This project shows Nouro Airways guests the future of luxury air travel through its promotional website. The site highlights a technologically advanced flight experience with an interactive cabin tour and media prototype that mimics the immersive pods onboard.
Travel is often thought of as moving from Point A to Point B with most of the excitement focussed on the end destination. Nouro Airways seeks to reinvent air travel by making the in-flight experience the destination itself and harken back to the Golden Age when flying was seen as a glamorous affair. This project aims to create a travel experience that intersects opulence of the past with technology of the future.
Research was focussed on air travel looking back 100 years and forward 100 years to learn from past experiences and draw from future innovations. Primary and secondary sources provided breadth and individuality during the research process. Historical events, inventions, cultural shifts, and the design team’s first-hand experiences were plotted on a map with connecting lines to indicate themes.
From this activity, a number of significant insights were drawn including:
1) People experience cities differently. Even though team members visited the same cities at the same points in time, they all had unique experiences.
2) Connecting people and their experiences through air travel has a negative environmental impact. This has led to innovations in sustainable practices with emphasis on a cleaner future.
3) Ideas once thought of as science-fiction are becoming a reality. Inventions like flying cars, travelling faster than the speed of sound, and using alternative fuel sources are being developed.
Using insights from the research phase, the team started developing a luxury airline that uses sustainable practices and modern technology while revelling in the richness of past eras. This project is set in the year 2035 and assumes that hydrogen fuel will be adopted by all major airlines, making flying more accessible and faster. The vision was to set this airline apart by integrating VR technology and providing an experience that goes beyond just moving from Point A to Point B.
The team planned on reducing negative side effects experienced during long-haul flights such as jet lag, back pain, and deep vein thrombosis. The project revolved around a flight from New York City to Sydney where the cabin space would be optimized for comfort and movement while VR headsets at each seat allowed guests to view immersive media.
Research was done on the psychology of falling asleep and how to influence this with activities such as guided meditation and visual dreamscapes to induce relaxation. The immersive experiences were designed to encouraged guests to stay asleep and reduce the negative effects of travelling across timezones.
Limitations for this version included questioning the efficacy of VR experiences affecting deep sleep and the logistics and safety of using VR headsets for long periods.
The team moved towards a more holistic approach to the airline by designing the entire in-flight experience. Every detail was accounted for, from the look and feel of the airplane cabin, curated gourmet menus, luxury care kits for guests, and developing the immersive media experiences.
The cabin was inspired by the Art Deco movement borrowing its bold geometric forms and use of rich materials. The front part of the plane housed a seating area with a windowed ceiling to bring the outside world in and reduce the stuffy feeling often with flying. The back of the plane, separated with sliding doors, reveals a bar and lounge area for guests to socialize.
Personas were developed to provide realistic representations of the project’s clientele. The users were kept gender and racially neutral to design an experience for a wider and more inclusive audience.
The personas were placed in a journey map to provide context and better understand user pathways onboard. The map captures reactions during different touchpoints both temporally and spatially through the cabin and allowed the design team to identify opportunities to improve the project direction.
Instead of traditional seats, guests sit and sleep in individual pods lined with LED-screens that play immersive media experiences. This addressed the concerns of using VR headsets for long periods while still providing an engaging and unique form of in-flight entertainment. The LED dome is fully retractable should guests wish to rejoin the social cabin atmosphere.
The pods take VR technology beyond the headset and create a fully encompassing environment specific to each passenger. Touchscreens inside of the pod allow users to select from a range of experiences including tranquil meditation and adventure videos which fully immerse the guests during the flight.
A team brainstorming activity was done halfway through the project to guide the conceptual direction and identify further areas of opportunity.
Insights from this activity included:
1) Think beyond the pod and create a community through shared guest experiences
2) Incorporate more cultural diversity to reflect the project’s target audience
3) Create a bridge between two cities by making the in-flight experience the destination itself
Based on this, changes were made to refine the project’s vision. The flightpath was adjusted to New York City to Singapore City to highlight more cultural diversity. This was integrated in the onboard experience by partnering with local chefs from the destination to create exclusive menus and including local crafts in the care kits. This helps guests get acquainted with their final destination while showcasing local businesses and culture.
Additionally, the immersive LED-screens were extended to the bar and lounge area to facilitate community building. This allows guests to have a shared immersive experience where they can interact and connect with each other. This will enrich and strengthen the idea that the destination is Nouro Airways itself.
The name Nouro Airways is a portmanteau of the French “Nouvelle Royauté” which translates to “New Royalty” along with a play on “neuro” referring to how the immersive experiences target guests’ brains and sleep habits.
Branding
The branding for Nouro Airways was inspired by the opulence and detail of the Art Deco movement through a modern lens. The visual system was developed with bold typography, rich colour palette, and logo reminiscent of past luxury airlines.
3D Model
The design team sculpted every detail of the interior to create a virtual airplane tour. This allows guests to see all Nouro Airways has to offer. From the immersive pods, luxury care kits, windowed ceiling, increased space to move around the cabin, and communal bar and lounge area.
The 3D model was made with Autodesk Maya and textured with the Arnold rendering engine and Substance Painter. This gave objects a realistic appearance and allowed for more control of each material layer.
Deep colours and lush textures are complimented by ambient light to bring Nouro’s vision to life. The Art Deco influence was incorporated throughout the cabin’s textiles, materials, and furniture design.
Animation through the airplane cabin was created using keyframes and Playblast feature in Maya to preview the virtual tour. Tests were done using Adobe After Effects to determine the optimal frame rate and video length. Once these details were finalized, the scene was rendered and compiled into a video using After Effects and Adobe Media Encoder.
During the process, the design team had concerns about rendering times and pursued a contingency plan for the 3D model with Three.js code found here. This allowed guests to still view all the cabin details and gave them more control to rotate and zoom in on specific areas of the model.
The 3D model video tour was embedded into a promotional website found here which provides more information about flying with Nouro Airways. The team integrated custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with existing Codepen projects to create the final website using Wix Website Builder, GitHub Pages, and VS Code.
The website provides details about the onboard experience, scroll-through tour of the 3D model which highlights key areas of the cabin, and ability to view the immersive experiences offered in the flight pods. The interactive tour allows guests to control the 3D model video with their scroll speed and decide when to read the information, hide the pop-ups by double clicking the gold circles, and continue through the rest of the cabin.
The website also has pages showcasing the design team members and case study for this project.
During production, regular testing was done to catch issues early and often. Once known, coding changes were made to improve the final deliverable.
The team tested the website across various browsers and devices to ensure consistency for all visitors. Formal usability testing was completed with 5 users and found that:
1) 0/5 users could minimize the information pop-ups during the scroll-through tour
2) 1/5 users could return to the main immersive experience menu when viewing a specific experience
3) 2/5 users requested to decrease the amount of copy on the pop-up cards
This resulted in an added explanation for how to minimize pop-ups during the scroll-through tour and changes to the immersive experience UI. This improved the intuitiveness and overall UX for the Nouro Airways website.
This project was created completely remote due to pandemic restrictions. If the design team had the opportunity to collaborate and develop Nouro Airways in-person, their vision was to build a physical prototype of the immersive flight pods.
They had plans on building the chair and dome to provide guests with a physical experience mirroring what to expect onboard. The immersive experience would be projection mapped onto the dome screens and connected to an Xbox Kinect sensor. Guests would navigate the experience with their hand movements to simulate the idea of a touchscreen within the pod.
Although this physical prototype was not made possible, the design team was still able to produce a deliverable highlighting all the Nouro Airways has to offer and provide guests with a small glimpse into the future of air travel.
