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OUTCOME

Pia is Pittsburgh International Airport’s very own conversational AI assistant.

 

Built for traveler needs, Pia is a data-rich assistant that makes important information quicker to access through intuitive and dynamic conversation.

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While airline service addresses a short segment of the air travel experience, airports actually see travelers through a greater number of touchpoints throughout their journeys—everything from booking to the moment you step onto the plane, and again from deplaning to getting home.

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Pia supports the whole itinerary with responsive voice-led features that intelligently address complex requests for travelers under pressure.

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My role included research, concept development, identity design, motion graphics (After Effects and Figma), UX/UI design (Figma).

CONCEPT VIDEO

Design Summary

Process

Research

Concept Development >
Storyboarding

Concept Development

With an understanding of the scenarios where Pia could really help travelers, we began storyboarding situations that helped us understand the needs and nuances for which we needed to design.

We started with three scenarios to maximize use-case coverage:

  1. A local frequent-flier familiar who experiences a delay after getting to the airport

  2. A local family flying with children and an elderly parent

  3. An international passenger who's never been to Pittsburgh and needs to get into town after landing at night

Identity >
Form

When we started thinking about how we could convey this identity visually, we had to ask a number of questions: What do navigation and mobility look like? How might that involve color, translucency, and patterns? We also looked to the physical spaces of air travel. How do people and things move in these environments?

An intelligent, conversational, all-in-one voice assistant for airports

Pia

Reflection >
Pia Beyond Pittsburgh

These features and systems can serve as a an intelligent interface to support operational staff and optimize passenger experience across airports. Assistants like Pia might help make airports more efficient and enjoyable by bridging flight and passenger data, and enhance engagement with services by connecting passengers with more visible airport infrastructure. We would hope that assistants such as Pia could make not just Pittsburgh International Airport, but other airports across the world smarter and more efficient. 

Reflection

Identity >
Motion

Identifying motion for Pia, to evoke her core attributes and create a cohesive identity, we wanted them to be fluid, agile, and light. She doesn’t just move horizontally or vertically, but can twist and turn and bend, and pour in and out of points. We wanted these forms to feel intelligent and airy, to express the aviation and technology spaces we’re working in, and designed largely active and dynamic motions to represent her.

Interfaces >
VUI Patterns

To give Pia an appropriately connected system in which to live, we began redeveloping the Pittsburgh International Airport app (which was previously a simple list of service directories). In the redesigned app, we introduced the voice assistant as an added affordance, enabling both GUI navigation and VUI interaction.

Interfaces

Research >
Current Platforms

Travelers going through Pittsburgh’s airport have little resources to support their needs. Current platforms are an official airport mobile app (serving as a kind of manual directory) and in-house kiosks only supporting airline check-in software. However, these have ample potential with mobile attachment and a host of kiosk hardware features (e.g., scanning, printing, feedback) left unused.

When we set out to design how Pia would look, feel, and behave, we wanted to use what we learned from research. We decided that an assistant supporting air travel and in the aviation space should be decisive, straightforward, and intelligent. We didn’t want to make an assistant that you might find in a restaurant or a school—we wanted Pia to both act and feel like it really belonged to an airport.

Decisive

Direct, connected, reliable responses

Straightforward

Simplicity and clarity in statements

Intelligent

Proactive and connected

Identity >
Personality

Identity

Departure storyboard

Arrival Storyboard

Current mobile platform

Current kiosk platform

Research >
Passenger Experience

Beyond looking at just the tools at their disposal, we also mapped user journeys that highlighted the emotions, needs, and interactions with which we could find opportunities to help.