EXCLUSIVE: Gilmore Group shares detailed results of its latest research survey from a ‘Human Experience Design’ perspective

Gilmore Group has pub­lished details from its exten­sive research study, which focus­es on ‘Under­stand­ing Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty from a Human Expe­ri­ence Design Per­spec­tive’.

Ear­li­er this month, eVTOL Insights exclu­sive­ly shared find­ings from the New York-based com­pa­ny, which were enti­tled ‘Design­ing the Future of eVTOL: Address­ing Pas­sen­ger & Pilot Con­cerns and Enhanc­ing User Expe­ri­ence’. This was released fol­low­ing the Paris Air Show.

This lat­est study, which eVTOL Insights can also exclu­sive­ly reveal, is com­prised of three mass mar­ket sur­veys: ‘Tol­er­ance of Points of Fric­tion & Expec­ta­tions in eVTOL’, ‘Pub­lic Accep­tance of Flight Stan­dards and Avi­a­tion Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence’ and ‘Pub­lic Per­cep­tion & Accep­tance of eVTOL’.

These are aimed to gar­ner insights on the pop­u­la­tion of Amer­i­can res­i­dents who fly. One qual­i­ta­tive focus-group study was con­duct­ed with Pilots, called ‘Heli­copter & Fixed Wing Pilot’s Con­cerns Regard­ing eVTOL Avi­a­tion’. Sub­se­quent data analy­sis was con­duct­ed to assess key design and oper­a­tion fac­tors influ­enc­ing human per­cep­tion, accep­tance, and adop­tion of eVTOL air­craft.

The find­ings shed light on sig­nif­i­cant psy­cho­log­i­cal and phys­i­cal expe­ri­ence con­sid­er­a­tions asso­ci­at­ed with eVTOL avi­a­tion, pro­vid­ing valu­able insights for indus­try stake­hold­ers and pol­i­cy­mak­ers.

The results also con­tribute to the under­stand­ing of the human expe­ri­ence in this new fron­tier of air trav­el, ulti­mate­ly facil­i­tat­ing the devel­op­ment of user-cen­tered solu­tions and enhanc­ing the over­all safe­ty and usabil­i­ty of eVTOL air­craft.

By exam­in­ing user expec­ta­tions, user tol­er­ance lev­els, and user/public accep­tance, this research aims to help bridge the gap between OEM tech­nol­o­gy and oper­a­tions with the human user. Through bet­ter under­stand­ing what designs and oper­a­tions are con­sid­ered crit­i­cal, we can bet­ter imple­ment solu­tions while in the ear­li­er stages of eVTOL devel­op­ment, paving the way for suc­cess­ful inte­gra­tion of eVTOL air­craft into the future trans­porta­tion land­scape.

This research employed a mixed-meth­ods approach, com­bin­ing quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive data col­lec­tion tech­niques. The pri­ma­ry data col­lec­tion method involved the admin­is­tra­tion of three online sur­veys and focus-group to gath­er insights into the human per­cep­tion, con­cerns, tol­er­ance, and accep­tance of eVTOL avi­a­tion in the con­text of the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty sec­tor.

To analyse par­tic­i­pants’ respons­es, Gilmore Group utilised appro­pri­ate Lik­ert scales in the sur­veys to enable quan­ti­ta­tive analy­sis. The Lik­ert scales allowed par­tic­i­pants to rate their agree­ment or dis­agree­ment on spe­cif­ic state­ments and sce­nar­ios, rate their lev­el of tol­er­ance to points of fric­tion sce­nar­ios from extreme­ly unlike­ly to fly again with eVTOL to extreme­ly like­ly to fly again with eVTOL, rate the impor­tance of phys­i­cal fac­tors (e.g., leg room) and psy­cho­log­i­cal fac­tors (e.g., being famil­iar with the air­line brand) from not at all impor­tant to extreme­ly impor­tant, rate con­cerns of expe­ri­en­tial aspect sce­nar­ios from not at all con­cerned to extreme­ly con­cerned.

Con­clud­ing, the report says: ” As the eVTOL indus­try advances rapid­ly, it is imper­a­tive for design­ers and man­u­fac­tur­ers to heed these insights; both anthro­po­met­ric and psy­cho­log­i­cal human-fac­tor con­sid­er­a­tions must be incor­po­rat­ed into design and oper­a­tional pro­to­col.

“By work­ing with pilots and by address­ing pas­sen­ger con­cerns such as seat­ing ori­en­ta­tion, safe­ty sys­tems, bag­gage space and acces­si­bil­i­ty, the indus­try can cre­ate air­side and land­side expe­ri­ences that ensure com­fort and safe­ty. By embrac­ing holis­tic human-cen­tric design prin­ci­ples using a Human Expe­ri­ence Design approach, eVTOL air­craft will pave the way for a new era of effi­cient, inclu­sive, and enjoy­able air trans­porta­tion.”

To read the report in full, please click here. If you would like to get in touch with a mem­ber of the Gilmore Group team, you can send them a mes­sage via the con­tact form on the com­pa­ny’s web­site. Alter­na­tive­ly, you can email contact@gilmoregroup.com