THE BOARDING PASS: CURRENT SCENARIO AND SCOPE OF IMPROVEMENT

Boarding Pass redesign by Peter Smart

The typical layout of a boarding pass of Singapore Airlines. Picture credits: Peter Smart

Importance of Boarding Pass

The pass a person gets after queues of wait on check in, boarding pass work as a window to all the necessary data of boarding; when to board the flight, where to board the flight, seat number, gate number, etc. It forms as a manual for a person from airport to their flight seat and then further to their destination. It stays with the person throughout the journey and throughout the journey its value is retained. Even in the age of web check in and E-passes the typical boarding pass is still the preferred medium of flight information to a customer for all airlines. One big reason as stated by Glenn Finnegan was that they will always outlast the battery life.

THE PROBLEM

The layout and font sizes of Boarding Pass varies from airline to airline. This boarding pass image of delta airlines, for example emphasizes on the seat number by a box as opposed to the singapore airlines pass where seat and gate number were given importance by large font. Picture Credits: Tyler N Thompson

Have you ever had that situation when you are at the airport, confused about where you flight gate is and where do you have to go? Then you look into your boarding pass but don’t find your gate number easily. Then you look harder and then finally after going through every inch of your boarding pass, you find what you were looking for.

This is the primary and the biggest problem of a boarding pass. There is no specific standard or visual connect with the consumer to make the information easily available to the consumer. Besides the fact that there should be more information pertaining to the needs of the traveler or user, the information which is already there will frustrate the user before reaching them.

The layout and font sizes vary for different airlines. Different airlines use font sizes to emphasize their data but this whole system fails spectacularly when the data emphasized is not a priority for the user itself. This shows a the lack of proper layout or chronology in a boarding pass. The information present in the boarding pass are rarely given by keeping the eye movement in check. This whole random display of information creates confusion, annoyance, irritation and stress in the user, which is definitive trait of a bad design.

This frustration was made evident by graphic designer Tyler Thompson. His reaction to his boarding pass of Delta (the above picture) was very harsh and brutal. According to him, “It was like someone put on a blindfold, drank a fifth of whiskey, spun around 100 times, got kicked in the face by a mule and then just started puking numbers and letters onto the boarding pass at random. There was nothing given size or color importance over anything else, it was a mess.”

So why the layout and chronology of boarding pass in this abysmal state? The root of the matter is that an airline boarding pass was originally meant for a computer and not a consumer. According to Glynn Fynnegan, the graphic designer for Evernote, the boarding passes were made with more emphasis on the computer's readability than the user's readability. That is why they lack a sense of hierarchy in many cases and become less readable to the user. During his research, he found out that the boarding passes were rarely intervened by a designer and what airlines do is just superimpose information on the pass instead of redesigning the pass to the new world. This practice has been happening for years which has led to no specific change in the overall boarding pass layout.

Dimensions of a boarding pass

Another big problem lies in the size and dimension of the pass itself. The wide dimensions of the boarding pass make it difficult to be tucked in a pocket or a wallet. Thus, handling the boarding pass becomes attention requiring for a user (below picture). It needs to be put inside a bag or it needs to be held in one hand for a good long period of time. This also leads to increase in the chance losing of boarding pass as it cannot be stored conveniently.

Information needed to be displayed on a boarding pass

To solve the problem of haphazard placement of text and numbers by different airlines we have to see the boarding with the user’s point of view. Suppose a person books a flight in Delhi and he does check from the New Delhi metro station (New Delhi now has facilities of check in before reaching the airport).

The list of things they need to know and they should be knowing follows in this order:-

1. Which terminal they have to go to? Metropolitan cities often have more than one airport.

2. What is the date, boarding time and departure time? One of most important factor as it often decides the urgency of getting to the airport.

3. What is the flight number? This is the most important factor after reaching the airport as the user often matches the flight number with the flight information presented on the big screens of the flight schedule of the airport.

4. What gate number they have to go to? After reaching and security check, the next step is to know the gate number to board the flight.

5. What is the seat number? The last thing after getting past the gate is to know the seat number. Now this is where additional but useful information like placement (front, middle or back side of the plane) and the positioning of seat (window, aisle or middle) should also be given to give the user a better idea of where their seat would be.

6. What should they be expecting when they get off the flight? This last point is also a scope of improvement. Boarding pass should display details like the climate conditions and temperature of their destination. Arrival time included.

So if these information are given in decent chronology in a boarding pass, it would definitely make air travel a bit pleasurable and stress free experience for the user. But another factor of the boarding pass is that it does not limits to one user. In an article in wired.com, author Kyle Vanhemert points out that a boarding pass has at least two and at times three users; First is the traveler, second is the TSA agent and third is the airline staff who need to inspect the information of the boarding pass. So relevant information also needs to be given for their ease of understanding too.

