NY DESIGN WEEK 2013 - WANTED DESIGN
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FRIEZE NEW YORK 2013
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We've all been there. Strapped into your seat, readying yourself for a 12-hour marathon of determination to disembark on the other side of the world. And then it begins. The baby in the next aisle starts wailing. Before the evil side-eye starts boring holes of hate into the back of the seat of the offending parents, have you ever considered the trials a family with young children have to endure in order to get on the plane?
RKS recently released a service design concept, cAir, that hopes to ease the burden of air travel for families. The project is a derivative outcome from a workshop conducted by RKS at the 2010 IxDA Conference where interaction designers were challenged to conceptualize a service design venture that would inspire the air travel industry to change how services are delivered to traveling families. In a climate of increased fare costs, slashed amenities and general disastisfaction with the air travel experience, the team looked at the success of consumer-centric airlines like Southwest as a hint that investing in the user can be rewarding for both travelers and airlines.
cAir - redefining air travel for families from RKS Design on Vimeo.
Families, in particular, are an oft over-looked segment of the flying population. By redesigning their experience, perhaps the general quality of all travelers could be improved. After interviewing and shadowing passengers, RKS generated a service design blueprint based on six key touchpoints of the in-flight experience: entertainment, ambience, food, seats, lavatory and storage.
Checkin for adults and children with toy rental options and wayfinding services available.
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- Rent-A-Toy is a toy rental service concept focused on providing hassle-free entertainment to children during the flight. The toy is returned at the end of the trip or upon arrival.
- Sound Curtains allow instant privacy at the passenger's seat, enabling parents to soothe or nurse a crying infant away from view.
- Nutrient cAir Service provides a variety of familiar, nutritious, allergen-free food choices for kids as well as USB bottle warmers and personal fridge within reach.
- Configurable Seats can adjust to accommodate children of all sizes while aisle partitions create a mini-play zone for toddlers and small kids.
- Diaper Friendly Lavatories are large enough to fit parent and multiple children for easy diaper change. A special sink is sized for a child's height and a waiting area outside the restroom lets kids play till their turn.
- Layered Storage offers easy-to-reach storage compartments overhead and underneath the seat that is accessible throughout the flight.
Along with changes during the inflight experience, the cAir concept also embodies a branding extension that highlights the core values of "relax, entertain, nurture." Wayfinding, easy flight checkin, family waiting rooms and cAir game apps to help deliver a 360-traveling experience from travel planning to arrival. See the above video for more info or check out the dedicated microsite.
Comments
Great project scope. As someone who has traveled with an infant, and been co-passengers with many, this is a sorely unmet need in public transportation. Implementation of even one or two of these concepts could be enough to make a family decide to fly an airline. For myself, I'm going to wait for a few years first.
I like the concept, but highly doubt it would work. The reason planes are cramped without much food service and you have to pay for bags is because people pay the least amount possible to fly. More often than not, travelers have no loyalty to any one airline (unless they are a frequent traveler). Travelers go for the lowest cost, so airlines keep doing things to be able to drop the price (such as remove the 'free' food, jam more seats in, etc.
If such an airline existed, anyone without a family would stay the heck away from it, knowing that the primary target consumer are families with little kids. With the majority of the passengers staying away from it, it wouldn't get the revenue it would need to be able to continue serving it's primary customer, unless that customer was paying a crazy-insane amount per ticket.
A plane with 1/3 kids as passengers would sure be a sight. And an earful. However, this family of concepts has a lot of easily implementable components that could command a 15-20% premium over standard coach fares. One whole carry on bag is devoted to kid-stuff for the plane - toys, food, etc. - and it would be nice to not worry about that with a toy rental scheme.
One would have to run the numbers on $, but I think the price premium could be feasible, and not crazy-insane. Families with kids are from every economic strata, but they all get treated the same on the airlines. There are $100 car seats and $1000 car seats, and a lot of people buy the $1000 seats for the added features and exclusivity.
It doesn't have to even be a whole plane - maybe just the rear third, or quarter (near the lavatories of course).
As a new father and designer that recently traveled across the world with my 8 month, I can say that these ideas were thought o from people who have never done it for real. I expected better solutions really.
Toy share is a terrible idea. Emirates already just give you toys to keep. Its cheaper and better than renting when you think deeply about it. Same with food. They already had the same baby food we buy in the shops.