20/04 / Week 7-8

Adventures of Airport Saviours: Week 7-8

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It’s getting hot as the deadline to submit product concepts to the client approaches. 

Can’t believe it’s been 2 months since our team started on the project! So many concepts, iterations, improvements and refinements.

This week Airport Saviours have been digging into how we could use alternative power sources at Brisbane Airport to make it fun for travellers and efficient for the airport. The idea that we could generate electricity literally out of the air - from people walking in the airport  opened our minds to so many opportunities. 

The leading concepts this week were:

As you can see, all of them can be built using the same, very basic and feasible technology, which is amazing. 

As you can see, all of them can be built using the same, very basic and feasible technology, which is amazing.

Here is more on the basic technology behind: Generate Electricity from Walking
http://www.instructables.com/id/Electricity-from-walking/

Among the many things our team did this week were:

- a few more concepts

- evaluation framework and concept evaluation

Measured against criteria with score out of 70.

- storyboards

First storyboard from our Project Report. Two more are included in the report.

How did we evaluate our users?

We connect with each of our target users to encourage their critical engagement with the concept through an informal interview. Our paper prototype for kids air being the first course of action. After a brief explanation of the idea we then let the user decide what they might be able to do with it. By placing sheets of paper on the ground with our icons printed on top, we can see how the user interacts. We then ask: “What is your first impression of the symbols used on each tile paper?”. We ask this to gauge the users intrinsic interpretation of the symbol. Once we have this information, we are then able to explain the concept in depth. The user is then able to interact with prototype again to compare results. After completion we ask a series of questions.

Do you like this idea? Why?

Do you have any concerns about this concept if it is realised?

If you have advice or experience that can improve the concept what would you like to contribute?

Following questions are based around the discussion itself. By letting the user voice their opinion on the concept and giving them the confidence to deliver, we can prompt further details with follow up questions.

We finally picked our winning concept for the project. It’s called KidsAir. With KidsAir, it’s fun and healthy for kids to spend time at Brisbane Airport. 

Keep an eye on our Kickstarter Video, will be shooting one over the weekend and sharing it with you!

13/04 / Week 6

Adventures of Airport Saviours: Week 6-7

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Most of the week Airport Saviours spent struggling with redesign of the Brisbane Airport reclaim area. We came up with dozens of ideas as to how the “back end” of baggage reclaim can be built. 

Among the major players in the industry for luggage automation are: 

Vanderlande

https://www.vanderlande.com/en/Baggage-Handling/Products-and-Solutions/Sortation/BAXORTER.htm 

and

Bumerang Group

http://www.beumergroup.com/products/airport-baggage-handling-systems/high-capacity-sortation-systems/ls-4000cb-cross-belt-sorter/

Luggage sorting and automation systems are quite expensive and complex solutions. This makes our Fast Bags concept feasible, but fairly difficult to build. 

Meantime, we also did body storming for Fast Bags concept. Check out the video: 

Also, came up with criteria for concept evaluation that can be used by our team later own to pick among the concepts selected. 

A new set of concept cards. 

Tom's Alpha Bags concept

Tom's Power Walkers Concept

 2.0. for Fast Bags from Olena.
Two more personas to add to the collection!

We had a meeting with the client. Among the most important findings were the decision making process, or - to say in simpler words - how representatives from Brisbane Airport Corporation will be making decisions about concepts. 

Important factors include: 

• environmental effect and system sustainability
• system efficiency and return on investment in systems

Talking with the client and in-class meetings made us think: 

• how can we build something that makes people feel good about Brisbane airport and at the same time be efficient as the system? 

This led us to another concept: “Walk green in Brisbane Airport”. Airports attract lots of human traffic. Utilising energy from people movement can be used to make airports “greener” and motivate people exercise more - take a walk rather then “ride” - and generate electricity! Adding electricity to kids playgrounds can make systems self-sustainable and cost-effective and make it fun!

This is something our team will consider when polishing and picking our final concept for Brisbane Airport and preparing the concept for our client. 

05/04 / Break Week

Airport Saviours: Team Adventures

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Happy Easter!

While most people are having Easter Vacation, Airport Saviours are heading towards Brisbane Airport to do staff interviews and record their observations.

1. More research on baggage reclaim

It all started with more research into present day technology behind luggage reclaim. Nicholas, Thomas, and Olena came up with quite a few studies to draw inspiration from and further improve baggage reclaim concept for Brisbane Airport.

• Baggage Reclaim Concept from Lenze

http://www.lenze.com/en-at/industry-sector-expertise/intralogistics/airport/baggage-reclaim/

2. Team meeting to exchange ideas and improve concept 

Just the day after Easter Monday, the Team got together to discuss our findings. Olena, Nicholas, and Tom shared research findings, went through the concepts once again and agreed to meet at Brisbane Airport the next day.

3. Staff interview at Brisbane Airport and observations

A 3 hours journey all around domestic terminal in Brisbane Airport - and we have lots of insights and first hand observations as to how baggage is handled these days at Brisbane Airport. 

Perhaps, the most important was talking to staff at Baggage areas. They shared their grievances and pointed the specific things that can be improved.

Just a few from our discoveries this week:

- Stolen bags cause a lot of problems.

And yes - some people do come to airport just to steal the bags. 

- Wrong bags taken by passengers. 

Decorations added by passengers to their bags to make their luggage stand out cause problems. They break systems and damage bags.

- Lost bags from the carousel because of bag size. 

When bags have irregular shape, they fall off the carousel. When this happens behind the area visible to passengers and no staff near by - guess what happens next? A bag is lost!

These are just a few of our insights for the weak - and we definitely will find a way to address them in our luggage reclaim concept for Brisbane Airport. 

30/03 Week 5

"Everything is Figureoutable"

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This was our motto for the week. Airport Saviours were more productive than ever. 

It all started from our meeting with the client, representative from Brisbane Airport. One hour talk about Brisbane airport, it’s present and future, goals and projects inspired us and helped us come up with more insights.

The idea to approach design innovation as a way to drive down infrastructure maintenance costs in Brisbane Airport allowed us to view our concepts from an entirely different perspective. 

This is what is expected by our client - and this is what Airport Saviours chose to focus on. Work on design solutions that are as efficient and cost effective in the long-run for the Brisbane Airport Corporation as they are easy and enjoyable to use for travellers.

Our team shipped 6 more concept cards: 

Thomas developed a concept for improving luggage reclaim.

Olena's concept is for tired children waiting at airport with parents.

Nicholas wanted to improve Luggage Scales with Glass Curtain Wall.

Sissi's concept for navigational help while using trolleys.

Olena's concept for improving luggage reclaim.

Sissi developed a concept to improve Luggage Scales scales.

And yes - Thomas came up with another persona. 

BODYSTORMING

Airport Saviours did body storming around FastBags concept. We feel that a lot can be improved in how luggage is received by passengers these days. Having to wait for 20+ minutes to catch a bag spinning around in circles is definitely not the best airport user experience. 

Luggage carousel that is the size of an aircraft eats space that could be used more efficiently by Brisbane Airport. 

Redesigning luggage reclaim area is a challenge. Especially due to a lot of “back-end” technology involved, that helps to unload an aircraft, transfer a bag into an airport, sort it and deliver to the right passenger. This is an Engineering challenge.

We love challenges. Because everything is figureoutable.

Keep an eye on more updated to see how Airport Saviours will reshape luggage reclaim over the next few weeks.