Design Thinking: Improving In-flight Entertainment

 Design Thinking: Improving In-flight Entertainment

Emirates, one of the most prestigious airline companies in the world is considered to have the “Best In-Flight Entertainment” two years in a row, according to Airlineratings.com. Sure, you have access to the news, your email, and can browse over 1,800 different channels of movies/games/television in 30,000 feet, but do airlines really pay attention to the little details in building this technology?

After doing some research on my flight from Chicago to San Francisco on Virgin America (also known for having one of the best IFE systems), I’ve come to realize majority of these airlines don’t pay attention to the design and ease-of-usability when it comes to in-flight entertainment.

I give Emirates credit for giving their flyers access to great content and the ability to clean out your inbox, when you have nothing better to do 30,000+ ft in the air. Though, we live in an age where design plays a key factor in our everyday lives. Our brains are wired to the simplicity of our smartphones and tablets. Why can’t the 7th largest airline company (by revenue) design a better IFE system for its aircrafts?

This question was being repeated in my head throughout the first half of my flight. So as any ADD design freak would do (ok maybe just me), I decided to pull out my laptop and design a quick mock of what I expect 2015 IFE systems to look like. Thankfully, Virgin America has an IFE system in all of their planes.

While other pop stars make albums, Kanye is making entertainment software

While other pop stars make albums, Kanye is making entertainment software

You will probably never again own a new album by Kanye West. But if it makes you feel better, you can rent his software.

You probably won’t be too upset, either, just like when people quickly forgave Bethesda Softworks last November when their blockbuster game, Fallout 4, shipped with a few glitches.

To address the bugs, Bethesda released an update (called a “patch”) that had to be installed to make the game work properly online. Even if you’re not a gamer, you’ve probably seen a so-called “day one patch.” Think about the day you bought your smartphone: odds are that as soon as you turned it on, you had to download a set of fixes that developers forgot to include with the original product.

Kanye West quietly introduced rap music to the “day one patch” when he uploaded “No More Parties in L.A.” to his website in January, only to quickly delete it. He then uploaded a new version, because as he said, there was “slight distortion in the main loop” of the first one.

"Un momento, there was a slight distortion in the main loop within Real Friends.

Kanye took this a step further when he finally released “The Life of Pablo” on Tidal, but tweeted that he was going to “fix ‘Wolves’,” the 13th track on the album. Then, he said that the album would never be available for download, which essentially means that he is reserving his right to make any changes he wants — to “Wolves,” to “30 Hours,” whatever — tomorrow, next year, a decade from now.