GTAA: Toronto Pearson
UX • RESEARCH
UX research + experience strategy for redesigning information kiosks located at Toronto Pearson, Canada’s largest and busiest International airport operated by GTAA
ROLE
UXR, experience strategy, UAT, onsite user testing
DELIVERABLES
UXR plan, facilitation of generative and evaluative research activities, website audit, discovery workshops, UXR reports, UX documentation
Background
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) is the operator of Toronto Pearson International Airport, Canada’s largest airport in terms of total passenger traffic and North America’s second largest in terms of international traffic. GTAA embarked on a major transformation journey to enable better passenger experiences, while leveraging the expertise of IDEO and Wipro to help Toronto Pearson become a world-class hub that can achieve traveler satisfaction and ensure safety in times of crisis and calm.
Overview
New interactive kiosks have been installed in Terminals 1 and 3 to help passengers seamlessly access the information they need to enhance the passenger experience: flights, wait times, maps, food and beverage, ground transportation, etc. The kiosks are also multilingual and provide two-way communication through audio calls, so you can make direct calls to hotels, restaurants, and airport assistance. Apart from focusing on digital experiences implemented by Wipro, GTAA brought IDEO on board to enhance physical experiences via efficient security screening process, optimized baggage services, improved wayfinding and the border clearance experience.
Challenge
The shift toward digital and online experiences away from physical experiences became inevitable during the pandemic, which is a bit of a paradoxical challenge for airports, where the physical experience is prevalent, therefore striking the right balance between traditional physical and digital experiences was highly prioritized. The last thing an airport might decide to do during this precarious time is experiment, but at Toronto Pearson, executives and staff from various departments worked together to promote a positive passenger experience during the pandemic and beyond, transforming a moment of crisis into an opportunity to improve. Another challenge was not having a luxury of time and being operationally constrained, so we made sure to utilize best Agile practices and methodologies, get stakeholder feedback and buy-in based on obtained research data, iterate and implement technology in about 30% of the time a project of that scale would typically take.
High-Level Strategy
Since a passenger’s journey begins with the website and the contact center, way before arriving at the airport, one of our strategic priorities was to start with a revamped website and updated digital content to include an AI-enabled search. We also prioritized transforming the airport’s contact center and upgrading its systems to allow for self-service, which resulted in a 40% reduction in calls and drastically optimized wait times.
Through kickoff workshops and interviews with stakeholders and SMEs, we identified key guiding principle as integral part of our approach:
visual consistency with the website, but adapted for a specific touchpoint
no personal information or transactions
omnichannel experience
no dead ends to encourage browsing
high visibility of retail, food and other services
ergonomics and accessibility
Another crucial strategic initiative was properly distancing passengers to mitigate the spread of the virus. The traditional passenger boarding process consists of frequent one-to-one interactions, close contact with airport staff and other passengers, and limited access to the outdoors. To improve the boarding experience, a joint effort between GTAA, Wipro, Omnivex and LG Electronics was initiated to create a cloud-based Passenger Queue System (PQS), which offers a QR code at strategic locations, including check-in and boarding gate. Once scanned, real-time boarding information is served directly to the passenger’s smartphone by Omnivex Ink – no app download, no login and completely anonymous. By giving passengers more timely boarding information, we wanted to alleviate the nervous tension that caused passengers to form a long line as soon as they heard a boarding announcement. With information in hand, passengers can sit nearby, walk around, or shop without worrying about standing in line.
Summary of benefits for passengers and airline agents:
seamless boarding process for agents, allowing them to board by zones or rows
social distancing management throughout the entire boarding process
reduced staff overhead with fewer agents being required to handle passenger queries
streamlined passenger communication, enabling compliance for the airline
real-time updates for passengers directly on their mobile devices or at the flight gate
Taking into account project requirements, time constraints, team capacity, existing research and data points, a so-called flexible roadmap was put in place, allowing us to move fast, yet treat it as a living artifact that aligns, prioritizes, and communicates a UX team’s future work and problems to solve as we move forward and generate more insights.
User Segmentation
In addition to properly distancing passengers and improving the boarding experience, we wanted to ensure targeted user experience to accommodate their needs. Using generative research methods, our team studied users to grasp the problem space and study people’s needs, motivations, and pain points. Learning about the people we were building for helped us identify new opportunities for improving existing website and adapting it for information kiosks.
During the discovery phase, we identified nine key user archetypes:
Careful planner. Infrequent travelers. Anxious. Overwhelmed. I’m always prepared, and want to avoid any unexpected negative experiences.
Accessibility. Reduced mobility, vision, hearing, cognition, or language. Vigilant, meticulous, apprehensive. I need to have absolute confidence in the facilities, the locations, and who to contact if something goes wrong.
Hyper-connected. Regular commuters. Opportunistic, in-control, impatient. I want speed, efficiency and consistency. I want to be in control.
Pampered. Frequent business travelers, travelers with airline status. Relaxed. I prefer to do everything through my airline concierge and spend time in the lounge.
Budget adventurer. Backpackers, budget travelers, tourists. Excited, confident, travel weary. The journey is part of the experience, and I often wait until I arrive to figure out what my next step is.
Employee. Volunteers, airline employees, partner employees. Disconnected, empowered, overwhelmed. It feels good to help someone have a great experience at Toronto Pearson airport.
