Got some attention from Qatar Airlines (especially for Retail + F&B side of app) and the Mobility arm of Korean giant Kakao Group to investigate collaborative possibilities.
The UAP App: The 'Uber' for air taxis
As the Lead Product Designer, I was responsible for all parts of this project and was able to get a few design patents for a couple pages/elements of the app. It was nominated for the Helen
Project Scope
Air taxis and the UAM industry is up and coming and projected to carry passengers as soon as 2025. Being part of the UAP team building infrastructure for the industry, we had to better understand how passengers would use the app while making sure to make revenue.
Solution
The UAP app is like the 'Uber' app for air taxis, while also providing features surrounding the Urban Air Mobility industry.
Tools
Miro
Adobe XD
InVision
Adobe Illustrator
Team
1 UX designer
1 developer
1 aviation planner
Wider UAP team
My Role
UX research
UX design
User Testing
Timeline
Overall: 13+ weeks
Discovery & Research: 3 weeks
Design & testing: 10 weeks
Discover
Studying various papers on the air taxi market, the CTO and I were convinced that the first 'Innovators and Early Adopters' would be our main target market. Once the price drops of taking an air taxi, our market would expand to be more 'Mainstream'.
Interviews
During the ideation phase of the project, I conducted user interviews to better understand air taxi passengers' behavioral variables are when commuting. Because there is always an initial fear of using new technology, as confirmed during the interviews, I thought it was best to adopt flows that users are already comfortable with.
I scripted open-ended questions focusing on our target audiences’ user flow, motivations, and air taxi mitigation. The interview included a virtual workshop where I gave them a task and asked them to walk me through their steps and thoughts using their mobile phone. Within a week, I recruited and interviewed 4 users from around the world (due to covid it had to be done through Zoom).
With the interview insights, I was able to create an empathy map to inform my next process in creating personas
Personas and Journey Mapping
I needed to form a deeper understanding of our users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors. So, I created 2 personas to indicate our target market. The interviews conducted guided me in segmenting the user journey and the personas were used to describe the experience for each segment as well as highlight opportunities for the app.
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Two UAP app customer personas
The main function of the app would be the booking tickets so the journey mapping focused on this part first
Wireframes
Discussing my findings with the C-suite members and UAP's board of advisors, together through Zoom meetings we were able to sketch out the initial journey mapping for the booking of air tickets. It was then my job to translate these sketches into a visual prototype to us to see and also push for various different features needed to not only support the physical infrastructure of the Urban Air Port but also various revenue streams.
Through the visual process, I was able to constantly iterate at make a more seamless process in booking an air taxi ticket.
Initial sketches highlighting ticketing journey
After sketching out a few ideas on paper, I translated our first user journey into low-fidelity wireframes. Due to Covid, it was easier to share ideas with team members through InVision wireframes. These were further discussed and iterated by doing internal testing and getting feedback from team members who were both involved and not involved in the app development.
First wireframes were key to visualise the interface and also identify areas of revenue generation
Information Architecture
After having better understood the app that I was trying to build and having had some good feedback form the UAP team, I decided it was better to investigate the information architecture while also working more with the flow to accommodate UAP's first talks with various cities in the UK.
Using this set up, I refined the flow of the app and developed a prototype working with a software engineer.
As seen in the info architecture, the 'Hub' page was added to help user navigate the various features of the app. Here is the design evolution of the Hub page.
Usability Testing
Working together with the software engineer, we developed the whole app to be presented during the Coventry Air One event, which was the world's first functional vertiport to be built by UAP.
At the event, we took visitors through the booking process and explained all the features we built in accordance to what our customers would need and want.
All the pages that I tested during the Coventry Air One Event.
Listed user feedback from testing prototype
Final Design
Various pages of the Urban Air Port and Urban Air Choice App
Design System
Here are the various elements I designed taking inspiration from the UAP Logo that was created before I joined the company. The Design System was used to keep the app consistent throughout.
Coventry Air One Guide
This temporary part of the app was designed to help guide visitors throughout the UAP.
For the Coventry Air One event, the software engineer and I developed a guide that was temporarily added onto the app to help users freely explore the Urban Air Port and gain insight into the world's first vertiport
Next steps
The app design is now ready to be developed with software engineers to be able to go through further user testing. The app will be constantly progressing until the first flights are regulation approved and ready to take off from Urban Air Ports around the world!
Urban Air Port Ltd.
I was also working at Urban Air Port as an Industrial designer, contributing to the design, development, planning and construction of the vertiport and interior elements. The Cafe/Bar was designed and built by me and received great feedback from visitors. We are now working on the next iteration of the vertiport to fit market needs and growth.