ANA tomo – All Nippon Airways · SUGAR project 2017/18

The project · from brief to prototype

What happened, step by step.

01

Challenge

All Nippon Airways, Japan's biggest airline, wants to respond to an ageing society and encourage active retirees to fly, including the retired business travellers who flew with it throughout their careers.

02

What the team learned

Retirees favour routines, and unfamiliar airports, delays and gate changes break them. Passengers gather data from many sources at many checkpoints, and they navigate alone until they meet ANA staff at the gate.

03

What they built

ANA tomo is a handheld companion that passengers pick up at check-in and return at boarding. It combines location with real-time flight data to give arrow-based directions to the gate, location-based notifications and sound alerts on flight changes.

04

Impact

For ANA, passengers carrying the device are easier to find if lost, which speeds up boarding. The team saw future versions covering the flight and the whole trip.

Full project text

The team’s original texts from the project page.

For elderly passengers, a new and friendly way to navigate through the airport process.

Challenge

ANA is Japan’s biggest airline. Having a large pool of businessmen customers, ANA readily seeks to adjust to Japan’s upcoming demographic circumstances: the aging society. Ultimately aiming at an inclusive travel experience which benefits all passengers, ANA would like to appeal to senior travelers. It has one more special motivation: cherishing the retired businessmen who accompanied ANA throughout their careers.

Solution

We designed ANA tomo, your best travel companion. ANA tomo is a portable connected object designed with the active retiree in mind. Encompassing one’s flight data and current location, it serves ANA elder passengers with live navigation to their boarding gate at the airport. ANA tomo also gives passengers relevant, informative cues, ensuring ANA is by its customers’ side throughout their journey. Personalized, accessible, and up-to-date, ANA tomo is a credible friend.

Impact

ANA tomo’s arrow-based interface introduces a new way to navigate indoors. Easily understood by all passengers, it allows them to enjoy their time at the airport while approaching their gate on their own phase. Passengers at the airport need to look for their personal, updated information in multiple scattered sources, under a pressuring time limit. This is especially difficult for elderly travelers, who often experience cognitive difficulties. With ANA, tomo’s personal airport-process timeline, and custom notifications, their personal, updated information is made easily accessible, and such stress is reduced.
For ANA, equipping passengers with location-based devices means that they can find them if in case they are lost, speeding up the boarding process. Currently, the device is being designed for the duration of one's stay in the airport, but future expansions can include the duration of the flight and even the duration of one's travel. ANA tomo can easily become the future air ticket.

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