User flow
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Code d'Azur, 2017

KLM's Pack Assistant is the assistant that'll help you pack for any trip, business or leisure, faraway or closeby, based on weather API's and your destination she'll tell you what essentials to pack.

Goal
To create a smart and playful assistant that will help you make sure you won't forget any essentials on your travel, and maybe even enjoy the process of packing along the way.

The process
In this project I worked close with one of the developers to understand what API's we could use, what we could ask the user to make this experience even richer (the location and time for accurate weather predictions, remind people of planning their vaccination in time when going to specific destinations).

Afterwards the copywriter helped the pack assistant understand what to say, and I thoroughly tested that. The text seemed funny at first, but when put to the test, it turned out that there were way too many jokes or witty sentences to make the pack assistant actually useful and we needed to apply a rule to keep it functional and enjoyable.

Challenges
Designing an interface with no interface was an interesting challenge. I twas imporant to make very clear how this would work, that the cognitive load wouldn't be to heavily used and that it stayed functional.

There were many edge cases that needed to be thought out, for example the moment in time that he user uses the app (a week before? An hour?), what if the user says something unclear or says something the assistant didn't know? What if the user doesn't say anything at all anymore (because while packing, they need to find something in another room?) All these edge cases needed a solve.

Also working with a male copywriter was challenging, out of embarrasment he e.g. took out female hygiene products of the list of packing essentials, while as a woman you know how essential these can be.

Takeaways
→ Test, test, test. It is important to actually hear what the user will here, since it's so difficult to take the experience solely from paper
→ Mindfully work out the edge cases, preferably with a developer at your side
→ Fight for your essentials, ladies!

Recognition

Silver Lovie Award - Social
Bronze Lovie Award - Apps & Mobile sites
People's vote Lovie Award - Apps & Mobile sites
Lovie Award shortlist - Apps & Mobile sites
Webby Awards Honoree - Connected Products & Wearables
Spinawards Silver - Innovation
Spinawards Gold - Artificial Intelligence