Avinor

App for children travelling alone

This is the Bachelor’s thesis where we were fortunate enough to work with Avinor – Norway’s leading airport operator. I worked as an interaction designer for this project.

This assignment was completed during a 4-month period (from January to May 2016), where we created an application for Avinor. The application is an airport guide that aims to simplify flights for children traveling alone.

The group’s goal was to present a fully developed beta version.

The application is gamified, and children can win and collect medals through flight-related quizzes, by completing various steps in the application, or by flying to certain destinations.

User research and usability testing were carried out in several iterations during the length of the project with the target group, children aged 5-13.

The results of these tests led to several adjustments and modifications in the app. Examples include simplifying the menu system and removing a second menu from earlier versions as this proved to be confusing for the children.

One of the user tests took place at the Airport where we could interview children and their parents in a real life setting. We could gladly report that many of our early assumptions were on track.

A low fidelity prototype

Regarding the visual design, Avinor wanted the application’s style to be kept close to their already existing Felix & Fiona concept. However, this concept was limited in assets as well as the color palette, so an expansion had to be done to allow for more attractive graphics. This was done in agreement with Avinor.

This, as well as a limited selection of pre-made graphics, became the basis of the new visual design. Accordingly, new graphics were made to create medals, menus and buttons.

Above are images of the final app (when my design skills were more limited).

The Bachelor’s thesis proved important in showing me and the team what a real life project is like. The importance of all of our roles (game designer, developer and interaction designer) was made apparent, and so was working as a team.