When I thought about what someone might need during a change of plan, I kept coming back to the ordinary act of sending a text. A traveller might want someone at home to know their flight or where they are while they carry on making their own decisions. In Grounded I added a way to send flight and location information to family from the app.

Why a written update made sense

Howard and Sedgewick (2021) asked autistic adults about communication preferences in different situations. Texting and face-to-face conversation ranked highest for family communication in their sample. Participants also described benefits of writing such as time to think and structure what they wanted to say. In Navigating the Noise, one participant described texting their partner in a loud place. I read these accounts as reasons to give people a choice of communication, particularly when speaking or listening takes more effort. Howard and Sedgewick · Navigating the Noise

The design question is whether a traveller can quickly tell someone they trust where they are and which flight they are taking, while staying in charge of the update.

What the app needs to make clear

The message combines two pieces of information that serve different purposes. The flight tells family which journey to follow. The location tells them where the traveller was when they shared it. Before sharing, it should be clear what details will go into the message and who will receive it. At an airport, it is also worth checking how a location appears when the phone has a weak fix and whether the recipient understands how current it is.

Deciding what belongs in the message

I can imagine two different reasons for sharing an update. A family member may already know the flight and only need to know where the traveller is. They may also be following more than one flight or have an old gate number. I included both flight and location so the recipient has some context for the message. The exercise for me is to see how much information is enough. A map pin might mean something to the phone while still leaving the recipient unsure which terminal or part of the building it represents.

There is also a difference between choosing to send a point in time and expecting someone to be able to follow you afterwards. I would check what the traveller expects when they tap the share option and what the recipient believes the message tells them. That distinction matters in an airport, where a traveller may have moved by the time the message is read.

What I would test

I would ask someone to send an example update to a test contact during the gate-change walkthrough. I would look at whether they find the feature, recognise the details they are about to share and understand how to cancel. I would also ask the person receiving the message what they understood from it. This would show where either person has to interpret information the app could make clearer.