Neighbor. Advocate for noise reduction. Annoyed, frustrated. What changed? Is this my new norm? What rights do I have?
Meeter/greeter. Family, car service. Concerned, bored. I want to get to the right place at the right time and am unsure why it’s taking so long.
Partner. Marketers, service providers, retail and food and beverage providers. Opportunistic, curious. I am looking for opportunities to grow my business through new locations and partners.
Once key user archetypes were identified, we designed corresponding user journeys and empathy maps, as well as universal user journey for departures, arrivals, and connecting flights. Multiple on-site visits to location helped our team to better understand both layout and logistics of the space, interact with the existing kiosks, and capture passengers’ behaviors.
Qualitative research records: raw field notes taken while observing passengers during one of the on-site visits in the last quarter of 2021 and samples of customer feedback 2020/2021
Information Architecture (IA) + Content Audit
In parallel to main generative research activities, a detailed audit of existing Toronto Pearson website and content was performed. As a result, our team revamped the Information Architecture and obtained a deep understanding of the complex user flows. We also went through the passengers’ feedback on various platforms to better understand their pain points and needs. Since we analyzed user feedback over an extended period of time, we had to sort it by relevance and match it with identified user archetypes and project requirements.
Example of one of the user flows created to visualize IA, as well as the interconnection between various passenger activities: arrival at the airport, pickup, shopping, food & beverage.
Work-in-progress T3 departures map with suggested locations pinned and color-coded: red {must replace}, yellow {must-have new locations}, green {nice-to-have new locations}.
Ideation & Design
To explore potential solutions within given problem space, we ran a number of design workshops and leveraged dot voting technique to individually vote on the best design ideas, features, usability findings, and other items that required prioritization. When working on the wireframes, the main focus was centered around content placement, layout and accessibility compliance.
Interactive information kiosks designed from the ground up to meet CAN/CSA B651.02-07 accessibility standards. Production: Corum Digital + MediaTile digital signage solutions.
A new dedicated post-security area designed by IDEO allowing to comfortably organize belongings, with signage informing passengers about estimated time to walk to their gate.
Prototype Test & Planning
While there are many different usability testing methods, in-person testing was prioritized because a moderator can observe and record the user’s body language, gestures and other non-verbal cues, while also incorporating contextual interview sessions. User testing plan included a variety of UX research methods such as field studies, moderated studies, true-intent studies, quick surveys to calculate overall satisfaction rate (SR), in-depth interviews, as well as in-detail follow-up surveys to cover missing data or partially covered end-to-end user journey.
Based on high-level business requirements and statement of work (SOW), UX research scope included the following focus areas: search & SEO, mapping (GIS) & directions, departures & arrivals, customer service, connectivity (PQS), restaurants & retail, accessibility compliance. Additional functionality that was evaluated included language selection & translation, standby mode, timeout tomes (threshold for inactivity), real-time information, imagery & links.
As far as testing schedule goes, we proposed a four-day plan based on available resources and research agenda:
Day 1. Internal testing, study planning, workshops, field studies, dry run (pilot testing) with internal user archetypes: employee, neighbor, partner.
Day 2-3. Field studies, moderated studies, true-intent studies, quick surveys, in-depth interviews with external archetypes: careful planner, hyper-connected, pampered, budget adventurer, meeter/greeter, accessibility.
Day 4. Data analysis, debrief sessions, additional test runs in case of deficient data.
Final placement of the interactive 32” kiosks in terminal 1 flower area where the passengers can access real-time information via accessible design for self-service interactive devices.
Upon completion of on-site testing, the team focused on the following deliverables: UXR report, design recommendations, updated mockups and clickable prototype, updated technical requirements, raw data archive (photo, video, notes, surveys, etc.)
Takeaways
Airports are never completed, rather they are continually being adjusted to new and unpredicted realities. Since GTAA saw user-centered design as the cornerstone of their overall strategy, our team was provided with sufficient resources and enough freedom to operate cross-functionally and move fast. Addressing different areas of user experience and also rebuilding Toronto Pearson’s business during the pandemic, all parties were aligned on proposed product strategy and vision. As a result, Toronto Pearson has been named Best Large Airport in North America for the fifth year in a row by Airports Council International (ACI), the global trade representative of the world’s airports. Luis Felipe de Oliveira, Director General at ACI World proclaimed that customers have spoken and recognized the successful efforts of the Toronto Pearson team in providing a superior customer experience during the pandemic.
“This work represents a radical shift for the aviation industry, that you can and must listen to the passengers – the people you’re serving.”
In addition, a collaborative effort between GTAA, Wipro, Omnivex and LG Electronics won 2022 Airport Business Project of the Year. With the help of PQS, agents made fewer announcements and noticed a significant decrease in questions about boarding. After enabling PQS for one of its leading airlines, the biggest improvement was observed in airline’s OTP with zero boarding related delays at gates. Also, by providing seat upgrades to travelers before boarding, 86% of flights collected ancillary revenue. Once the project was successfully completed and the benefits captured, the GTAA identified additional areas where PQS could be launched to maximize further benefits, rather than being a standalone application. The GTAA also began exploring ways to leverage PQS to drive non-aeronautical revenue by providing digital promotions that customers can use at the airport before their time to board the flight.
