Enhancing Mobility around Schiphol Airport for International Passengers

Enhancing Mobility around Schiphol Airport for International Passengers

Liu, Mingyu (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)

Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, Suzanne (mentor)
Ruiter, Iemkje (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Design for Interaction

2019-08-22

This study presents the process and results of the graduation project: Enhancing Mobility Experience around Schiphol Airport for International passengers.This project is part of this project Optimaliseren Mobiliteit rondom Schiphol (in English Optimise Mobility around Schiphol). Within its broad scope, this graduation focuses on Chinese passengers, who arrive at Schiphol Airport for the first time. It is aiming to create a care-free and seamless transport journey from/to Schiphol from their perspective. The project took place in five phases, Research&Analysis phase, Ideation phase, Conceptualisation phase, Embodiment phase and Verification phase. The Research&Analysis phase consisted of desk research, field research and analysis. The Research&Analysis phase revealed the existing ecosystem: a well-developed transport system in the Netherlands, and the potential of the Chinese outbound tourism market. This phase also showed the real experience of first-time passengers: difficulty on getting information, making a choice and feeling the sense of safety. Last but not least, it defined the design goals for the design phases: enable passengers to plan their trips based on the needs easily, and make them feel confident, supportive all the time.The Ideation phase and Conceptualisation phase developed the final concept according to the design brief established at the end of Research&Analysis phase. During this phase, several iteration cycles were conducted to develop and refine the concept. The final design is a digital platform, in the form of a WeChat Mini Program, a light application embedded in WeChat (one of the most frequently used digital product in China). It supports the users from planning their transport before leaving to conducting their transport plan after arrival by fulfilling people’s needs on choosing route, tickets, getting information and finding the right spot for boarding.In the last two phases Embodiment phase and Verification phase, a high-fidelity interactive prototype was built and tested. The user test shows the final design almost meet the design goals. Passengers feel supported during the process of choosing routes and tickets, and feel easier on completing the tasks of finding the spot and getting on the vehicle in an unfamiliar environment. However, the role of the Mini Program in a visitor's journey of visiting the Netherlands is not clearly defined. For the final design, it is recommended to accomplish the service beyond the phone screen. For Schiphol Airport and other transport operators, it is recommended to use WeChat Mini Program as the carrier of service. The final design could be a starting point of the future development of the digital platform as a Mini Program. Those conclusions from Research&Analysis stage might also be a reference for them.

passenger experience
user experience design
airport
mobility
Schiphol

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:44ee86af-3160-452b-bfb2-bb1556f45a19

Student theses

master thesis

© 2019 Mingyu Liu