What I learned about user flow from the Geneva Airport
There’s something deeply aspirational about travel. The constant movement of people and planes, in pursuit of new destinations. You see all the possibilities — the people you could meet, the places you could go, the directions you could take.
Good design honors human behavior and experience, so how do we design for human aspiration in the travel experience?
It starts with the flow. The best designed airports remove the primary impediment to the feeling of aspiration: the airport experience itself. You know, the long lines, delayed flights, where the f*** is my gate moments.
The physical airport is the last threshold to cross before the user reaches the destination, so design for that next step in the flow. As designers, we can anticipate a user’s entire experience. We aim to design products, services, and experiences that reduce friction and maximize for the achievement of a task, or a feeling. For travel, it’s the moment when the traveler realizes his or her aspiration — when he / she’s exploring, wandering, discovering new landscapes.
Designing an ideal user experience in an airport, or any environment, begins with understanding human behavior and emotions in the current context.
When I landed at the Geneva airport — my first stop on my 14 countries in 4 months excursion — I was a lot jet lagged and wishing I was a lot more caffeinated. I found myself deeply impressed by the user flow of the Geneva airport because it tapped into my aspiration to experience Swiss culture through something we may all overlook: the billboards.
- The ideal Swiss man
He’s cool, calm, collected, always on time. The deep purple hues reinforce the sophistication and elegance of Geneva, but he’s modern and hip, too — check that subtle offbeat pattern on his shades. For a city dating back to 58 B.C., Geneva now has the chance to blend the old and new, the classic and avant-garde, the elegant and the hip — an aspiration we can all relate to.
2. The legendary Swiss landscape
Switzerland’s natural beauty and mountains render Instagram filters irrelevant. Here the cool colors and open landscape evoke a sense of calm — indeed an aspirational state after being in a cramped metal tube for hours. The perspective evokes the sense of forward motion into the calm wilderness — it’s like the user is already on a mountain, far from the gray airport walls.
3. The timeless Swiss watch
Switzerland is the world’s largest producer of watches, and for most a Swiss watch is likely to stay aspirational. But there’s a lifestyle to aspire to here — one of passion, sophistication, and wealth, as emphasized by the rich browns and gentle reds in the visual palette.
Traveling opens your eyes to the subtle details. The things you’d normally bypass always become clearer, bigger, and stronger in your mind’s eye. They say your senses are sharper when you travel, but it’s more than this. You appreciate your surroundings not just because they’re new, but because you’re transient. You don’t know when you’ll ever be in this place, standing in front of a Geneva Airport billboard, ever again. So you stop, look, really look, and see what you may have missed. As designers, understanding user flow starts with taking those moments to stop and stare.
Next up: Bangkok.
*Note: Here I chose not to discuss the architecture or interior design of the airport, though both also influence the user experience of a physical environment.
