I love when people take the time to redesign bad products and services. Not necessarily people who are hired to do that redesign, but rather people who have been so offput by a design or experience that they take up a small portion of their life to actually come up with a possible better approach. Gratis. Barton Smith got a lot of press for his re-envisioning of the Facebook UI after the last Facebook redesign was rather poorly received. I'm not sure I'm sold on all the elements of Barton's redesign, but it certainly has plenty of merits. Kudos to him for even taking the time to point the way to a better place. Sadly, if the screen caps of the new FB design being rolled out this week are anything to go by, not much attention was paid to Barton's considerations. Such is life.
This week I came across another fantastic redesign.
Tyler Thompson, Creative Director at Squarespace, was inspired to redesign the boarding pass. You can see the redesigns attached below, but
his post and the accompanying commentary are plenty humorous. One thing I didn't see mentioned in the comments when I read through them (though it may be there now) is the immediate effect of making boarding passes more accessible. In an aging population, improving readability of everyday documents is a huge benefit to a growing segment of the population. But that's just one of the many benefits of the improved design.
Revitalization by a thousand breaths
It's funny. When you look at redesigns like Tyler's, the need seems so blatantly obvious. In Delta's case, not only would the redesign be a slam dunk in terms of elevating the experience across the board, but the sheer elegance of these documents almost seems to make the trip more meaningful to the consumer. It elevates this small portion of the experience above the noise. And there's value in that.
Today's perception of travel (perhaps rightfully so) is that it's an experience akin to taking a flying bus. Point A to Point B. No frills. Uncomfortable. Cramped. Not something you look forward to. So given this experiential mire that air travel is in, it would seem that even reconsidering and improving small portions of the end-to-end experience would begin to chip away at the sour perception. Instead of death by a thousand cuts, make it revitalization by a thousand breaths. Return flying to an experience more fitting its core purpose: connecting people with one another.
Parallel to the unboxing process
As another aside on this. The whole boarding pass experience has parallels to the un-boxing process. Both comprise your first perception of the overall brand experience. What if your new iPod came in a box that was the equivalent of a Delta boarding pass. Is that really the first impression you want to give your customers? Is that how you want to start off your relationship? The check-in/boarding pass process sets the tone for the entire flight experience. Why not make it memorable and rewarding?
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