Vienna Airport Information System
Keywords: Android, Flights and Aviation, Design for Tablets, User Centered Design
Mentor: Univ. Prof. DI Dr. Thomas Grechenig and Mr. Stefan Strobl, RISE-INSO, TUWien, Austria
Duration: May - July 2012
Project Description
Airports have to efficiently and quickly handle millions of passengers each year. This entails significant amounts of information that have to be processed and presented to the user as close to real time as possible. There are two user groups who would be benefited by the tablet ready flight information system:
- Terminal Info Guides (TIGs): They provide flight and airport related information to passengers and tourists throughout the airport building as well as on the phone.
- Ramp Agents (RAs): They supervise and coordinate the handling of aircrafts at ground level. This includes loading/unloading, cleaning, fueling, boarding, crew handling and more.
The project was aimed at designing a simplified Tablet version of the existing web application, so that the users can easily carry it with them, without having always sitting infront of a computer, especially incase of Ramp Agents.
Process Followed
A User Centered Design Approach for a specific set of users to be designed for Android tablet was used. Understanding the user’s need and workspace was the main aim and then putting this understanding into designing the interaction of the user with the interface and making the application as easy to use as possible for quick retrieval of information and inputting information:
- User Needs Study
- Understanding android tablet design paradigms
- Ideation and Iteration
- Features for Tablet usage
- Interaction Concepts and Wireframing
- User Interface Design and XML integration
Challenges
- To adjust huge data on a small screen.
- To keep the application simple and effective as the inputs and data retrieval is very critical in airports.
- To make the app interactions is very quick.
Tools and Technologies
- Android XML
- SVN for file synchronizing
- Balsamiq for Mockups
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