Phase 3: Develop
The ideation was done in two stages; Stage 1 consisted of different ideation methods to generate a list of possible solutions and Stage 2 focuses on top three ideas while linking them with the personas to reflect upon their effectiveness as a solution.
3.1 Initial Hypotheses
A set of initial hypotheses were developed are written on notion which are listed below:
3.2 User Needs
3.3 Stage 1: Initial Ideation
Mind map
A mind map was generated to summarise the overall findings and design opportunities. The map helped define the overall findings to assist ideating possible solutions.
Question Brainstorming
A brainstorming exercise was done to write possible questions that need to be answered while tagging them with visceral, behavioural and reflective categories. The answers to these questions assisted in generating ideas and were vital in designing a complete empathic solution.
Crazy 8's
A crazy 8’s exercise was done to ideate possible ideas. It was used to generate diverse ideas and overcome possible mental blocks. The figure below shows the final Crazy 8’s exercise result.
Online Pair Ideation Workshop
An online ideation workshop was done where the researcher paired up with participants as a pair and as a group of 8 to co-generate ideas. Figjam and Miro board was used to list down for this activity.
Co-Idea Generation Workshop
To conclude stage 1, a physical group workshop was conducted with seven participants including the researcher. The ideas, existing technologies and critical points to remember were written on post in notes and organised together. Learnings from previous ideation methods were included as well.
Each of the participants contributed to the ideas and feedback was taken to shortlist ideas and discard extra items. The ideas with similar patterns were combined to form the top 3 idea groups. These ideas were then refined in stage 2 of the ideation phase
3.3 Stage 2: Top 3 Ideas
Idea 1: Mobile Application Air Travel Organisation & Planning
This idea revolved around an all-inclusive app which targets major user needs such as packing and documents, online bookings, airport information, to-do lists/ reminders and budgeting.
Hand-drawn wireframes were created for the main flow of the mobile application. Design principles such as internal consistency, anchoring effect, learnability and gestalts principle were considered while designing the wireframes.
The user journey for both the personas were created and linked to a basic sitemap that shows how each branch of the application would cater to a particular stressor.
Idea 2: Travel partner booking mobile application
The idea revolves around an application that connects inexperienced and experienced travellers where they can chat with each other. This would allow the inexperienced traveller to ask questions and get help.
Hand-drawn wireframes were created to show both the interface for experienced and inexperienced travellers. Social proof bias and functional consistency were considered important for this idea.
Storyboards were created to have a deeper and visual understanding of the problems a user can face. Student persona was used to show how this solution will help cater to their problems.
Idea 3: Digital Awareness Campaign
The idea focuses on an online campaign that provides the target audience with passive knowledge. It caters to non-technical users as they would not have to do anything while travelling. A gradual exposure to facts through social media, adverts and blogs would educate inexperienced travellers. Confirmation bias and readability are important factors to consider for this idea.
A User journey scenario was created to show what problems a new tourist family would experience, and the benefits of this digital campaign are also shown through the green arrow path.
3.4 Finalised Idea & Hypthesis
Selected Idea
The finalised idea was Idea 1: Air travel organisation and planning application as it provides a set of essential tools to an inexperienced traveller which would be helpful to improve the air travel interactions.
Finalised Hypothesis
From the list of initial hypotheses, the final hypothesis was now extracted after finalising the top idea. The refined and final working hypothesis that guided prototyping phase is as follows:
"We believe that an air travel organisation and planning mobile application that encompasses multiple air travel assistance and information features in a single place will result in an improved air travel experience for inexperienced travellers. We will know we are right when user feedback shows improved user satisfaction."