Designer envisions boarding pass of the future

(Tyler N. Thompson)

A designer in the US has come up with a new twist on one of the most overlooked documents in use today -- the airline boarding pass.

A designer in the US has come up with a new twist on one of the most overlooked documents in use today - the airline boarding pass.

Tyler Thompson, creative director of New York software publisher Squarespace, came up with the idea of making the passes more attractive and readable whilst ona domestic flight from New York to Seattle. His new design enlarges the passenger-critical elements of the pass, whilst minimizing the bar codes and other information required by airlines.

"I had realized that my boarding pass was an absolute usability disaster," he explained. "I fly a lot and I still had to look at the pass 20 times while in the airport and hunt for information that should have been front and center. A boarding pass is the critical piece of information that stands between you and your flight and yet it is completely overlooked."

The designer believes that his pass offers readability, clarity and informational hierarchy for consumers, and by starting the debate airlines may now produce the ultimate boarding pass.

He concluded, "The more thought we put into designing things, no matter how small they are, the more society will demand that as a baseline and things will continue to evolve for the better."

Several airlines use some of the space on boarding passes to display third-party advertising. In December, low-cost airline Ryanair announced that it would display third-party advertising on its boarding passes, which consumers must print at home. It issues 66 million passes every year.