Less turbulence on the ground
The management of Wheelchair and special assistance passengers throughout Airport ecosystems is full of challenges for Airline staff and passengers.
Maintaining the flight schedule and customer service standards are both requirements that need to be met.
This project aimed at solving some of these pain points that exist within the Aviation industry.
What is wrong with the current method?
Airline staff are using outdated communications devices and this makes efficiency harder.
The Airline staff are challenged by the communications devices they rely on for work. They have a reliance on outdated technology for communications. Examples of this include the 2-Way Radio, Mobile telephone, Flight information screen and listening to the terminal loudspeaker.
In order to get validation on these assumptions and prove that the current methods were inefficient, I conducted a heuristic analysis based on Nielson Norman group Heuristic Evaluation.
This report can be downloaded here
Four Staff departments are User Groups
The Staff groups below, all work together to manage the transportation of Wheelchair & Special Assistance customers throughout the Airport Ecosystem. They all communicate crucial flight and passenger information between each other during their work day. This is the structure for QantasLink.
Commissionaire
The Commissionaire has to load and unload and transfer Special Assistance Passengers throughout the Airport.
Customer Service Officers
The Customer Service Officers work at the boarding gate. They board all customers on and off the aircraft and manage bookings.
Airline Hosts
The Airline Host’s manage and service the customers during their flight and help them board and disembark.
Operations Department
The Operations department oversee and manage the flight operations schedule and the movement of Aircraft and Staff.
Personas & Empathy Maps
Persona
Click the image below for details
empathy map
Click the image below for details
For the full set of Personas & Empathy Maps
Download the PDF below
On Site Staff Interviews
Anon Staff #1
Anon Staff #2
Anon Staff #3
Anon Staff #4
The insights from UX Research
There are many challenges that staff have whilst managing Special Assistance Passengers.
Below is a summary of the main challenges discovered from UX research. Research was conducted at QantasLink Sydney and interviews were with QantasLink QGS Commissionaire Staff.
2-Way Chatter
Multiple groups of staff using the same radio channel at the same time to communicate needs. Multiple conversations occuring at once.
Noisy environment
Airport environment is exremely noisy. Instructions difficult to hear with aircraft engine noise and hearing protection in.
Flight Screen
Flight information screen being in fixed locations that staff have to travel distance to for updates that happen in real time.
Flight Delays
Flight delays have a ripple on effect for the other flights and make allocation of staff and equipment challenging.
Gate Changes
When Flight Gates change, the staff and passengers all have to relocate. This takes extra time to move staff and resources.
Large Geography
It takes staff longer to adapt to complete tasks due to traveling time on the tarmac and long distances between Aircraft Bays.
Extra Passengers+1
Extra passengers requiring special assistance are often not allocated staff or within the database. They want assistance without booking it.
Not booking correctly
Assistance Passengers have not booked their specific requirements correctly when booking their flight. As a result Staff are unprepared.
Wrong Diagnosis
Incorrect diagnosis to the level of assistance from Customer Service officers estimating staff required for each job.
Shift Handover
No official handover between morning and afternoon shift, and different departments, often misses key data regarding passengers.
Last minute Pax
Last minute calls for Assistance. These passengers require assistance yet have often not followed proper booking procedure.
Accessability
All Assistance Passengers have unique equipment and staffing requirements. This is often over and under prepared for.
For more information on the prototype
For a demonstration of the product design itself including wireframes. and prototype. Reach out and let’s have a chat.
