About a week ago my friend Devesh Kumar, suggested to read an article on boarding pass redesign written by adam glynn-finnegan (http://www.adamgf.com/) it took in account great design details, observations and proposed solutions, this led me to a lot of thinking and research on all the boarding pass redesign attempts, this happens to be the inception of this project. Then I came across Peter Smart’s boarding pass design project too http://petesmart.co.uk/rethink-the-airline-boarding-pass/ and all of these left me thinking about the possibilities and my approach towards it, I definitely want to make the boarding pass better and more useful. Then I came across another brilliant product www.onlycoin.com this digital card is so smart it stores the information of all your pay/value cards and you can select multiple cards using a button and a display, this shook me.

I thought of combining the two, the great design research and a brilliant technology and developed a concept product, I call it the Fly Card.

Here is my attempt to it,

I am a panic-struck, unplanned, lost traveller, being in a journey is exciting but a day before it I can’t sleep or rest, there are so many moving parts when it comes to travel, specially flying. My common anxiety questions: have I taken ticket prints? or have I downloaded it (In this case make sure net connection on phone is working), after reaching airport there is another complicated document to take care of, the Boarding Pass and that’s no less painful.

What a boarding pass should do:

1. It should work from end to end in the flight and add value to the journey.
2. It should make all required information of my flight more accessible and present it step by step.
3. It should make the process easier for the airlines as well as the traveller.

What I propose (with my limited knowledge of possibilities):

A blue tooth enabled card that has a full screen display on one side and magnetic strip on the other. By changing the displays at each step of the journey, now we can present only the required information at a particular time.

Card Design:

Card Usage: Step 1, Booking tickets, Tickets are booked by phone app of the airline, by swiping the card or if possible via bluetooth the booking information is sent to the digital boarding pass, this should eliminate printing limitations and costs.

Card Usage: Step 2, Enroute airport, Its a crucial and often stressful time between where you are to the airport, the ticket should be alive and displaying useful information and be able to answer the anxious questions:

Card Usage: Step 3, Check in and Boarding pass, Only difference between a ticket and a boarding pass is that the boarding pass is validated, the digital ticket when swiped through the authorised machine converts into a boarding pass, information architecture remains same yet more info is added.

Card Usage: Step 4, All aboard, When in flight, you are relaxed yet the final anxiety of finding the seat remains and it often leads to a confusion.

Card Usage: Step 5, Landing, View the trip summary and save it via the phone app.

Key Benefits:

1. Easy to handle: All that you need to do is to carry one card for your tickets and boarding pass.
2. Saves paper: This card is digital so will save tons of paper and printing costs.
3. Never Loose: Its connected to your phone via bluetooth that beeps if you loose it and walk away.
4. Effort cutting: Saves stamping and validating effort from Airline staff and security.

Lastly, I am thankful to the great design attempts made earlier, as the world progresses to a digital version of it, we as designers need to rethink about several rudimentary practices and bad design habits.