Boarding Pass re-design
 

I do like this idea: LINK

Redesign for readability/usability is always a good idea, but I find this attempt to be a failure for more reasons than is worth listing here. (start with where am I? where am I flying? what's a FRA/T1? Why is a row of numbers with one in different shading better than a single big number.... ) This may be good for FT'ers but terrible for the general public, IMHO

(btw, who boards 2:29 before flight time?)

And the passenger boarding group is needed BEFORE boarding, not after.

I agree with most of the premise here, but I do disagree on one part: Small type for the destination. When I have three boarding passes in my hand that is the part I am looking for. I have a boarding pass to Chicago, then a boarding pass to Frankfurt, and finally a boarding pass to Prague. Apparently I think about my trip very differently than the writer. I am not holding boarding pass for flight 225 from Washington Dulles. I'm holding a boarding pass for flight 225 to San Francisco.

Honestly I'm just glad the new UA fixed the "feature" post merger of having both the origin and destination as the absolute smallest type on the entire piece of paper.

Very cool read... would love to read more along these lines. Also, is there a good longread about how boarding passes came to be?

Put the destination in full.. not just the airport code.

To show infrequent flyers that their boarding priority is 2nd out of 6, for instance. Or 7th out of 7. A subtle hint to stay the *(@$*% out of the immediate gate area until your zone is called. :D

I never knew I was supposed to find boarding passes confusing. I think they work pretty well currently, IMHO.

More designs here, if anyone's interested: http://passfail.squarespace.com/

people who design these kinds of passes forget that airport technology is from the 70s. There is no PCL/PostScript in the airport world. Everything is done via a proprietary markup language over a serial connection. Additionally, all that black wears out thermal heads.

I like the idea, but the graphics should be more realistic.

http://thumbnails.illustrationsource...e.16.81056.JPG

Someone should write an app in the interim that lets you point your camera on the boarding pass and in real time translates the information as easy to read directions (along with potential value add - like say directions to the gate). I can see this being useful for elderly folks who have smartphones, but are not comfortable with taking well focussed photos - apps like wordlens don't require you to take a photo, just point the camera and the translation happens in real time. Of course, this can only work if the real time translation is accurate and doesn't direct the hapless person to A75 instead of A57...

+1 ^

And still more that think "JFK-SEA" is better for the general public than the existing "Seattle" and "NYC-Kennedy".

And what's with the rotated tiny text on the stub on the right? When's the last time someone ripped off the end of a BP and gave it back to you?

And why DL31 instead of just Flight 31? The Delta logo is on the BP. Either spell out Delta or leave it off. The general public doesn't know WN, B6, EK, etc. (Flight DL31 on Jet Blue tells me this designer doesn't either)

These folks seem to be stuck on making the exact same information in bigger fonts, different colors, backgrounds, graphics, etc? I'm sure there are better ways, but these aren't them IMHO.

but the Departures screens show 'Airline name+logo' then flight number as DL31 or similar, if its closer to what they're looking for on the screen its probably easier to find where to go.