Flying with kids is one of the single biggest stresses or fears of traveling parents. Imagine having a screaming baby strapped to a stroller with numerous bags hanging off the sides and running to catch a flight with everything and everyone in tow. Imagine being the recipient of the pitying and embarrassing stares from other travelers who all hope you are not on their flight. At some point or another, we are all guilty of having these unpleasant thoughts as we see families struggling with their loud, noisy children. It is a scenario that no one wants to see or even be in, but this is the reality for family travelers. Even experienced business and leisure travelers fear flying with their children and the potential embarrassment they may cause. Despite these pervasive fears and concerns, their special needs remain largely neglected in the air travel category.

RKS saw an opportunity to address these unmet needs of family travelers and launched project cAir as a derivative outcome from a workshop conducted by RKS at the Interaction Design Conference (IXDA ’10). Our goal was to conceptualize a service design venture that would inspire the air travel industry to change how services are delivered to traveling families. We assembled a team of designers, researchers, and strategists to tackle this challenge and employed RKS’ tools and expertise to rethink the flying experience.

RKS wanted to better understand the challenges and pressures facing family travelers and become immersed into their lives. By interviewing parents and shadowing passengers as well as researching blogs, articles, and social media sites, a holistic perspective of family travel was uncovered. The consumer’s journey was not isolated to the airport terminal and onboard experiences, but began with the very decision to have a family trip. It spans from pre-flight preparations, airport check-in, boarding, in-flight experiences, luggage retrieval to arrival at the ultimate destination. This process is cyclical as passengers take connecting flights and return home from their trip.

Leveraging this knowledge, personas were developed to promote contextual understanding and empathetic connection with the end-user. Psycho Aesthetics® maps were created to define opportunity zones for competitive differentiation from existing airlines. Relevant service touchpoints were identified taking into consideration all aspects of the user’s experience before, during, and after flying. The team determined the key attractors for designing and optimizing customer engagement strategies.

cAir is envisioned to provide an enjoyable flying experience for everyone by ensuring that the often neglected needs of parents and children are met. To this end, the team focused on the in-flight experience where family travelers spend a bulk of their time and delved deeper into the user’s frustrations and painpoints in this area.

We identified six main categories of on-board flight experience touchpoints where families encountered the most challenges and service experience fell short.

Entertainment – Children easily get bored without distractions or an outlet for them to spend their energy.

Ambiance – Crying babies can be embarrassing and disturbing to both parents and other travelers. There is no privacy to calm children, ensure a sound naptime, or breastfeed an infant.

Food – The food lacks nutritional information and allergen-free choices while appearing unfamiliar to kids. No convenient food storage options are available on hand.

Seats – Standard seating and arrangement do not accommodate flexibility needed by children and families, making restless children more frustrated.

Lavatory – Restrooms are too small to comfortably hold parent and child while changing tables are difficult to use, often forcing parents to leave the restroom doors open.

Storage – Luggage space and accessibility throughout the flight is limited.

These insights and further brainstorming generated a service design blueprint outlining the key touchpoints, player involvement, enablers, ideal user benefits and service improvements. The team conceptualized and built service enhancements based on the six defined areas of on-board flight experience touchpoints. Each concept was fleshed out and storyboarded to capture comprehensive user perspectives and usage scenarios.

Rent-A-Toy is a toy rental service concept focused on providing hassle-free entertainment to children during the flight. The toy is returned at the end of the trip or upon arrival.

Sound Curtains allow instant privacy at the passenger’s seat, enabling parents to soothe or nurse a crying infant away from view.

Nutrient cAir Service provides a variety of familiar, nutritious, allergen-free food choices for kids as well as USB bottle warmers and personal fridge within reach.

Configurable Seats can adjust to accommodate children of all sizes while aisle partitions create a mini-play zone for toddlers and small kids.

Diaper Friendly Lavatories are large enough to fit parent and multiple children for easy diaper change. A special sink is sized for a child’s height and a waiting area outside the restroom lets kids play till their turn.

Layered Storage offers easy-to-reach storage compartments overhead and underneath the seat that is accessible throughout the flight.

RKS wanted to impart consistent and seamless experiences through cAir and thereby created a style guide to ensure prototypes and communications adhere to the brand identity and visual guidelines. Additional aspects of the cAir program were designed and manifested that address user touchpoints to provide a comprehensive experience.

• cAiravan is a fast, friendly shuttle service that provides child-safe seating, vehicle infotainment, easy stroller and luggage entry and storage, and transport to the destination.

• Quick and easy check-in kiosks for cAir passengers including a separate screen for children.

• cAir lounge with family waiting areas equipped to entertain children and larger restrooms to accommodate multiple family members.

• cAir signage that is recognizable by kids and adults.

• Boarding passes with clear information hierarchy.

• Single leaflet boarding passes with tear away souvenir of perforated plane.

• Digital product extensions beyond barcode scanning of the boarding pass from a smartphone. From the cAir app home screen, viewers can navigate to airport wayfinding, games, on-board amenities with related activities, and destination fun fact pages.

• Interactive screens at every passenger seat provide a personal experience for every traveler, young or old.

Together these strategies and manifestations create the total cAir experience culture focused on relaxing, entertaining, and nurturing. In summary, a family embarking on their first airplane trip benefit s from these cAir experiences:

1. Quick and easy way to check-in for the cAir flight, including a separate screen for children.

2. Children can keep busy through security lines with the cAir game app.

3. Family waiting areas equipped to entertain children. These also include family restrooms.

4. Boarding card and wayfinding app help passengers get where they need to go.

5. Services for engaging and entertaining the children.

6. Making the cabin space personal and inviting, including keeping the noise levels down.

7. Parents can choose the types of meals that fit their family lifestyle.

8. Customizable seating for passenger preference as well as smaller safer seating size for children.

9. Restroom visits are easy and care-free because they provide family amenities such as diaper changing stations and varying sink heights, not to mention more room.

10. Storage that is easy to reach during flight and considers larger belongings that may be carried by parents with little ones.

11. Fast friendly shuttle service to their destination.

12. Fun and informative games to help supplement a great vacation.

13. cAir representatives who specialize in child care needs and family services.

RKS was motivated by the real needs of parents traveling with their children who oftentimes feel marginalized by their air travel experience. Project cAir was designed to inspire the travel industry and bring attention to this commonly neglected group of travelers. Our vision is to create a pleasant and hassle-free air travel experience that would enable the “moment of truth” for consumers and generate viral demand and advocacy. Parents will no longer feel embarrassed by what their kids may do and or be treated as second class citizens.

Relax knowing that cAir will take care of your every need. You and your family will be entertained the entire trip. Take time to nurture your children just as you would at home…a flying experience that extends beyond just flying.