The journey and gate screens are about working out what to do next. I also wanted there to be room for someone who chooses to pause. I added voice guidance for breathing and a short sensory grounding exercise. The grounding prompt asks the traveller to notice one thing they can see, one thing they can hear and one thing they can feel.

Two different ways to follow an exercise

The breathing exercise uses a voice to guide the sequence. The voice gives someone a way to follow along without having to keep looking down at the phone. The NHS describes a gentle breathing exercise that can be done sitting or standing, which offers a reference for a prompt someone could choose while waiting. The sensory exercise directs attention to the immediate surroundings. The WHO grounding guide uses noticing what you can see, hear and touch as part of a wider exercise. Grounded’s short version is a design choice for this journey context. NHS breathing exercises · WHO grounding guide

I want someone to be able to choose a short exercise, leave it when they need to move and pick up their journey again.

Designing voice for an airport

A terminal can be loud, and a traveller may need to listen for an announcement. Spoken guidance can take some reading out of the exercise, but the pace, volume and choice to play it matter. I would check how easy it is to start and stop the voice, and whether someone can follow the exercise with the sound off. These are questions about the support exercises themselves. Spoken directions and the open-ear headset are separate parts of my design exploration.

Why I made the sensory prompt short

The sensory prompt gives the traveller three small things to notice. One prompt from each sense gives the exercise a short sequence to remember. That is the part I want to check in a setting where someone may only have a brief pause. The WHO’s longer grounding material gives me a reference for the approach. I would need to ask travellers whether the particular prompts make sense in a terminal and whether any of the senses are uncomfortable to focus on at that point.

The two exercises also ask different things of the traveller. One gives them a breathing sequence to follow. The other leaves the answer open to what is around them. In the next version I want to pay attention to the point where someone stops listening, decides they are ready to move and looks for their directions again.

What I would try next

I would give someone the choice of breathing, sensory grounding or continuing their journey. I would observe which option they choose, whether the prompts are easy to follow and how they get back to their route. That would help me understand when each exercise fits and when the traveller would prefer to keep moving.

Studio Practice draft, pp. 48, 52 and 57.