BoardSmart: Airport service that responds to you

Inspiration

Mobility within an airport is an important factor that determines our travel experience. We want to be comfortable, free and efficient within the airport, so that we could use our precious time to experience what we value the most. When Finavia understands what travelers value the most, it can tailor experiences it provides to customers inside the airport. Understanding needs of various types of customers and providing them with relevant information and services is important to create exceptional service experiences that stay in memories. Thus, to be able to solve this problem of understanding user needs, we came up with the idea of BoardSmart, a medium for travellers interested in having more efficient, comfortable and tailored experiences in Finavia airports. Values central to our concept are freedom, efficiency, comfort, stress-free experience, easier access to information and uniqueness. BoardSmart is targeted primarily at tech savvy travellers who want better airport experience.

What it does

BoardSmart is a platform that customizes airport information such as announcements and flight details, and services such as lockers, working pods, information desks, restaurants, shops etc. Based on customers’ flight numbers and interests, BoardSmart provides access to flight information, airport services and suggests activities inside the airport relevant to the specific customer. It also has a navigation feature for users to reach their preferred destinations. Suggestions and/or navigation features are provided once the user enters the flight number and/or keywords indicating interests into BoardSmart webservice (which is reached via a link or a QR code that customers can scan at strategic locations at the airport). BoardSmart users can book spaces, customize services they want to access at the airport and generally get relevant information about their flight and the airport. To identify themselves at the airport when accessing bookings and services, users identify themselves either with a QR code on their boarding pass or a different ID generated by BoardSmart. QR codes could be read at the airport with special devices placed near all the service points users want to access at the airport. These information are used session-based, for a certain duration that a person uses airport services, does not contain any personal information, and does not have to be stored/managed by Finavia. The aggregated information from BoardSmart can be combined into an info hub, which can be utilized in later airport services development projects.

How we built it

BoardSmart is a web-based service that uses QR-code technology and location information to identify user needs and provide services to them. During the project we had stages of research, ideation and concept development. The research stage was about understanding the problem, its setting and interested parties. We had a Finavia excursion beforehand that helped us get needed data and insights. We also used presentations and materials provided by Finavia in our research. The ideation stage was about communicating our ideas to each other and conveying messages. In this stage we were able to create a common understanding of the problem. Finally, in concept development we put our ideas into practice and developed a strategic concept of our solution.

Challenges we ran into

During the project, we ran into the challenge of collecting and processing personal information. At first we wanted to use personal data provided by airlines for the service. But, after careful consideration, we decided that personal details are not essential for the work of our service, and decided to opt for information that can not be tracked to an individual person, such as their personal preferences, emotional state and flight number. In essence, preference patterns will be identified on a general level. Another challenge was identifying needs for the service among different potential user groups to provide a service that would cater to various needs. To solve the challenge, we decided to create a service that is easy to use and also versatile.

Accomplishments that we are proud of

It was great to come up with a service that has the potential to make travel experience smooth, hassle-free and tailored. This solution reflects our thoughts about solving current challenges in the airport setting with new technology. Currently Finavia does not interface with the travelers directly for their input, and they are hesitant to dwelve into data analysis themselves. A solution that takes into account different user needs without the hassle and compliance requirements of data management has the potential to make airport experience an exceptional one. We are proud of the fact that in such a short time we were able to not only ideate together to make airport services better, but also discussed and suggested some ways to implement the service in the form of use cases, technology implementations and modular integration with future services.

What we learned

During the project, we learned how to work on a creative task with a group of people from different countries and different backgrounds. It was interesting to find out about ideation methods and design process. For example we tried "Me, we, us" approach to pick the idea to work on. Other important learnings were related to time management and project management, which was also stimulated by a tight deadline. We also learned what the fears of the company are regarding a new service, and how it can be tackled.

What's next for Finavia

With BoardSmart, Finavia will be able to provide better services to customers through gathering information from different customer groups. Utilizing aggregated customer data, Finavia will be better at forecasting what’s going to happen next and creating more relevant services and understand the travellers more. Finavia partners can benefits from aggregated information in personalizing their offerings and forecasting demand, which is very valuable for business. BoardSmart service framework also makes it really easy for Finavia to integrate future services and partnerships, not just the existing ones.