Unified Multi-Modal Travel Interface for Booking and Status Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing travel management solutions fail to provide a unified and integrated user experience for booking and managing multi-modal transportation, requiring users to navigate multiple applications for different modes of transportation, leading to a complex and time-consuming process.
Innovation Solution
A unified travel management application that offers both booking and status management for multi-modal transportation services through a single interface, allowing users to input preferred arrival times and presenting itinerary options considering various factors, and transitioning from booking mode to status mode for real-time trip updates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple separate applications are used for different transportation modes, then each application can provide specialized functionality for that mode, but the user experience becomes complex and time-consuming due to navigating multiple applications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate transportation booking applications into a single unified application that handles air, train, bus, and car rentals through one interface. This merging eliminates the need for users to switch between multiple applications, directly resolving the contradiction by maintaining versatility across transportation modes while simplifying the user experience through a single integrated platform.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified application implements multi-functionality by enabling users to book and manage various types of transportation (flights, trains, buses, car rentals) within a single application. This universal approach allows the system to serve multiple transportation purposes without requiring separate specialized applications, thereby improving ease of operation while preserving adaptability across different travel needs.
2Ease of operation
If a unified application is created to handle multiple transportation modes, then ease of operation improves with a single interface, but device complexity increases due to integrating multiple booking systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs an intermediary approach by introducing a unified application layer that acts as a mediator between users and multiple underlying transportation booking systems. This intermediary layer provides a consistent single interface for users while handling the complexity of integrating different transportation providers' systems in the background, thus improving ease of operation without exposing device complexity to the user.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified application is segmented into distinct functional modules, each handling a specific transportation mode (air, train, bus, car rentals). This segmentation allows the system to manage complexity by organizing different transportation systems into separate, manageable components while presenting a unified interface to users, thereby balancing ease of operation with controlled device complexity.
3Device complexity
If separate applications are used for each transportation mode, then device complexity is reduced, but loss of time increases due to switching between applications for multi-modal trips
Solution Approach 1:
By merging multiple transportation booking functions into a single application, the system eliminates the time users would spend switching between separate applications for different transportation modes. The unified interface allows users to book and coordinate multi-modal trips (combining flights, trains, buses, and car rentals) within one application, directly reducing time loss while managing device complexity through integrated architecture.
4Productivity
If a unified booking system is implemented, then productivity improves by streamlining the booking process, but measurement precision decreases due to integrating multiple data sources from different vendors
Solution Approach 1:
The unified application serves as an intermediary that standardizes data collection and processing from multiple vendor sources. By implementing a consistent data interface layer, the system streamlines the booking process across different transportation modes (improving productivity) while maintaining measurement precision through standardized data validation and verification protocols that ensure accurate travel status information from diverse vendors.
Data Source
AI summary
User interfaces for booking and tracking of multi-modal itineraries are disclosed. In some aspects, a mobile device application provides a unified user interface for both booking and status tracking of a multi-modal transportation service including different travel modalities. For example, a first leg of the multi-modal transportation service may include ground-based travel (such as travel via bus, train, walking, or car), and a second leg including aerial travel. Status of the trip may be displayed in each of the legs of the multi-modal transportation service to maintain traveler awareness across the multiple modes of travel and provide for improved ease of use when compared to conventional solutions.