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A virtual boarding pass that keeps travelers informed at a glance.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed while travelling. As the VR interface becomes an increasingly popular option for air travel entertainment and productivity, it’s important to keep users informed of their journey’s steps and potential volatility.

Device Type

Apple Vision Pro

Timeline

March 2025 - June 2025

Status

Complete

The Problem

The air travel experience is overwhelming and it’s difficult to find the information you often need.

Core pain points

Navigation

Wayfinding through busy and unknown airports is incredibly difficult and stressful.

Discoverability

Essential information, such as timing delays or gate changes, can be difficult to find at a glance

Luggage Restrictions

Restricted items and declarations are often convoluted and hard to find

Discovery

An empathetic approach towards understanding our user’s pain points

“It's unbelievable how the time just disappears.”

Online ethnography conducted through Reddit, Quora and Xiaohongshu reveals key points of friction in navigation, baggage concerns and airport services. Crucially, timing is highlighted as a delicate air travel process, where each step of the user journey needs to be calculated and planned to avoid risks of missing flights and connections. This issue is exacerbated by strains in the check-in process, baggage misplacement and navigation in unfamiliar airports.

Online ethnography - affinity mapped based on air travel pain points

A focus on keeping organised with all necessities accessible in one place

The proto-persona, “Steven,” was developed based on ethnographic findings. This user’s motivations encompasses the idea of minimising flight travel stress through improved organisation and planning. Critically, Steven also highlights insights in the travel experience with young children, and the importance of having an efficient system through each stage of the journey.

Proto-persona developed based on common pain points discovered

A deep dive into the stress of air-travel journeys

Steven’s air-travel journey is explored through 3 core stages: Pre-flight, Departure and Arrival. Each stage reveals key pain points and relative emotions experienced. Note the quantity of tasks at each stage, ranging from parenting roles to locating airport services and transit points. The primary emotion throughout the journey is stressed or alert, highlighting the need for efficiency and organisation at all stages.

Journey mapping of our persona’s overall air travel experience

Device Considerations

Apple Vision Pro

Immersion

Virtual reality displays should aim to enhance our immersion, utilising 360° backgrounds, AR features such as 3D objects. backdrop dimming etc. This could be applied in the flight map function, enhancing immersion through a full FOV display.

Window Sizing

Virtual reality displays have no limitation in canvas space unlike mobile or computer screens. VR interfaces should aim to extend interfaces beyond window confines. Control bars, menus and HUDs can be expanded beyond the main screen.

Spatial Design

Despite 360° projection, the primary interface of usable apps should remain fully visible within the central space to maximise comfort. Alongside this, we should avoid excessive additional windows to reduce visual clutter.

Features

A glanceable dashboard UI which prioritises information digestibility

The main dashboard is arranged according to the Gutenberg principle of eye movement. Critical timings such as boarding, arrival and baggage claim times alongside delay information is quickly accessible. Auxiliary tabs such as weather, world clocks or flight maps allows users to access all necessary information in one place.

View crucial flight details alongside any entertainment options

In order to address the concern of time sensitive information and difficulty in information discoverability, widget screens can be pinned allowing users to easily access crucial flight details at a glance. This is a non-invasive solution which allows users to enjoy entertainment whilst staying updated with their flight journey.

Link navigation information and reminders easily to mobile or smart watch

Allowing users to easily connect between devices and access information across mobile and smart watch is an important feature to reduce stress and friction in transition stages of the airport journey. Users can simply click to transfer directions between terminals/baggage claim through a click, keeping information discoverable and accessible.

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