stu52

Well, this is interesting. I just called about this to see if I could make a reservation for the MilesAAver award in U for flight A136 on 10/8/11 (even without the ability to book U for LHR - MXP) and I was told that there was no award availability at all for that flight as it had not yet been loaded into the system. In fact the first "sighting" of award availability on that route was on 9/27/11.

ExpertFlyer Voice

Availability is loaded 331 days in advance, so the agent is incorrect. AA 136 by itself shows no award availability, so that is correct. We'll follow up to your email to discuss it further, thanks.

jackal

^^ Two thumbs up to baliktad's proposal.

A good professional graphic designer is ALWAYS worth his/her weight in gold. I say this as someone with NO graphic design talents whatsoever, so there is no conflict of interest here.

mikew99

I'd like to echo this sentiment. I saw the seat maps for the first time today, and I find them quite busy. I hope that EF takes the feedback here and considers it collectively rather than saying "just get used to it." My EF subscription is up for renewal in a few days, and although I plan to renew, EF does have some competition in this space for my future dollars.

^ I'm liking baliktad's example.

mwhite44

I'm not sure what baliktad is trying to accomplish, but outright insulting and talking down to the EF team probably isn't going to get a response. I would ignore you too.

Instead of wasting time complaining here, why don't you just send them an email and offer to help design alternative icons? Since you apparently know everything there is to know about that, it should be easy for you.

serfty

Given subscribers were asked their opinions should we only post positive ones???
I will also send off an e-mail; but it's basically repeating the suggestions I have already made here in thread.

mikew99

Way out of line.

baliktad respectfully offered constructive, detailed feedback that any customer-focused company would be happy to have. I hope EF values that and graciously accepts the feedback in the spirit of which it is intended.

mwhite44

Read what he wrote again:
"Please, hire a good designer to make these decisions for you. Not a "web designer" or a "web developer" or a middle manager who knows what he likes when he sees it. "

That's not constructive. Constructive is "I don't like the new icons, here are some suggestions on how they can be improved, let me know if you would like to discuss further."

payam81

Frankly I find this version quite annoying. Grey, Blue, then Grey with *, Blue with *, More Grey, Orange, Greyed out Grey. Thanks but no thanks.

Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but I like EFs new, allegedly, non-professional, 10 minutes put together seat map better which is BTW, incidentally the same seat map system used by TG, SQ and a bunch of other *A airlines (and possibly more that I don't know of).

serfty

That is not true.

Those airline seat maps basically use the one icon to indicate availability.

E/F now has at least 6 all indicating the same = free.

It needs extra effort when = = = = = . i.e. All indicate available.

[edit]
It seems simple there, but imagine a web page with 200 or more of these icons ...
[/edit]

inlanikai

Well, the previous EF seat map version had 4 versions of vacant, IIRC: Clear white, blue with a P for premium, blue with a wheelchair for handicap and blue with an X for blocked. Four of your examples are the same functions but now that SG ratings are available, the colored tags are added consistent with the SG rating system. In one look, you see the nature of the vacancy and the first order SG rating.

Too much information in one icon? Maybe, maybe not. I find the efficiency a good thing but YMMV.

jackal

I don't mind all that information in a single icon, and I like the concept behind the implementation, but the map is hard on the eyes right now. Those big icons of blue seats indicating occupied seats distract the focus from the white unoccupied seats on the white background. I get that the occupied seat icon is supposed to be a top view of a person sitting in the seat, but it's too big and too bold. With the open seats being white-on-white, the contrast is poor and makes it hard to see.

The occupied seats should be faded so that the unoccupied seats stand out.

Just in case anyone hasn't bothered to go check it out, here's a snapshot of what we're talking about:



Also, IMHO, the SeatGuru rating should show on the occupied seats, too, since one of the main purposes of going to the seat map is to set an alert for a seat to open. Knowing which of the currently-occupied seats is highly rated makes it easier to set seat alerts for specific seats to open up.

inlanikai

Hmmm, OK i understand the fading of the occupied seats for a less stark contrast, but putting the SG rating on all seats, wouldn't that just add to the "clutter"? Not saying that is a good or a bad thing, just wondering if the visual impact, which seems to be a point of concern in this discussion, would be adversely effected.

serfty

I don't necessarily agree with SG ratings; I have made advice from my perspective in the past and it has been ignored for whatever reason. I have given up.

So I would like the inclusion of TA data that optional, so I don't have to ignore it. Have the ability to stop themouse over info it fine, but I would prefer nothing remind me of SG/TA.

I am paying 100 bucks a year or so for the privilege to employ expertflyer. I have been a great supporter ot Expert Flyer since its inception, but I feel they have this one wrong.

My current subscription is active for a few months, but KVS is becoming more interesting.

Now back to the icons, The X blocked still exist and are obvious: (Little different from before)

The "allocated" images are a joke in themselves, looking not much more than rows of small Lego blocks in a crowded seatmap. (see jackal's post)

No my real issue is with the inclusion of Tripadvisor (Seat Guru) based cluttering images - I have already ad-blocked out the ad's in the expertflyer banner - I wonder how much TA/SG are being remunerated for clicks from the seat maps ... I will probably set up at grease-monkey script to substitute the images I don't wish to see with the basic seat map.

i.e. The images , , will be substituted with .

jackal

I think you could get that information in there in an intelligible way. The little colored dots may not be the best way, but it would work--as long as you could clearly differentiate between the occupied and unoccupied seats. I'm thinking fade out the occupied seats to maybe 25% of their current brightness (and get rid of the little person in them--until I blew the image up, I just thought the seat had bumps on it or was, as serfty said, a bunch of lego blocks) and then add the little dots (also faded out)

Really, it gets back to the core: when doing web design, you need to hire a good graphic designer to make everything work together.