{"id":11844,"date":"2022-05-05T15:15:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T19:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/?p=11844"},"modified":"2022-05-06T18:11:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T22:11:49","slug":"from-curb-to-gate-its-all-about-the-user-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/from-curb-to-gate-its-all-about-the-user-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"From curb to gate: It\u2019s all about the user experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Airports are not just platforms for mobility. They are nexus points for society where people converge and diverge, their individual stories interconnecting in the full spectrum of human experience. A businessman hurriedly scans his phone checking for his flight. A child gazes in wonder as giant planes soar into the sky. A nursing mother exhales into the stillness of a peaceful wellness room. Travelers bring not only their belongings, but also their expectations, emotions, perceptions and desires as they pass through the terminal to their ultimate destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a user-centered airport?<\/strong>
French anthropologist Marc Aug\u00e9 worried that many spaces in our modern world were becoming non-places that lacked attachment to their local surroundings and created a disconnect for those passing through them, from cookie-cutter hotel rooms to vacuous transit halls and rootless airports that left travelers wanting more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing this, leading airports around the world are transforming from in-between spaces, where everything feels standardized and hurried, to places of experience, where local culture is expressed and user needs are elevated. A place where a business traveler can find a workspace and a child a playground. A fast-track for people in a hurry or a quiet rocking chair for respite-seekers. For those inclined to dwell, an art exhibition or a dining experience. At Boston Logan International Airport, passengers dine on fresh fare at Legal Seafoods akin to the city\u2019s flagship restaurant. Likewise, in Madrid\u2019s Barajas International Airport, travelers enjoy authentic Spanish tapas like jam\u00f3n Ib\u00e9rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A user-centered airport prioritizes well-being, carefully considering how environmental conditions like light, sound and ambient quality help ease the stress of travel and elicit feelings of delight. It provides simple, intuitive signage to help people find their way. It\u2019s a place where the physical and digital converge to extend reality, where a traveler can connect, stream, share and immerse themself. It prioritizes physical and psychological accessibility, encouraging movement and providing the right amount of space arranged in the right ways to minimize crowding and wait times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should airport operators prioritize user experience through design?<\/strong>
User-centered design is not only a philosophy but a practical platform to cultivate positive passenger experiences and ultimately keep those airport customers coming back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A user-centered airport is also one that delivers benefits to its operators and its community. A one percent increase in passenger satisfaction generates growth of 1.5 percent<\/a> in non-aeronautical revenue on average. Retail concessions remain the largest generator of non-aeronautical revenue<\/a> at 30.2 percent and are forecasted to grow globally at $26.25 billion<\/a> between now and 2025. In addition to the financial boost, airports \u2014 as gateways to their communities \u2014 foster civic pride when they positively reflect their local identity and generate positive impressions to the traveling public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does ArchTam design airports for users?<\/strong>
To create spaces that elevate user experience, airport operators need a trusted partner who specializes in user-centered design and brings expertise in human behavior, well-being and environmental psychology. Over the past 50 years, ArchTam\u2019s People + Places Advisory (PPA) has worked with a broad range of clients \u2014 transportation centers, workplaces, universities, hospitals, and stadiums \u2014 to build industry-leading capabilities in user experience that puts people at the center of design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PPA follows a rigorous, evidence-based process to help clients shape and elevate their customers\u2019 experiences. Our approach involves up-front visioning with airport operators and their stakeholders to determine goals and performance metrics. We then dig deeper into user needs through surveys, interviews and focus groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also use a mix of engaging and interactive design thinking exercises that put designers, operators and collaborators in the users\u2019 shoes. This includes persona development, journey mapping, design fiction, and scenario planning, to name a few. These more subjective insights are validated with hard data on airport operations and passenger needs, benchmarks, academic research, and ArchTam\u2019s in-house expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PPA partners with ArchTam\u2019s aviation design specialists to translate airport user needs into actionable design criteria. This collaboration weaves together traditional design requirements with experiential features, resulting in spaces that meet airports\u2019 functional demands while creating unique \u201cwow\u201d moments throughout passengers\u2019 journeys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the best part is that our process can be easily scaled up or down depending on each client\u2019s specific needs. Our goal is always to help airport operators explore how sociocultural, economic and technological trends intersect with aviation design. By placing the focus on the airport\u2019s myriad users and their diverse needs, we\u2019re building a roadmap to delivering a resilient, enduring facility \u2014 an airport that brings the future to the present by personalizing the journey from curb to gate and everywhere in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Airports that prioritize the individual user experience increasingly provide amenities to lessen the burden of travel. Spaces such as breastfeeding areas and designated nursing suites speak to the needs of travelers with babies and young children.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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At Boston Logan International, passengers can read about the Boston Red Sox and learn a bit about the storied baseball team while making their way to and from the gate. These displays are not only informational but give the airport a sense of place.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Green spaces enhance the airport user experience by providing a sense of calm at LaGuardia International.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Airports are not just platforms for mobility. They are nexus points for society where people converge and diverge, their individual stories interconnecting in the full spectrum of human experience. A businessman hurriedly scans his phone checking for his flight. A child gazes in wonder as giant planes soar into the sky. A nursing mother exhales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":591,"featured_media":11850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4345,274,168],"tags":[4346,1956,1955,187],"yst_prominent_words":[498,4331,421,899,4219,367,1452],"class_list":["post-11844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation","category-buildings","category-design-planning","tag-aviation","tag-buildings-and-places","tag-design","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/591"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11872,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11844\/revisions\/11872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11844"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archtam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}