Navigating Better UX: Rethinking YVR’s Information Kiosks

In tackling the usability and accessibility challenges of YVR airport's kiosk system, I spearheaded a redesign project focused on simplifying the user interface and enhancing navigational clarity.

This involved a thorough analysis of global best practices, collaborative design efforts with a multidisciplinary team, and the introduction of inclusive, multilingual features.

The successful redesign not only improved user interaction and aligned with YVR's long-term vision but also set a foundation for future mobile platform integration, marking a significant step in elevating the overall traveler experience at the airport.

As you stroll through security into the departure terminal at Vancouver Airport (YVR), a touchscreen kiosk stands ready to provide travellers with gate details, dining options, and shopping locations. However, if you needed further assistance, a hiccup arises—there's no intuitive avenue for reaching out for help.

The mission was clear cut across three main avenues: revamp the terminal kiosk, introduce a new kiosk at the curbside entrance of the Arrival/Departure section, and set up a kiosk monitoring dashboard for real-time status insights.

My role was broad—from sketching initial concepts, crafting wireframes, to delivering the finished art ready for implementation—all with a keen focus on user accessibility and a unified user experience across these components.

However, the task was as complex as it was clear. Introducing a customer support feature into the existing terminal kiosk, while ensuring the new curbside kiosk and the monitoring dashboard both aligned with the established user interaction flow, posed a significant challenge. Each component needed to stand alone in functionality, yet integrate seamlessly into the existing user experience, all within the constraints of time and budget.

The first step on this journey was immersing myself in the user experience findings gathered by the diligent team at Spatial Research & Design. Their intercept study with 30 participants revealed key user behaviour insights and ergonomic considerations around the kiosk. Though the kiosk was strategically placed and catered to various traveler needs, it wasn’t without its share of usability hurdles. The most pronounced challenges were tied to locating lounges and identifying nearby food and drink options. The map and search functionality, in particular, had room for improvement. To deepen my understanding, I dug into a comparative analysis of airport information kiosks globally, taking in the industry’s best practices.

The technological framework of the kiosk, built on Visual Studios using Xamarin tools and the Fluent UI library, had its set of constraints. A significant one was the third-party 3D map integration, managed by an outsourced entity. This arrangement limited the scope of modifications we could implement on the map functionality.

The goal was to focus on incremental enhancements to uplift the user experience, especially given the recent updates to the kiosk system. With a four-month timeline and a budget reserved for critical upgrades, it meant a focused approach to make significant improvements within these parameters.

The ambition to extend the kiosk utility to the curbside entrance was a fresh challenge. This new kiosk interface needed to cater to the unique needs of travellers either arriving or departing, while maintaining a cohesive user experience.

Creating a simple yet effective kiosk-monitoring dashboard for real-time status insights was a secondary goal of the project. It was crucial to develop a system that could provide YVR staff with a clear overview of kiosk statuses, ensuring optimal functionality and timely troubleshooting.

With insights from the Spatial Research & Design study, it was evident that simplifying the journey to top use cases was imperative. The data pointed towards a need for a more intuitive user flow and a restructured information hierarchy, to ensure travellers could effortlessly navigate to common destinations like lounges. This revelation set the stage for a thoughtful re-evaluation and redesign, aimed at minimizing navigational complexity and aligning the kiosk's functionality with the real-world needs of travellers.

The information kiosk at YVR was more than a digital directory; it was a self-service asset designed to enhance traveler satisfaction. However, several realities cast a shadow over its effectiveness:

💼 User Engagement: Primarily aiding in wayfinding, yet underutilized features like parking info pointed to a misalignment in feature prominence.

🌎 Competitive Edge: YVR's kiosk lagged in user-centric design compared to its global counterparts, with notable gaps in multilingual support and accessibility.

💰 Budget Limitations: With a fixed annual budget, the focus was on incremental improvements to balance user experience enhancements with financial constraints.

🚧 Accessibility Challenges: Attempts to cater to a diverse user base fell short due to confusing keypad commands and inconsistent multilingual support.

These factors highlighted the need for a design approach that balanced user needs, competitive positioning, and budget constraints, while also laying a foundation for future scalability and inclusivity.

