Last Christmas I took an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Queenstown, and I have to say: it was the best check-in experience I’ve ever had.
Once I arrived at the terminal, I was quite impressed by how simple the process was. I basically had to follow two big signs on the concourse:
1. Start here (this sign was just above the self service kiosks)
2. Bag drop (this sign was just above a conveyor belt)
I got so excited about the whole thing that I had to take a few pictures while Jane, my girlfriend, was dealing with the check-in:
Scanning our e-ticket
Selecting the passengers
Answering the security questions
Printing the luggage tags
Weighing your bag and attaching luggage tags
Going to step 2: luggage drop-off
Job done!
The whole thing didn’t take more than 5 min!
Mpass: using your phone as a boarding pass
Air New Zealand is also rolling out self-service scanners at the boarding gates: you can either use your boarding pass or an mPass – a service that allows you to download your boarding passes for Air New Zealand flights onto your mobile phone. It generates a bar code that you can then scan at the kiosks to check-in or at the gates to board.
Scanning kiosks at the boarding gate
mPass: using your phone as a boarding pass
At Engine, we designed a similar concept for Virgin Atlantic, and the results were quite impressive. Check-in times were reduced by 50%, and passenger satisfaction increased substantially.
The great thing about this check-in is that it takes staff from behind the counter, enabling them to roam the concourse to help passengers. It’s a win-win situation: the airline has a much more efficient process, enabling staff to deal with problems that really matter (passengers with excess luggage or delayed flights), and passengers can go through a hassle-free check-in. Great example of how service design can bring value to both users and providers.
The Norwegian Design Council will host a conference on Service Design and Service Innovation in November.
They are inviting people to submit papers and abstracts on the following topics:
* boundaries, foundation and constituent parts of the emerging discipline of service design
* history and trajectories of service design
* inclusive-design approaches to services for all
* critical views
* methods, tools and processes
* case studies
* relation to design thinking, design leadership and design management
* education and research perspectives
more information regarding submissions and deadlines here
It seems that service design is starting to flourish in Latin America. Based in Chile, Broadeep employs T-shaped people to innovate services. Nice to see that service design is getting momentum in places other than Europe and USA.
I found this interesting post from the Good Experience blog. One of the key challenges of user experience is not to simply deliver a report with recommendations. More important than that, the challenge is to involve key stakeholders and decision makers during the research process, and get them more involved in what we call ‘the user centric approach’ to innovation.
Good practitioners know what their job really is: to spread customer-centered thinking throughout the organization. If you can get decisionmakers to sit in a listening lab for a day, you’ve hit a home run: they’ll start to “get it” within the first two 45-minute sessions.
Changing the organization is the brass ring. Once the organization changes, everything follows: from the strategy (“let’s provide world-class service to our customers, and measure our progress”) down to the tactics on the site (“let’s stop naming links with our internal jargon”).
I had to catch a flight from London to Auckland, with a 7-hour stopover in Shanghai. And I have to tell you: by the time you reach Shanghai, you’re already completely wrecked, and you know you are going to face another 12-hour flight to NZ.
Well, for those who want to have a nap or just chill out in a comfortable room while waiting for your connection, there is always the option to book a room at the Dazhong Merrylin Hotel. The hotel sits right inside the airport terminal, and you can book rooms for periods as short as a few hours. Extremely convenient and value for money.
I’m wondering why airports don’t do this more often. Hotels in terminals. You just need to walk around any airport, and you’ll probably see hundreds of people trying to sleep in the not-so-comfortable terminal seats. So, here’s an idea: capsule hotels (the ones invented in Japan, mostly used by office workers who can’t commute back home after a night out with colleagues) inside terminals. Cheap, doesn’t take too much space, convenient, and definitely more comfortable than any airport seat.
Looking for new ideas to invest in, Sir Richard Branson?
Tim Ogilvie, from Peer Insight, gave a talk at the Norwigian Design Council last month about how service design is helping companies to innovate, especially in an age where the deluge of offerings and commoditisation are leading to price-based competition (and therefore eroding ROI).
What’s interesting about the presentation is how Tim explores the interesection between design and business. Quite often, designers and business people don’t share the same views on the same problem. Business people are ‘left-brained’, and focus on execution . Designers are much more ‘right-brained’, focusing on exploration.
It is at the intersection between the design world and the business world that innovation trully happens.
“Successful innovation is a feat not of intellect, but of will. Those who braved the risks of failure did so out of noneconomic as well as economic motives, among them the joy of creating, of getting things done, or simply exercising one’s energy and ingenuity”
Boeing and Airbus have taken different routes in terms of product strategy. Airbus thinks big is better, and came up with the gigantic A380 for super long haul flights. Boeing believes that the future of travel will be more ‘hub’ based. People will fly medium sized planes to the main airports, and from there they will get connections to the final destination. It’s early to predict which strategy will be the winner, but from a passenger’s point of view, I already have my favourite: the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Not only is this aircraft built with the latest technology, such composite materials to make it more lightweight and heads up displays in the cockpit (the same technology used in military fighters), but also it was built with the passenger in mind.
