As featured in the February 26, 2001 issue of Interactive Week
The Scenario
After Angela disembarks, the airport map and service details are downloaded to her PDA via a wireless local network, using Bluetooth. Angela quickly finds her favorite coffee shop in the list and sees it is only a few minutes walk away.
The Airport Guide shows Angela exactly how to find the coffee shop, with handy landmarks indicated on her map.
Angela follows the directions the Airport Guide gives her, successfully finds the coffee shop and gets her latte.
Now Angela needs to find her way to the gate. She uses the Airport Guide to look up the gate for her connecting flight and then follows the directions it gives her.
Angela arrives at her gate with plenty of time to spare.
Interactive Week challenged us to come up with a design that illustrates why our Goal-Directed® approach leads to successful products. In response, we designed a PDA application to help people find their way around an airport. We call it the Airport Guide.
Every successful design starts with an understanding of who will use the product. We start with qualitative research, then look for patterns in behaviors and goals among the people we interviewed. We then create fictional archetypal users—personas—who have these same concerns and goals. Personas guide our design from beginning to end. Our persona for this simple product is Angela, a PR consultant and frequent traveler.
Angela's Goals:
- Always be on time for client meetings
- Travel without hassle
- Don't feel stupid
Once we have identified our personas, we create plausible scenarios to explore the interactions they will have with the product. We think about each persona's typical day, the common problems she solves, and the questions she asks. One scenario for Angela starts like this:
Angela has a short 30-minute layover in an unfamiliar airport. She really wants to grab a cup of coffee before she heads to her connecting flight, but doesn't know where to go.
Once we have a solid understanding of the problem, the persona, and the context in which the persona will use the product, we develop the specifics of the design. The scenarios drive this process, helping us identify what functions will satisfy Angela's goals, how she will use them, and how they should be prioritized in the interface. Using this technique, we produced an Airport Guide interface comprised of just two screens: the List and the Map.
Angela uses the List screen to look up the service she wants:
After choosing a service, Angela sees the Map screen, which guides her to her destination:
- To meet Angela's goal of getting to meetings on time, we made the Airport Guide interface simple and quick, using only two screens.
- To help her travel with as little hassle as possible, the Airport Guide includes a complete service database for the airport Angela is currently visiting, with reliable directions and information.
- To ensure that Angela never feels lost or confused, the Airport Guide offers a simple, consistent idiom, as well as both visual and text directions.