Limitations in designing the boarding pass

According to Glynn Fynnegan, there are majorly three limitations to design and redesign the boarding pass:-

1. Print limitations- The boarding pass is printed by thermal printers on pre-printed paper, which adds restrictions on using too much color for information display

2. Cost- Millions of boarding passes are printed everyday. So economic value becomes a factor

3. Flexible content limitations- Things such as a long name needs to be accommodated accordingly

THE SOLUTIONS

Given below are the attempts of several graphic designers in redesigning the boarding pass:-

Adam Glynn Fynnegan

Glynn Fynnegan emphasized on the correct chronology of a boarding pass for all three users in his redesign. The information for the TSA and airline staffs are given on header and footer and the travelers data as the main content.

Along with this Fynnegan also designed few icons for placement and positioning of seat along with the seat number and boarding priority

Overall layout of Fynnegan's design

Tyler N Thompson

Irritated by the current conditions of boarding passes, Tyler came up with his attempts, considering the important information to be displayed in mind along with better layout and colors to emphasize the airline color.

Initial Design

Design after adding some colors which correspond to the airline’s colors

One more design with a different take

Virgin Atlantic

Well thought out layout keeping the thermal print limitation in mind

Timoni Grone

The boarding pass is designed with the print limitations considered

Matt Davey

The boarding pass designed is removed from any unnecessary information

The redesigned boarding pass with the original pass below it

Yoni De Beule

Louie Manta

JJ

This is a completely different take on the boarding pass especially with the printing limitations considered. JJ in his article in graphicology came up with a design that uses clear information given to the traveler in full sentences instead of numbers and figures. Overall it comes off as if a flight attendant is speaking to a traveler. This attempt was made adding a human touch to the otherwise computerized visual language of the boarding pass.

Peter Smart

British graphic designer Peter Smart traveled on 14 different airplanes and then later on came with a pocket friendly version of boarding pass with same dimensions but vertical layout. This design again comes off as great design as a vertical structure helps in strengthening the overall chronology of the pass.

The pass is made in a way that after cut-out it can easily fit into pockets or in between the passport. Along with all this, Smart also introduces the Temperature and climate of destination in his design.

CONCLUSION

Many of the proposed designs are made keeping almost all the shortcomings of the boarding pass in mind and also by adding more relevant data to the pass. Some are made keeping the limitations in mind while some are not. But all the designs mentioned, if implemented, will do wonders in the experience of flying. Maybe the airlines will improve on their printers. Maybe one day they will invest more in the graphical aspect of the boarding pass. Till then, don’t stop dreaming. Happy flying!!

REFERENCES

“280. A Practical Yet Human Boarding Pass Design. - Graphicology Blog.” Graphicology, www.graphicology.com/blog/2010/1/11/280-a-practical-yet-human-boarding-pass-design.html.

Cooperstein, Paige. “Airlines Should Ditch Their Confusing Boarding Passes And Use This Smart Design Instead.” Business Insider, Business Insider India, 3 Feb. 2014, www.businessinsider.in/Airlines-Should-Ditch-Their-Confusing-Boarding-Passes-And-Use-This-Smart-Design-Instead/articleshow/29829395.cms.

Glynn-Finnegan, Adam. “Boarding Pass Redesign – Adam Glynn-Finnegan – Medium.” Medium, Medium, 27 Aug. 2013, medium.com/@adamgf/boarding-pass-redesign-c72084d7793e.

“Journal - Boarding Pass / Fail.” Redesigning the Boarding Pass, passfail.squarespace.com/.

LTD., EFFERVESCENT TECHNOLOGIES PVT. Airline Media - In Fligt Boarding Pass Advertising Service with Goair, www.effervescent.in/inflight_goair.html.

“Modern Boarding Pass Ticket Wedding Invitation Graphic Design..” 123RF Stock Photos, www.123rf.com/photo_22774235_modern-boarding-pass-ticket-wedding-invitation-graphic-design-template.html.

VanHemert, Kyle. “Dear Airlines: This Is What Your Boarding Passes Should Look Like.” Wired, Conde Nast, 25 Sept. 2013, www.wired.com/2013/09/airlines-please-adopt-this-smart-boarding-pass-redesign/.

Wong, Kristin. “What the Numbers on Your Boarding Pass Actually Mean.” Lifehacker, Lifehacker.com, 16 June 2016, lifehacker.com/what-the-numbers-on-your-boarding-pass-actually-mean-1782041847.

Ying, Loke Shi. “A Designer's Brilliant Redesign Of The Airline Boarding Pass.” DesignTAXI.com, designtaxi.com/news/365149/A-Designer-s-Brilliant-Redesign-Of-The-Airline-Boarding-Pass/.

“Your Boarding Pass Does Contain Information about You, but Whether It Can Be Used for Evil Is Another Question.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 18 Dec. 2017, www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-spot-boarding-pass-20171217-story.html.