Passenger In-Flight Wi-Fi Usage Foundational Research
@Viasat
Telecom | Strategy | B2C portal
My Role: UX Researcher
Stakeholders: product manager, UX designer
Methods: Unmoderated User interviews, Surveys, Personas
Tools: Dscout, Miro, Qualtrics, RStudio
Timeframe: 3 months
Impact 🧭:
Influenced inflight Wi-Fi tiered pricing strategy in H1 2024
Built foundational user personas in research repository for future product reference
Context 🗺️
Inflight Wi-Fi Portal Products
Product decision-makers want to understand the target users’ in-flight Wi-Fi usage preferences to improve product strategy
Research Objectives 📍
Behavioral: To gain a more accurate view of what passengers do during flights, how they use their personal devices, and how connectivity plays a role.
Attitudinal: To explore users’ needs, fears, motivations, and/or pain points regarding in-flight Wi-Fi.
Methods 🛠️
Sampling 𝍱
User Interview (n=12)
5-question unmoderated interviews on Dscout
User Survey (n=500)
12-question surveys on Qualtrics
Of those who fly recently and frequently, use personal electronic devices during most of their flight, and has purchased in-flight Wi-Fi before.
e.g sampling for user interview
User Interviews 🎙️
For In-flight Wi-Fi usage, work use passengers have a different mental model and behavioral patterns from personal use passengers.
“Frequently I fly with the intention to create a presentation that I would be sharing upon arrival. So having the three to four hours of productive work time is really important to me…being able to actually collaborate on a presentation and being able to access it.”
— John, uses wi-fi for work reasons
““I will often use in-flight Wi-Fi just for casually chatting with friends or sending message to family members. It's a good time where I could do it casually if the Wi-Fi isn't as good.”
— Tiffany, uses wi-fi for personal reasons
User Personas 👤
During a connected flight, passenger mindset follows a
2 (work vs. personal use) x2 (focused vs. engaged) framework
Survey Design & Analysis 📃
Passengers are mostly frustrated while doing business-related activities during a flight because of unreliable or slow connectivity (54%), losing connections with colleagues or clients during flight (40%), and being unable to browse the internet (34.5%).
Passengers are mostly frustrated while doing personal-related activities during a flight because of unreliable or slow connectivity (45%), unable to stream video content (30%), and unable to browse on the internet (26.5%).
Insights & Recommendations ✨
Key Insights:
When using in-flight Wi-Fi, work use passengers treat flight as an extension of their workplace. They are more likely to purchase in-flight Wi-Fi to support their complex working activities compared to personal use passengers.
Recommendations:
Consider implementing a tiered in-flight Wi-Fi packages based on use cases rather than hours to align user needs with business goals.
Example Packages:
Work Use:
Personal Use:
Learnings 📝
Cross-functional collaboration: Involve my stakeholders in the earlier research planning process can build alignment more quickly and easily
Recommendation tips: Align users needs with business goals and technical feasibility