The system is going to be used by airport travelers in two primary categories. The first category would be users that want to plan out their airport trip before their drive to the airport. The second category would be users that want to use the app for its wait times and statuses on an as needed basis. These users would typically not use the app preemptively but would rather use it to check security and restaurant wait times on the go, so that they can make quick but informed decisions.

Currently, target users arrive at the airport, go through security screening, get a meal or snack, and arrive at their gate to wait for their plane to leave. However, the process is currently shrouded with uncertainty. Travelers often get to the airport without prior knowledge of the wait times they’ll have to endure, particularly at security screening. In this sense, users are always tempting fate when going to the airport without a preconceived itinerary.

The app aims to improve visibility of airport operations so that long wait times can be planned for and dealt with preemptively, and before there are catastrophic consequences to your travel plans. The physical process of navigating the airport of course won’t change, but the added time security and deliberate steps will expedite the process and reduce cause for concern.

The tasks are already learned by frequent or even infrequent flyers, but our solution makes completing the subtasks of navigating the different checkpoints through the airport expedited and less stressful.

The tasks are performed at the airport and preemptively in the car on the way to the airport, or even at home before you leave for the airport. The tasks will be broken up by different checkpoints and locations in the airport. Check-in, security screening, getting food or souvenirs, and arriving at the gate are all sequentially executed at different locations within the airport.

The data that our app collects is mostly going to revolve around crowdsourced, estimated wait times and travel times to consider when going through the airport, For example, the app may show that the South security checkpoint has a 45-minute wait, while the North security checkpoint has just a 20-minute wait. The chief personal data that the app would collect is the travelers’ flight or itinerary data. This can be collected with something as simple as an airline / flight number input. The entire functionality of our app can now be contextualized with this data on a per-person basis.

Typically, airport travelers will have their air- line’s app that they can use to keep updated with the status of their flight, and whether or not there are delays or postponements. With this publicly available data, we can leverage this and implement the same info in our app, so that all of their flight info can be included and taken into account when planning an airport travel itinerary.

In the status quo, these tools don’t communicate with each other in an effective way, which gives us an opportunity to step in and make something that aggregates valuable data from a multitude of sources. For example, the app will be designed to have a user’s flight data saved in it so that it can always be considered when planning a time-sensitive itinerary.

This will depend on the user, but we will represent a wide range of use cases and frequency in our personas, from first-time flyers to frequent flyers. For those who travel rarely, a comprehensive planning feature will allow them to sequence their entire airport trip.

The process of getting through an airport will always be time-sensitive, so this is something that will always be crucial to the functionality and usability of our app. The app must have perfect uptime because it will so often be used in a hurry and on the go. An app that’s designed to mitigate stress can not compound stress by not working in its most important use cases.

When things go wrong, people miss their flights, and their short and long term travel plans are inconveniently altered at best, and completely ruined at worst. There often isn’t easy recourse in the worst-case scenario. While the app likely won’t have a distinct “failure state,” it is still possible for a traveler to run out of time and miss their flights.