INDUSTRY:
AVIATION
EVENT:
UX FEST SLO
YEAR:
2025
EXPERIENCE:
RAPID PROTOTYPING, PRODUCT DESIGN
AeroPlan
about.
AeroPlan is a mobile travel application designed specifically for college students, addressing the time, cost, and convenience challenges of traveling home during academic breaks.
This project was created as part of a design-a-thon competition, with each team given only 24 hours to see the prompt, research, go through multiple fidelity and feedback stages, and create a case study presentation to pitch to UX industry professionals.
Our challenge:
"Create a mobile or web prototype that helps users plan and manage efficient travel experiences, offering personalized suggestions that optimize their trips for time, cost, and convenience. Please include one relevant integration of AI in your prototype."
challenge.
Research Takeaways (details above)
Flights are necessary
Change is needed
Cost is key
HMW Statement
How might we simplify trip planning for college students so that they can efficiently discover and book affordable flights that align with their academic schedule?
User Testing
User testing revealed major usability issues due to the initial rushed prototype. Font sizes were too small, color choices reduced clarity, and the calendar page was confusing. This early-on feedback proved essential to a usable app later on.
We simplified user flows to reduce clicks, improved accessibility through clearer typography and larger tap targets, and adjusted colors to enhance readability. A second round of user testing showed us just how much our changes made a difference; users responded positively to the clarified navigation and said the experience felt much more intuitive and cohesive.
results.
Through research and iterative testing, AeroPlan evolved into a student-focused travel app that streamlines planning while prioritizing cost and convenience. The app allows students to book flights with transparency by showing travel advisories, personalized calendar-linked schedules, and layover filters in one place.
The competition task required an AI integration, and it was important to us that it ended up being a relevant, useful feature rather than just a gimmick. Our AI integration was Aero, a chatbot who automatically pulls academic schedules from university sites to suggest flights that align with each students' academic breaks.
The compressed timeline of this design-a-thon emphasized the essentials of the design process: focus on research, prioritize clarity in usability, and communicate ideas visually to non-designers. This experience really reinforced the importance of presenting a clear, compelling concept to stakeholders, who in this case were the competition judges, but could also be clients, managers, or adjacent teams in a future experiences.
prototype.
Although the prototype is not fully clickable due to time constraints, it successfully showcased our design strategy and improvements in research methodologies throughout the contest duration to the judges.
The project, along with its positive feedback from those we presented it to, validated our overall approach and highlighted the importance of well-conducted research in design, even under tight deadlines.
