The New Delta In-Flight Entertainment UI

I’ve always wanted to redesign the in-flight entertainment systems on airplanes. Especially those flight statistic screens they play on loop for eternity: what user cares about the outside temperature in the middle of the flight at 10,000 feet?

All I want to know is when do I land, when is the next food service, and what are you serving.

But… Delta just redesigned their in-flight entertainment system to work a lot more like a feature-rich tablet. It’s a touch laggy, but overall much, much better in my opinion. And definitely a cut above the in-flight systems on other airlines. Korean Air may still have a leg-up because they use native Android, but Delta’s is definitely a standard now. Delta made a small mention of the redesign in their in-flight magazine, Sky, as part of the launch of a new fleet of A321 planes.

I took screenshots below and posted a video with my phone on my flight yesterday to show the UI and UX for those curious about design for captive audiences.

As a whole, the experience is more inline with how apps and web interfaces work; however, there is room to approve. Things I would like to see in a future entertainment system on a plane:

• Better high-level data based on what users care about like food and arrival time
• Thinking about user comfort like a dedicated button on the flight information screen that lets users request a glass of water at any time, which is a human-touch especially appreciated on long-haul flights
• Easier ways to jump back and forth between current content and new content to enable easier discover. Currently, the app is a category-approach to IA, which silos someone from listening to music while playing a game, for example, because they exist in different categories.
• Picture-in-picture

Video

Screenshots

The home screen.

The screens about the airplane you are on have been improved dramatically and kind of make me feel like a plane expert.

Horizontal scrolling can now be controlled with a swipe. It would have been nice to highlight the food under “amenities” like KLM or Korean Air do.

Search is “live” and updates while you type with rich card-based results.

Flight maps are still visually generic, but the added time-zone view is a nice touch. Overall the interactivity has been incrementally improved.

The overview screen about the flight is good, but could do more to answer common questions: food service, the use of electronics, and even a simple button like “get a glass of water” (which might drive flight attendants insane).

Ah yes, they redesigned the most useless screen on a flight. I’ve always wondered outside temperature and head winds while I fly. This screen should be taken away and put under a “technical information” view if absolutely necessary.