Enhancing Airport Travel Experience for Individuals with Type 1 Diabetes

Opps! Work in progress

Project Overview

For individuals with Type 1 diabetes, traveling can be an overwhelming experience, particularly due to the incompatibility between airport scanners and vital medical equipment. Navigating airport security becomes a stressful process, as there is often uncertainty about whether lifesaving devices will be damaged by standard screening methods. This added layer of concern makes an already challenging journey even more difficult for diabetic travelers.

Despite alternative screening methods being available, the process is not always clear, leaving passengers unsure of what to expect. The lack of consistency and clear communication creates unnecessary stress and confusion, revealing a critical gap in ensuring a safe and smooth travel experience for people with specific medical needs.

Problem

My Role

Service Design, Systems Thinking

Timeline

5 Weeks

Charmarlina Brazile

Ankit Chaturvedi

Pheobe Gao

Sree Sevithaa

Tina Lee

Daniel Guth

Team Members

Figma (Wireframing, Prototyping, Branding)

FigJam (Brainstorming, User Flows, Affinity Mapping)

Miro (User Research, Persona Development)

Tools

USER RESEARCH

Understanding Our Audience

Our research centered on understanding the experiences, needs, and challenges faced by people with Type 1 diabetes during air travel. Through secondary research, we discovered that diabetic travelers often face heightened stress due to the incompatibility between airport security processes and their medical equipment. This can lead to uncertainty and discomfort, particularly around lifesaving devices.

To gain deeper insights, we conducted interviews with 6 direct users, 3 subject experts from consulting and surveys with 94 participants with diabetic travelers, aiming to explore their specific pain points, concerns, and expectations when navigating airport security.

Our goal was to uncover the core challenges they face and identify opportunities for creating a smoother, safer travel experience tailored to their needs.

Research Wall

A digital research wall was our central tool, where we aggregated data from our interviews, augmented it with secondary research and customer surveys, thereby painting a holistic picture of the challenges faced by travelers with Type 1 diabetes. Our collaborative efforts with frequent travelers from this community led to the discovery of six crucial insights:

Emerging themes

Navigating the airport security process with T1D involves multiple touchpoints and stakeholders, so we created an ecosystem map to capture the entire network of interactions.