Designing Tomorrow Today: the Airbus iflyA380 App
An app dedicated to an aircraft? That might seem a bit niche, but when the aircraft in question is the iconic A380 by Airbus, I knew there was potential to create a totally new user experience for travelers. Our objective was to take a fresh approach to connect passengers with this pioneering plane in an immersive, emotional way.
Everything to do with your trip is wrapped up in one app
The app uses augmented reality so people can explore the cabin and virtually visit the upper deck, the cockpit, the lounges — wherever they want to go — even before boarding the plane. This is totally unique in an aircraft experience. It is also the only app that accompanies passengers from the beginning to the end of their journey — everything to do with the trip is wrapped up in one app. As a frequent traveler, I love that feature; it takes the pain out of juggling all of the different information you need.
The focus of all the functionality is a real aircraft
To design the app, we first tried to get into the passenger’s mind, looking for insights into what the best user experience would be before, during and after their flight. Airbus did a lot of brainstorming, and we also held many workshops to understand what travelers like and don’t like about the travel experience. In this discovery phase, I also worked to align the user experience with a visual design that extends the brand of the A380.
This involved exploring different design directions, creating a range of ‘moodboards’ with elements that include images, textures, colors, and layouts. By working in this way, Airbus and I were able to identify the most powerful direction that would define the style for the interface. Then we began designing every screen — each one in many variations. Only when we got final approval on the screens did we start to create interaction prototyping, i.e. all the transitions and animations in the application.
One of the challenges with the iflyA380 app was that the focus of all the functionality is a real aircraft, which meant building and incorporating 13 different 3D models to accurately showcase all of the A380 cabins. And then we refined everything over and over and over until we were happy that the result was perfect!
The iflyA380 app has won three MUX 2018 awards
The development process was surprisingly smooth for such an innovative app; it was created in six months, working with a global team. I’m based in Silicon Valley, the Airbus team I worked with is in France, and my team members are all around the world. But when you work with people who inspire you, it allows you to be the best in the world. Sometimes we will design something up to a hundred times to find the right solution; there isn’t really an ‘end’ to this process. But for me, it’s a dream job to transform ideas into physical objects in innovative ways. I love every second I spend designing, and feel passionate about every pixel I produce. But success is measured by how your work is received, so I am really proud that the iflyA380 app won three MUX 2018 (mobile user experience) awards. It was also an official honoree in the 2018 Webby Awards in the travel category and was featured as FWA app of the day. Beyond the awards, it makes me happy that the app has resonated so well with users. But stay tuned — we’re working on new features to make it even better!
Links and info:
Author: Gleb Kuznetsov — Product design director/product designer
Client: Airbus
Download app: iOS / Android