We aimed for simplicity and accessibility in redesigning YVR’s kiosks. For the terminal kiosk, we focused on intuitive navigation to quickly guide travellers, minimizing confusion and streamlining their airport experience. The curbside kiosk was crafted to offer immediate, clear directions right from arrival, despite the hurdle of integrating a third-party map. By studying top-notch kiosk designs worldwide, we honed a user-friendly interface that transcended language and age barriers. Simultaneously, we developed a monitoring dashboard for YVR staff to keep a pulse on kiosk performance, ensuring smooth operations. This strategy was a stepping stone, leading us toward a cohesive climax where ease of use and operational efficiency would coalesce.

I simplified the main menu to highlight frequent destinations like lounges, moving less relevant options like Parking under a broader 'Facilities' category. This strategic reorganization was visually showcased by relocating the Lounge option to the navbar for immediate visibility and enhancing the prominence of the Customer Care button.

In the old interface, Lounge was hidden under facilities, while Parking and Transportation was visible. Customer support button was not obvious.

In the redesign, I moved Lounge into the navbar for visibility since it was a common destination. Customer Care was also brought to the top and made more clear.

To resolve the confusion of full-screen flight information, we transitioned it to a popup format. This change provided users with better context and an intuitive way to return to the main menu.

Flight information opens up as a full screen in the old interface. When the next user piggyback off of this session, they didn’t know how to return to the main menu.

In the redesign, I changed the modality of this section from a screen to a popup to give users more context.

I introduced the ability to make calls directly from the kiosk. This necessitated a redesign of the Customer Support section, simplifying the displayed information and aligning its presentation with other pop-up functions for consistency.

Addressing the lack of a cohesive design system, I used the YVR brand guidelines to create a simple, consistent style guide, enhancing visual coherence across the interface.

Although no wheelchair users were observed during the usability study, we adhered to YVR’s policy of inclusivity. The interface was tailored for easy navigation via binary direction keypads, considering the limitations in flexibility this imposes.

The keypad operates by binary directions: Up/Down and Back/Next, with a Circle to confirm. This was a big consideration for the selected state as it limited flexibility.

To ensure an inclusive experience, I paired on-screen options with audio dialogues to assist users with hearing impairments.

Acknowledging YVR’s diverse international audience, we meticulously tested the UI in English, French, and Chinese. This involved careful consideration of text lengths and label sizes to ensure seamless localization.

Post-launch feedback on the redesigned kiosks at Vancouver Airport highlighted several key improvements and areas for ongoing development:

Enhanced Clarity: The redesign successfully made icons and categories more intuitive, simplifying navigation for users.

Improved Language and Accessibility: Updates to language and interface elements, like clear button states and audio dialogue, made the kiosks more user-friendly, especially for travellers with hearing impairments.

Unresolved Issues: Despite improvements, users suggested further enhancements in map visibility, flight information management, and integrating ratings into views.

Overall, the redesign addressed major user experience challenges, making the kiosks more accessible and easier to use. It also underscored the need for continual refinement based on user feedback, highlighting the dynamic nature of design in responding to user needs.

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This project was a successful endeavour in addressing critical issues within time and budget constraints. However, there's room for improvement, especially in refining the map feature.

One of the most challenging and enlightening aspects of this project was balancing the needs of a diverse, multilingual user base across two different kiosk devices. The intersection of accessibility use cases with general ones presented unique challenges. Successfully navigating this involved integrating elements from both into a cohesive, tailored experience for distinct personas. This process was a profound learning curve, enhancing my skills in inclusive, multilingual design.

The feedback from YVR and my team was overwhelmingly positive, affirming the effectiveness of the redesign. However, looking back, there are areas I'd approach differently. A key insight is the potential benefit of streamlining the kiosk's functionalities. Focusing on 3-5 core use cases, rather than 10-20, could have aligned better with YVR's long-term vision, enhancing cost-effectiveness and user experience. Additionally, the 3D interactive map, a crucial yet untouched component in my redesign, stands out as an area needing significant improvement. This element, if redesigned, could centralize user interactions, offering a more intuitive and efficient experience.

Given the opportunity to revisit this project, I would advocate for a more extensive redesign, focusing on the map as the main interaction point. This approach, while requiring a broader scope and stakeholder buy-in, promises a more user-friendly design with lower maintenance costs in the long term.

This project highlighted the balance between visionary design and practical constraints, teaching me the value of streamlined functionality and comprehensive user experience design. These insights will be invaluable in my future work, shaping my approach to product design in complex, user-centred environments.