Safely Ignored

In Decem­ber I enjo­yed a piece in McSweeney’s San Fran­cisco Pano­rama whe­rein Chip Kidd rede­sig­ned Amtrak tic­kets for cla­rity. At the same time, Tyler Thomp­son began rede­sig­ning a Delta boar­ding pass, which is ugly but no where near the mess an Amtrak tic­ket is.

Chip’s work seems to have gar­ne­red little atten­tion, but Tyler’s gene­ra­ted a wave of reac­tions, inc­lu­ded mis­gui­ded accom­mo­da­tion of ther­mal prin­ting and some genuine insights into infor­ma­tion hie­rarchy and many visual impro­ve­ments. I’m par­ti­cu­larly fond of Julian Montoya’s ver­ti­cal layout.

But none of them added anything beyond boar­ding time (which many pas­ses already dis­play). Where are the gui­des to whether my seat is on the left or the right of the plane? Or a mini-​​map to my gate let­ting me know where the nea­rest Star­bucks is?

These have all been graphic designs (with the excep­tion of J. Jason Smith’s prose ver­sion). No one has gone back and ques­tio­ned the func­tion of the thing or, really, the emo­tio­nal desi­res of its users (in what frog would call discovery).

Some added boar­ding time (which is already com­mon), but they all pro­vide loca­tion data without con­text. Why not a guide on whether my seat is on the left or right of the aisle (or which aisle I’ll need)? Or a mini-​​map to my gate let­ting me know where the nea­rest Star­bucks is? How might my boar­ding pass help me choose which secu­rity area is clo­sest to the gate, and if it inc­lu­des a fast line for my fre­quent flyer status?

Beyond loca­tion, can any of these help me feel secure about how rushed I need to feel to board and claim overhead space? (I.e. how full is the flight, and how cram­ped is this plane? Is my seat on a bulkhead with no below-​​seat sto­rage?) At my des­ti­na­tion, will the taxis gene­rally take cre­dit cards or will I need to visit an ATM?

I ima­gine if Tri­pIt were able to print boar­ding pas­ses directly, we’d see a serious rede­sign of this paper experience.