Simple concepts, such the experience passengers have when entering the aircraft were taken into consideration. Instead of entering through the galley and feeling a bit claustrophobic right from the beginning, passengers flying in the Dreamliner see an open, welcoming space once they step inside. It feels more like arriving in a nice restaurant rather than boarding an aircraft.
it feels like entering in a restaurant through the kitchen
Another good example of user centric innovation is the lighting: to help your body adjust to the new time zone, the lights simulate the sunset and sunrise. Small things that make a big difference!
It seems that for the majority of us, economy class travelers, things will get a bit better!
Tim Brown started a blog about design thinking, which is great. Lots of ideas and insights, not only from his posts, but also from people who are happy to comment and contribute to the discussion (as you might imagine, the blog is already quite popular!).
But this is a blog with a twist: as he described in the ‘about’ section, Tim is using the blog as a sandbox to toy with ideas around design thinking, share with everyone else, and promote discussions, which in turn might create more ideas. Any interesting outcomes will be part of the new book he is writing about design thinking. So, if you want to be Tim’s co-author, check his blog, and start contributing to the discussion.
I saw this interesting article on Fastcompany magazine, which once more proves that customer driven innovation is a really powerful tool to achieve competitive advantage.
Back in 2007, Virgin Megastores was outbeating competition, with a sales increase of almost 14%. According to Dee Mc Laughlin, the marketing chief, the recipy for success was quite simple: they just observe customers, and find out what they really want:
“We observe and then we innovate. For example, HD and Blu-ray are hot right now. We observed that our customers were saying, “what is the difference between the two?” You can tell them what the difference is, but unless they’re actually seeing what the difference is, it’s not going to help sales.
“So, we’ve put an HD and Blu-ray wall into all our stores. It’s really spectacular looking. Where before we had consumer confusion, which was potentially stifling sales of both systems, now our customers actually can see what the difference is and choose for themselves which format to buy.”
Innovation is not always rocket science (nor is something that needs a huge investment in R&D). Sometimes the most innovative solutions is right under your nose. It’s just a matter of oppening your eyes, and seeing what really matters.
A really good source of references and links, the Service Design Network was established a few years ago, led by Prof. Birgit Mager, one of the leading academics in the Service Design field.
As in most developing countries, the majority of the population in South Africa don’t have access to bank accounts. Banks are either too expensive to maintain, or too distant from low income population (according to a study, it takes the average South African 58 min to access a banking facility).
However, due to mobile technology, this reality is changing. Mobile phones are becoming more affordable and accessible to the majority of the population (more people own mobile phones than computers). Taking advantage of this technology, WIzzit launched a mobile-based banking system, enabling customers to check their balances, view statements and make payments through their mobile phones.
It’s a great example of how companies can innovate, and yet make a difference. Wizzit is not only developing an potentially very successful business, but also making customers’ lives easier.
The CBI published a report that explores how service innovation can help companies achieve competitive advantage.
The CBI and QinetiQ study found that company culture and market forces are the two main drivers of innovation in the service sector. Having a positive attitude to creativity, risk and failure is vital, and firms that are always willing to learn are also the ones most likely to succeed.
Key recommendations in the CBI/QinetiQ report include:
- Using the tax system as a tool to encourage innovation, by making it more forgiving and flexible
- Increasing the proportion of the government’s annual purchasing budget going on innovative services
- Improving financial support for companies wishing to take risks with new services
- Identifying champions of innovation across government and the public sector
- Encouraging firms to work with universities and other to share data for service sector research.
Engine contributed to the by adding the consultancy view on service innovation, with an emphasis on design and culture.
You can download the report from Engine’s website. Just click on the link at the bottom of the page.
For those who haven’t read Tim Brown’s recent article published on Harvard Business Review, here is the link to download it.
Everyone talks about how to become more innovative, etc, but not many people know how to DO IT. Tim Brown outlines a few key points to help people ‘think design’:
be empathic: try to step on other people’s shoes (your customers, your colleagues, your superiors) to understand the world from their perspective
Integrative thinking: desing thinkers can draw insights from many sources and come up with new ideas
prototype: it’s really important to try and test different ideas and approaches early in the process. Mistakes are allowed. The earlier you make a mistake, the easier is to make changes and move forward. This iterative process is key to generate new and innovative ideas
collaboration: teamworking and diversity is always welcome, and very fruitful
Posted by Erick 
Posted by Erick 
Posted by Erick 
