In 2001 I designed a customer scenario for air travel that focused on the concept of creating a ‘personal space’ for travellers. It was developed while I was the Creative Director of Different in Sydney, Australia. I found the image (below) and pulled it from the archive so I could show it as an example of human-centered design thinking, in response to the TEDActive Travel Project: Rethink the human-centered airline experience (http://bit.ly/eVNQ2Z).
My primary idea for improving and making airline travel more human-centered: is about creating and implementing a personal space for travellers while onboard and particularly while seated. Instead of First and Business classes I want Personal Class.
- Personal Class: deliver personalised experiences onboard the plane to provide travellers with a feeling of familiarity. Push the concept as far as possible so that customers are willing to pay for a Personal Class fare, and maybe even share their personal taste data with the airline.
An example of the Personal Class concept would be the capability to update a music/media playlist online before I fly and that will be accessible on the plane where ever I’m seated. This will make the experience of travelling with that airline ten-fold more compelling than all other airlines. In fact extending this into being able to discover what other people have in their playlist in the form of a shared inflight ‘radio channel’ could be a perfect way to spend time on long-haul flights. This could also be augmented via inflight e-commerce, so instead of spending ‘no’ money on inflight shopping, I may pick up $10 worth of new music (commission to the airline).
To this day I’m still looking for an airline that will provide a personalised inflight experience such as the scenario depicted above. This was devised over ten years ago; before the iPod was realised. With the advent of iPods and iPhones some aspects of the ‘personal space’ have been delivered – but this is achieved by taking my own device onto the plane, and therefore it’s not the airline industry that is making the airline experience ‘human-centered’ but Apple (read: your choice of media player here).
Note to self: When I find the time I will update this experience concept to bring the model up to today’s technology standards and account for some of the enhancements made by Inflight Entertainment innovators, such as Bluebox Avionics (http://bit.ly/ePyqCJ).
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