Soar is a mobile app designed to make flights more enjoyable. It asks passengers a series of questions to understand their preferences and flight duration, then generates a personalized flight plan tailored to their needs. The app features in-flight entertainment, destination-specific recommendations, guided stretches, and meditations, all accessible offline.
On flights, passengers often struggle to occupy their minds and stay comfortable while sitting for extended periods, leading to boredom, restlessness, and physical discomfort.
There's no single platform that curates a personalized in-flight experience combining entertainment, wellness, and destination discovery, forcing passengers to piece together their own solutions across multiple apps and services.
I conducted desk research to understand the landscape of in-flight entertainment and passenger pain points, supplemented by a survey to gather firsthand insights from frequent flyers about how they spend their time during flights, what frustrates them, and what would improve their experience.
Key findings revealed that most passengers rely on their own devices for entertainment, many experience physical discomfort from prolonged sitting but don't take action, and travelers often wish they knew more about their destination before landing.
Starting with insights from research, I moved into low-fidelity wireframes to map out the core user flows: onboarding, flight plan generation, entertainment browsing, wellness exercises, and destination exploration. As the concept solidified, I progressively increased fidelity, refining the visual design, interaction patterns, and content strategy.
I conducted user testing sessions to validate the design and identify friction points in the user flow. Feedback led to refinements in navigation, content hierarchy, and the overall personalization experience.
Personalized Flight Plan: Based on user preferences and flight duration, Soar generates a curated timeline of activities including movies, music, stretches, snacks, and games.
In-Flight Entertainment: Browse and watch destination-relevant content, popular movies, and TV shows, all tailored to the traveler's interests and available offline.
Destination Guide: Explore parks, food, attractions, and cultural highlights at your destination, with practical details like distance and ratings.
Wellness & Stretches: Guided breathing exercises, seated stretches, and meditations designed specifically for the constraints of an airplane seat.
Soar taught me the value of designing for constrained environments, both physically (airplane seats) and technically (offline access). The project reinforced how important it is to deeply understand user context before jumping into solutions, and how iterative testing can transform a good concept into a genuinely useful product.