What is the future of travel in 2027?
Project Brief:
Delta came to SCAD asking our class of designers "what will be the future of travel in 2027?" Our class presented 10 concepts covering all parts of their existing journey. I was on the service design team that created four of the concepts surrounding cloud sharing, device less and luggage less travel, new forms of security, and transportation to the airport.
Research Phase
We began researching mainstream, leisure, and corporate travelers and the technology we could expect by 2027. The image above is how we began affinitizing the research. We divided the four quadrants into high and low impact on travel and emerging and established tech trends.
We then traveled to the Atlanta airport and visited Delta's headquarters to further our primary research. We were allowed to enter the airport as researchers and interviewed people about their current experience. Our team was also allowed to speak with Delta flight attendants and desk clerks about new procedures and their life working at Delta.
After several weeks of research and a midterm check in with Delta we decided to focus on covering all the current touch points of Delta's customer journey.
Our first ideation protocol included generating 137 ideas from prompts (developed in research). These ideas were reviewed in an intensive design charette to filter out and find patterns within the thoughts/concepts.
Within these ideas, we found common patterns and generated themes out of those. Keeping security, time and control of a user in mind.
The 2027 Experience
Service Blueprint
Please click on the far right to see the other side of the blueprint.
A breakdown of two concepts:
Delta Skyshare and How To's
On a flight today in order for passengers to access their personal movies, books, or music, they have to purchase wifi or have their entertainment content downloaded to their device.
We wanted to create a way that allowed passengers to access their personal content freely, in a way that caters to all kinds of travelers and their unique interests. From our research we learned that there are two kinds of travelers, passive and active. We described Passive Travelers as people who want to spend time alone enjoying their music or watching movies. And active travelers, as people who don’t sleep on flights or typically do work.
Skyshare is a solution for both.
We built an ecosystem map of all the current stakeholders involved in how travelers access either their own entertainment content or content that is provided on the plane. Then we mapped the value flows showing how our service would generate a better business for Delta.
In Flight Experience
We purposely designed the screens as floating images, because we predicted in ten years people would access their phones and computers through mixed reality devices.
For passive travelers who like to spend time to themselves we created a concept, which would eliminate the need for a personal device to do this onboard.
Delta would gain access to travelers Netflix, Spotify, and any other subscriptions before boarding the flight. The content would be stored in a cloud and could be accessed by them on the flight through a mixed reality device.
The content stored in the cloud could be shared between all passengers, which would create a unique selection of content for every flight and would eliminate the need to purchase it.
For a more active traveler we wanted to make their time more “meaningful” with mixed reality tutorials provided either by partnering brands or local businesses based on the destination of the flight.
We want to provide an experience for travelers to learn something new through lessons that are constructed with AI technology. We call these lessons “how to’s” and would provide an opportunity for passengers to learn things like cooking or playing a musical instrument.
The technology will be able to pick up on any mistakes and formulate the lesson to match the users learning style.
The service offering map created for Delta Sky Share began with our core service, “to enhance the inflight experience.” Our enabling and enhancing services involved the physical inflight assets, technology, partnerships, and content from users. This tool helped us aim to build a community between passive and active travelers.
Delta Lite
Delta Lite is a service that allows you to travel with no luggage and 3D print your clothes and other travel amenities at your destination. Delta would partner with a third party to 3D print the clothes and have them delivered at their hotel. The clothes would then be picked up and brought to a recycling center where they could be repurposed for another traveler.
We found out that our travelers wanted to travel light, and if possible they wanted to carry no luggage. There is such an increased anxiety associated with bags in air travel, that our team decided to transform the way Delta handled luggage.
Our research to support this concept was based on certain socio-economic trends like circular economy and sharing economy.
Tech trends like 3D printing technology are creating an impact all around the globe. From plastics to textiles, it’s possible to 3D print so many materials now, think about the possibilities in 10 years and beyond.
