Aer Lingus Boarding Pass

MY ROLE
Research, Analysis, Prototyping, Print & Content Design.
TIMELINE
2024
TOOLS
Figma, Figjam.

The Aer Lingus boarding pass was issued to 10.7m passengers in 2023. It is an essential source of information for travelling passengers and airline operations staff.

Although Aer Lingus are trying to encourage customers to adopt digital boarding passes, the printed version remains hugely popular. However, the design of the printed Aer Lingus boarding pass had not been updated in almost a decade, leading to issues with usability, consistency and compliance. So, in 2024, our design team was tasked with reviewing and revitalising the printed boarding pass.

Objective

The purpose of this project was to;

· Improve usability / readability for customers
· Improve Operational Efficiency (ensure changes improve the boarding process and staff interactions)
· Integrate additional passenger information (US/Canadian visas/EU Borders/Baggage allowance/Timeline)
· Promote digital integration (App download / Link to live information)
· Improve readability and usability for both Travelling Passengers and Airline Operations staff
· Ensure compliance with IATA Barcode V8 and legal requirements
· Ensure existing compliance & legal content is retained
· Improve styling / general look and feel. 

UX Research insights and findings

After extensive research by our UX Service Designer, key findings were;

· Include a ‘Day of Travel’ Timeline
· Baggage Allowance – provide better, or ideally – personalised information regarding baggage allowances
· Digitial integration – Promote app download and link to live airport information when possible
· Clearly show Priority versus non-Priority status.

Visual Research

In addition to extensive UX research, I added some visual research;

· Heuristic review of the existing Boarding Pass – what are the known issues?
· Competitor Analysis – common themes/patterns from other airlines
· Hierarchy / Layout / Structure – best practices
· Additional Travel Information – what types of information do we need to show and in what order?
· Text-heavy sections – is there a better/more visual way to display baggage / timeline / app download information

Design Considerations

Once we had gathered Objectives, UX Research and Design insights, it was time to move on to the design stage. I started by looking at multiple layout options – trying to arrange data points symmetrically or in a predictable grid format to establish a correct information hierarchy.

We also started to consider scenarios where supplementary travel information differs:

· Regional flights where baggage allowances are lower
· Standard Short Haul flights (flights within Europe)
· Long haul flights (to US or Canada)
· Different fare types (which include different baggage allowances)
· Connecting flights etc.
· AerClub members (Loyalty Program)
· Bookings with infants (additional baggage allowance)
· Flights out of Ireland versus flights in to Ireland (airport and day of travel information differs)
· Scenarios where we may need to provide important or critical travel information
· Translations into 5 other languages.

Results

Updating the display of existing flight information (above the fold section) was a relatively straightforward task, so this part of the content can go into development immediately.

The modular travel information section is more complex and requires logic to display correct information depending on route, fare type, passengers, origin airport etc. This part of the document will take longer to create and has been scheduled for a phase 2 release.