Studio Schnettker • RIX Buddy

The Airport at your fingertips.

A virtual companion for passengers travelling through Riga Airport.

Service:

Service Design
Social Research

Client:

Riga Airport
Riga, Latvia

Year:

2023

Team:

Amnha Mohammad
Judy Trilerdnawakid
Karmen Eller
Tim Schnettker

RIX BUDDY

Anxiety about missing flights and navigating unfamiliar airports can turn a journey into a stressful experience. To tackle this, we collaborated with Riga International Airport (RIX) on a service design project to create a solution that would enhance the customer experience and encourage more enjoyable stays at the airport, while incorporating sustainability and technology.

Scope: service design: secondary and primary research (user interviews), problem definition, ideation, workshop facilitation, idea definition, prototyping, client presentation

The Challenge

The Riga International Airport (RIX) was looking for ways to "boost customer experience" along their travel journey. A vague and open brief that challenged to find the problem space itself first. Our research revealed a pervasive lack of information created stress and anxiety, leading to the question of how to provide solo travelers with a streamlined and stress-free airport experience at RIX, alleviating their anxiety about missing their flight.

The Approach

We used a multidisciplinary strategy with research triangulation, engaging users throughout the entire process from ideation and design to validation within workshops, prototypes, and interviews. After the ideation and development of the prototype, we further enriched our understanding through onside user interviews and thorough research analysis.

The Outcome

RIX Buddy is a digital travel companion throughout the whole travel journey. From booking the ticket until boarding, the buddy navigates passengers through their journey by providing the passenger with relevant real-time information, guidance and customised recommendations, based on their current journey stage. The Buddy interface comes as a chat and allows the passenger to access the airport's real-time data and communicate with the whole airport ecosystem: from flight information to food recommendations, or commuting options.

The Impact
During user tests at the airport, passengers were positively surprised by the ease of use and comprehensive information the service offers. Despite the positive user feedback, the RIX Buddy remains a concept and has not been implemented by Riga International Airport yet.

Process

We followed the double diamond framework, starting with the discovery phase combining primary and secondary research to define the problem space. Using the gathered insights, we moved into the ideation stage and conducted a co-creation workshop to develop our idea. From there, we created prototypes and tested them with users on-site, iterating the service to arrive at the final solution.

Key Learnings:

1. This neat little graphic looks nice and logical, but in reality you get lost in the process and that's ok, as long as you learn from it

2. Semantic analysis really helps to align the understanding about the task within the team and is a great kick-off for the project

Discover

Reports revealed that insufficient shopping and dining options, along with unattractive gate areas, received the lowest satisfaction scores at RIX. In addition to desk research and analyzing existing customer data, we conducted field research to gather opinions about the air travel experience at RIX from Latvians and travelers from abroad. This was particularly useful, for a more diverse picture of the customer experience by triangulating data from different age groups and locations.

Using storytelling grids and empathy maps to analyze the interviews, we identified that besides boredom and insufficient amenities, the lack of clear information is a ubiquitous problem. Interviews also showed that travelers face a lack of information even before arriving at the airport, hinting at a solution space focused on providing information throughout the entire journey. Within a client call it also revealed that passengers are missing secondary information about facilities like playgrounds, smoking areas, and water filling stations at the airport. With the ongoing development plans of RIX Airport City and an aerial expansion with 24ha, we identified the lack of information as a growing problem. What striked us was when we understood that the lack of information continuously increased passengers' stress levels and even caused anxiety about missing their flight. What should have been an exciting experience caused significant stress.

Key Learnings:

1. We had multiple research questions at the beginning, allowing us to get a broader understanding about technology, social impact and customer experience, and explore the problem from various perspectives.

2. Storytelling Grids and Empathy mapping are a valuable way to condense a a lot of information from interviews into understandable and relatable insights.

Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln

User Group

According to the passenger statistics, the majority of travelers at RIX are solo and aged between 25 and 35. RIX Airport serves foremost as a gateway to the Baltics, with a huge amount of transit passengers. This group was forecasted to grow in the future, and became our main focus to better understand the needs, opportunities and challenges for the ideation. To understand user habits among our user groups better we conducted a survey with 102 respondents to understand the importance of smart devices during travel and the potential for digital solutions that incorporate technology as a companion. As nearly all participants use smart devices for a more convenient travel the results helped us to define the design requirements for the solution better.

Key Learnings:

1. Personas are good archetypes are better. It is better to focus more on behaviour than demographics. Looking back this is something I would try to research even more.

RIX Buddy Persona Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln

How might we

How might we provide solo travellers, with a streamlined and stress-free airport experience without being anxious of missing their flight?

Workshop

With all our research in hand, we jumped into the most exciting part: a co-creation workshop with Latvians, international students, and stakeholders from RIX to brainstorm possible solutions. We focused on hands-on ideation methods, using approaches like drawing, rapid prototyping, and enacting, following the idea of "more doing, less talking."

The workshop created 133 ideas and three prototyped service concepts. Analysing all the ideas was challenging, but the prototype results helped us to converge and land on one idea. What stood out during this workshop was the idea of having a buddy on your side. A travel companion that would guide you through the process, and answer answer questions at the right time during the journey.

Key Learnings:

1. Being visual can be challenging for many participants in the beginning, it is important to ease into the process, but once done, scribbles and enactments have an incredible power.

2. Rapid prototyping with cardboard, scissors, pens and other material is not only a lot of fun, but opens up discussions and makes services tangible for everyone.

RIX Buddy

After sketching out various concept posters of the service, we discovered great potential in creating a virtual assistant to serve as an interface for the entire airport ecosystem. We decided to enhance the mobile-friendly webpage by integrating the virtual assistant into the RIX existing website. Passengers can interact with this assistant by typing or speaking. Leveraging AI technology for effortless accessibility, it intuitively prompts questions and provides seamless information access without needing specific keywords. Moreover, the Buddy itself became a corporate element in the shape of a bird, referring to Latvia's national bird the white wagtail, giving the service a welcoming and playful appearance.

RIX Buddy Interface 4 Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln

In this stage we mapped out the most important features along the traveler journey starting with a customized packing list before the travel based on the destination, continuing with way finding and commuting options to the airport, as well as live-flight updates and other important flight information such as security regulations. Additionally the user can customize its preferences to get recommendations for sustainable travel, shopping and dining possibilities as well as booking airport services such as parking or fast-track.

Prototype Testing

With the concept ready we built a clickable prototype of the RIX Buddy, along with an advertisement poster to test traveler interest in the name, its perceived value, and its usability. The prototype testing was done on side with passengers waiting in the gate area for their flight. The feedback was positive, and surprisingly many travelers already using the existing website to plan their time at RIX or check live flight updates. This showed us that integrating the Buddy with the website would align well with existing user behavior.

However, not everyone was interested in digital companionship, preferring traditional signage or exploring the airport themselves. Despite this, the RIX Buddy emerged as a future-proof solution considering the growth of airport infrastructure with Internet of Things (IoT) connections. With a touch of ambition, we envisioned the Buddy as a single point of contact for interacting with the entire airport.

Solution

RIX BUDDY

Service:

Service Design
Social Research

Client:

Riga Airport
Riga, Latvia

Year:

2023

Team:

Amnha Mohammad
Judy Trilerdnawakid
Karmen Eller
Tim Schnettker

Process

Discover

User Group

How might we

How might we provide solo travellers, with a streamlined and stress-free airport experience without being anxious of missing their flight?

Workshop

RIX Buddy

Prototype Testing

Solution

The Airport at your fingertips.

RIX BUDDY

The Challenge

The Approach

The Outcome

Process

Discover

RIX BUDDY

Process

Discover

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