study. However, I garnished enough information to understand the host role but not enough to develop the host user function of the app.
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Findings
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79%​ of renters find crash pads through co-worker networking/word of mouth
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36%​ on average utilize both facebook and crashpad411.com to find crash pad listings
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Renters rarely reference craigslist (4%) or connect with friends (11%, outside of work network) to find a crash pad rental
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Many crash pads are actually owned and operated by a flight crew member which at times can lead to difficulty of getting in touch with the host who is either flying or in a different state on the job, reason communication is preferred through text messaging or email due to the nature of employment for both parties.
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29% of renters communicate with their host via text message and 11% through email, only 4% conduct phone calls.
Comparative Study
To best understand where my design would start, I identified three existing rental based apps to identify effective and problematic designs- Blocked (specific to crash pads), Zillow Rent, and Trulia Rentals. The commonly utilized CrashPad411 was not included in this study as a mobile app was not available.
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Findings
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Maintain consistency with Language- airport codes
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Ease of saving a listing and viewing at a later time
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Access to contacting a representative as well as communication history
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Recognition of icons- routes to expected information
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Ability to apply multiple filters- view only listings that fit users criteria
Design Process
To further understand my users, I developed personas based on the research information gained. The two renter user personas each are combinations of behavior, core needs, and frustrations of many people. The host persona was portrayed with limited knowledge to best depict the characteristics and behaviors of this user. Empathy maps for each persona was created to gain a deeper understanding of what my users will be thinking and feeling. Following both practices I identified all necessary design elements the app would need to address to resolve frustrations and meet the user's core needs. During this phase I also decided to focus on the renter user as I did not have quantitative analysis to design the host user end of the app.
Following personas and empathy mapping, I launched an open card sort session to participants with the goal of finding out how people think my content should be organized and categorized. I gained valuable insights of how users would navigate the app, and I received additional feedback toward the app's original name, Crash. The participant felt it was distracting as it relates to airline accidents. Taking everything into consideration, I developed a sitemap for users to easily access information and changed the app's name to, flightpad.
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Findings
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Many users organized similar topics into categories with similar names where I was able to standardized to a singular category-merged cards in similar categories named “profile”, “profile/account” and “my info” to a standardized category titled “my profile.”
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Topics of saving and viewing saved crash pad listings within three different categories- “favorites”, “profile”, and “search." These topic cards were commonly categorized in the “search” category which I standardized, consolidating the multiple groups and increasing the user agreement.
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Most topics relating to the crash pad’s location, cold/hot bed details, and nearby conveniences were easily categorized. On average, 5 groups were created by users with very similar category names.
Further into the design process, user flows were created for three different user actions: create an account, find a crash pad, and communicate with the renter community; to validate flightpad's design and to help identify problematic areas. I started with paper and pen sketches then created refined versions for clarity.
Create a Profile
New user would like to create a profile with flightpad app complete with his/her name, phone number, a brief biography and a profile photo. Once complete, the user will be able to discover crash pad availabilities near his/her airline home base in which each work flight starts and ends.
Find a Crash Pad
Existing user is logged in to find to find a crash pad. The user has the choice to discover through the interactive map or filter through a list of options. Photos, pricing, hot/cold bed specifics, bio of the host, and crash pad location details including amenities are provided for each listing. The user may save a listing for later viewing as well as send direct message to the host through the app for additional information.
Community Board
Existing user wants to leave a message and read a new message posted on the Community Board which is an internal messaging feature available to all renters of a singular crash pad. User will complete paperwork and rental agreement documents outside of the app. The user is then granted access to the community board to share arrival/departure times, elevate any concerns, etc.
Now with the data and information gathered up to this point in the design process, I was able to sketch low fidelity wireframes to determine placement of elements and optimizing the navigation according to the user's needs. Several iterations later I landed on the sketch shown for the app's functionality for creating a profile, finding a crash pad, and communicating with other renters through the community message board.
Sketches were then uploaded to high fidelity wireframes. Changes were implemented at this time as I discovered possible points of error. In addition, I expanded the paths and number of screens a user would encounter as a user- visitor or profile holder.
Prototype & User Testing
Three users were recruited to test my InVision prototype, one in person and two via video shared screen conferencing which enabled me to watch the user's actions. Each user considered themselves to be comfortable using technology and well-experienced using a variety of mobile apps.
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Reading off a script I asked each user to complete tasks with minimal direction. This was a very exciting point in the process to watch the users interact with the app and listen to each verbally explain what they saw on the screen while describing their actions.
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From the user testing I identified issues with several linked artboards, my first user was unable to complete a task due to this error which I corrected prior to the following sessions. Overall the testing went really well, following the revisions after session #1, users were able to confidently complete three user flow tasks.
Interface Design
The objective of the interface was to keep it modern, fresh to stimulate productivity and trust with a splash of yellow promoting cheer; all achieved through an analogous color palette.
The font family for iOS is SF Pro Text offering a modern aesthetic with a clean and easy on the eye presence. It offers optimum legibility and clarity in both sizes small and large, even when utilized in semibold.
Outcome
I present to you, flightpad, the all-inclusive crash pad renting application for flight crew members developed in Sketch. This app allows users to search for available crashpad rentals by airport city code offering the bed type (hot/cold) within his/her price range. Users are able to interact with crashpad hosts through the app, eliminating the frustrating conversation chase. Not only are they able to interact with host but the user has to ability to communicate with other renters of the same crash pad to organize ride shares, arrival times, etc. It's a one-stop shop for our friendly commuters operating our flights to and from.
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This concludes my case study.