SkyZen: Designing a Mobile Assistant for Anxious Flyers

Developing a conceptual mobile assistant to alleviate passenger anxiety through transparent flight data.

Role

UX/UI Designer

Industry

Travel / Consumer Mobile

Duration

72 Hours

l. The Challenge

Following a series of aviation headlines in 2024, public confidence in flying dipped. While air travel remains statistically safe, the psychological reality for passengers is often one of powerlessness and anxiety.

The Goal: Move beyond simple flight tracking to create a digital "safety blanket" that empowers passengers with data-driven transparency and emotional grounding.

II. Identifying the Real Pain Points

Flight anxiety isn’t one problem. It’s a bundle of moments where uncertainty spikes:

Before takeoff: “What’s going to happen?” “Am I prepared?”
During turbulence: “Is this dangerous?” “How long will this last?”
After landing: “Where do I go?” “What’s next?”

We explored two directions:

Direct communication with cabin crew
Personal empowerment through clear data + grounding tools

We chose (2) because psychological safety often comes from internalizing information—without relying on a busy third party.

III. A Phase-Based UI Approach

SkyZen adapts to the phase of travel, so users see the right information at the right time:

Pre-flight: flight details, checklist, destination weather
In-flight: live turbulence + weather context, “Calm Mode,” AI chatbot
Arrival: baggage + connection info

Cloudy (AI chatbot) was designed as a low-pressure way for users to ask “is this normal?” and get reassurance in plain language.

l. The Challenge

The Goal: Move beyond simple flight tracking to create a digital "safety blanket" that empowers passengers with data-driven transparency and emotional grounding.

II. Identifying the Real Pain Points

Flight anxiety isn’t one problem. It’s a bundle of moments where uncertainty spikes:

Before takeoff: “What’s going to happen?” “Am I prepared?”
During turbulence: “Is this dangerous?” “How long will this last?”
After landing: “Where do I go?” “What’s next?”

We explored two directions:

Direct communication with cabin crew
Personal empowerment through clear data + grounding tools

We chose (2) because psychological safety often comes from internalizing information—without relying on a busy third party.

III. A Phase-Based UI Approach

SkyZen adapts to the phase of travel, so users see the right information at the right time:

Pre-flight: flight details, checklist, destination weather
In-flight: live turbulence + weather context, “Calm Mode,” AI chatbot
Arrival: baggage + connection info

Cloudy (AI chatbot) was designed as a low-pressure way for users to ask “is this normal?” and get reassurance in plain language.

IV. Tradeoffs

With a limited build window, we treated scope like a design constraint. Instead of trying to cover every possible scenario, we narrowed to the moments that most impact passenger confidence.

Prioritized the core emotional arc: “What’s happening?” “Is this normal?” “What can I do right now?”
Designed Calm Mode as a lightweight, low-friction reset that doesn’t compete with attention during a flight
Kept the experience cohesive by shipping fewer features with stronger clarity and polish

V. Reflections

In two days, we delivered a cohesive set of screens and flows: onboarding, add/book flight, phase-based dashboards, forecast details, chatbot interactions, and notifications.

What I learned: Quality over quantity! A smaller set of well-designed features beats an overloaded products. It was also my first time designing closely with other designers, and I got much better at splitting work, aligning interaction patterns, and keeping the UI consistent across multiple hands.

V. Reflections

In two days, we delivered a cohesive set of screens and flows: onboarding, add/book flight, phase-based dashboards, forecast details, chatbot interactions, and notifications.