A caring assistant for people with a fear of flying

The problem

At the moment, 4 billion people fly by plane every year, while about 30% of them are more or less afraid of flying — around 1,200,000,000 people.

About 20% of them experience serious psychological discomfort on board, 10% reach a state of panic, and 6% eventually refuse to fly at all.

Understanding users

I studied articles and benchmarked existing solutions aimed at combating aerophobia. I identified the main hypotheses and validated them with 13 people who are afraid of flying, plus 4 interviews with their relatives and 1 with a psychologist.

The final solution

People in such a tense moment don't need to be overloaded with information — they need to be distracted, to switch their attention. The solution is an anti-stress pack that takes care of a person before, during and after the flight.

Conclusions

This decision was about the love of the users, not about the economic benefits for the company. Next steps: more functionality for people without fear of flying, and support options for specific flight moments like turbulence.