Transportation Design

Overview /

I used design thinking to create a thoughtfully designed, user-centered, and pleasurable experience for departing and arriving passengers at an airport. My focus was mainly on airport planning and passenger experience.

Customer
Departing and arriving passengers at an airport

Stakeholders
Program managers, retail consultants, sustainability engineers, structural engineers, airline clients (multiple), city officials.

SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)

The Process /

My research incorporated:

Understanding user goals and needs
Reviewing historical data and general escalator and elevator requirements for passenger flow
Deciphering stakeholder requirements which included -
- Retail consultant requirement that arriving and departing passengers walk through retail locations
- Column locations remain unchanged for structural engineers
- Design efficiency for on-time scheduling for program managers
- Address needs of multiple airline clients who each have their own unique specifications (for example, airport lounge square footage is unique to each airline)

Understanding the Problem /

Passengers need easy way-finding and navigation throughout an airport. Passengers want a relaxed airport experience.

What passengers are promised —

The Reality —

How can we provide passengers with a user-centric and pleasurable passenger experience as promised.

In this process my goal was to empathize with our users, conduct research and apply our learnings to the design.

Naturalistic Observation /

Qualitative research. It was evident from this study how many types of users come to a terminal - each having their own needs.

Persona Development /

From our research it became clear how many types of travelers use the terminal. In this case we are focused on designing for passengers who are not regular airport travelers and need signage or other architectural cues. We are also designing for frequent fliers. How can we create easy navigation and reasonable walking requirements for these passengers?

Developing the Design /

I started by asking — how should passengers experience light in the terminal? Can light provide a sense of navigation for our users? I conducted solar analysis studies in order for our team to create different design solutions and present different building ideas at client meetings.

Research informing the design process —

These solar analysis studies showed me how to design around passenger experience. We can harness light to both guide passengers and create easy way-finding.

Design Approach - Explorations /

In addition to solar analysis I focused on specific details of escalator grouping and orientation. My goal was to answer the question - how do arriving and departing passengers get from the train station to the gate? What do the flows of passengers look like?

This study provided a continuous reference for our team during the planning and coordination of the terminal.

Some of the considerations required for escalators:

Retail consultants want all passengers to travel through retail
City officials want to minimize walking distance for passengers
Structural engineers want to keep column locations regularly spaced
Designers want to keep atrium opening in set location

Scheme 1 : Criss-cross loading at escalators

Benefits of Scheme:

Nice distribution of departing passengers at all levels
Departing passengers walk through retail locations
Arriving and departing passengers have their own route

Pain Points:

Way-finding may become difficult
Departing passengers have increased walking distance
Uneven distribution of arriving passengers

Scheme 2 : Grouped loading at escalators