Smarter & Smoother

DESIGN PROTOTYPE
PASSENGER ANALYSIS
INTERVIEWS

Inspiration

We all love Helsinki Airport and it’s basic functions. The airport truly addresses its slogan - for smooth traveling. By now it already offers a lot of information and choices for customers but at the same time, it also makes passengers confused. They don’t know how to find relevant information in an efficient way. So how to customize information service? We thought that the airport could be taken further with new technologies. To really differentiate and offer a unique customer experience, we wanted to combine artificial intelligence with design to make customer’s travel easier. As a result of our work, customers get more relevant and intelligent information effectively and can get more out of their visit at Helsinki Airport.

What it does

We designed personalized info wall and screens to give customers the information that they need at the each phase of their travel - when arriving at the airport, after security check and after landing. Customers have options to get the personalized data with face recognition technology but also by showing their identification card or boarding pass. As a passenger approaches the screen, the interface reacts in a way that only relevant information is displayed: flight, gate and boarding details, schedule, navigating at the airport as well as finding suitable services which are recommended by our smart system.

Besides giving the relevant information, the info wall suggests services based on the mood of the customer - if Bob is tired and angry, the intelligent wall suggests to go to coffee nearby or enjoy the sauna. This is possible with the neural network that predicts the best suitable services for the customers based on the seven input variables: age, gender, nationality, current emotion, experience, destination and face image.

With our solution we create value for all of the stakeholders - passengers, Finavia and the partners operating at the airport. With the personalized AI-powered info screens we centralize and filter the relevant information that the passenger is interested in. With the neural network based suggestions we offer passengers the possibility to do what they probably would really like to do at the airport - get the best out of their visit. For Finavia, we offer satisfaction indicators in a quantitative form and behavioural analysis of the passengers. This will help Finavia to meet and even exceed the needs of the customers and address the issue of decreased satisfaction of business travelers. Besides these benefits, our solution helps Finavia to execute customer experience and growth strategy. The shops, restaurants and other services at the airport will get more revenue, since they get more customers that probably consume their services.

How we built it

Our design process from approaching the challenge to shaping the concept can be found behind this link: http://goo.gl/JeZ5Tj

One important part of our research that based our concept developing were the qualitative interviews: http://goo.gl/1gpNdS

Challenges we ran into

The disruptive solution to provide individualized information smoothly by exploiting face recognition technology is not that easy to implement because of the GDPR. We need customer’s approval to get and store their biometric identification data. We solved this issue by also making the recognition possible with identity card or boarding pass. Scoping our project regarding which customer group to focus on was also relatively challenging. Our solution brings benefits to several customer groups such as “rockets”, safe players and nervous travelers, so it was not that easy to stick on one of them. But due to the lack of time, we decided to concentrate on business travelers that seek the most convenient and optimized journey possible. Thus we can help Finavia to address the latest challenge of the decreasing satisfaction levels of this customer group.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Finavia does not yet take too much advantage of the new technologies that offer interesting opportunities. We are proud of our solution that is disruptive in terms of the used technology. Our solution enables Finavia to differentiate from their competitors and give their customers a unique experience, since they feel special when given personalized information. With the AI-powered info screen people can get unforgettable digital experience at Helsinki airport. We are also proud of the design of our intelligent screens which is also aligned with the interior decoration of the new soon to be opened terminal.

What we learned

We learned that a multidisciplinary team is an asset to create innovative and effective solutions - design, tech and business backgrounds combined are of huge value. Besides that, this weekend illustrated us that team means all in this kind of projects. We learned to think from many different perspectives and managed to narrow a really broad topic. We started to analysis the challenge step by step and then get the whole picture of the topic and find the key part to intervene. Besides, we considered different kinds of stakeholders and figuret out how to coordinate the interest among them in an appropriate way.

What's next for Smarter & Smoother

The AI-powered info screens could be a perfect fit for the new 100 000 m2 terminal expansion. They could be implemented there in a more feasible way than in the old sections, since in the new terminal there are more possibilities of locating the screens. Based on the expected customer flows and places where the customers are usually lost, these info screens can be located in optimal places to take the most out of its features!

One of Finavia’s strategic goals is the customer experience: “A remarkable customer experience is the key to our competitive edge”. Our solution is perfectly aligned with this goal - it can offer a significantly improved customer experience that makes the passengers feel special. By doing so we enable Finavia to maintain their pioneer reputation. Improved customer experience results in more and particularly more satisfied customers, which eventually helps Finavia to execute their growth strategy.

Our team is passionate about the idea and willing to contribute in the possible piloting of the concept.