The delights (and despairs) of killing time at airports

These days we're spoilt for devices that keep us busy in our free time. We crave that immersion into digital space. I want to tell you about a recent experience I had which made me think how services can make free time matter to their customers.

I recently flew to Portugal for the weekend. I was at Gatwick airport waiting for my departure gate, when I noticed that in the waiting lounge they’d attached a few tablets around the banisters. I had about 2hrs until my flight as it was delayed, and a lot of time to kill. So with excitement and anticipation at these tablets surrounding me in the departure lounge, I approached one of them.

At this point I expected to find an interface that would possibly augment, inform or add to my experience. But guess what? The tablet was frozen! Nothing worked when I touched a couple of the screens. There were dozens of these tablets spread around the banisters, but why? Did they test this experience with any real passengers? An airport can be a pretty dull place to kill time, and this experience certainly failed to deliver any value to me as a customer in the 'waiting' lounge.

The annoying frozen tablet.

Flash forward to my return flight to London from Porto. At the exact same stage as I was in Gatwick waiting for my departure gate, at Porto airport my attention wasn't grabbed by any tablets, or flashy screens. At the departure lounge I was greeted by a live band, with two rows of chairs welcoming passengers to take a seat, and relax while they wait for their flight. The humanisation of this gap of my time was wonderful and pleasant to me as a customer. There was an added value to my experience. Most importantly for me, there was no time or space for disappointment, unless you disliked the music!

The Porto departure lounge, with a live band.

If you're using digital, make it matter and make sense.

My touch point with technology as a customer at Gatwick airport, fundamentally failed. If the tablets at Gatwick were intended to aid in the passing of time while you wait for a flight, it certainly felt like the experience was not fulfilling at all. And although we do love to play around with tablets and apps etc, the experience needs to matter.
For example, at that point in Gatwick it'd be useful for me to be able to find out where my current plane was. Why was it delayed? Maybe the tablet could allow me to scan my boarding pass, and know who I was. It could then allow me to access discounted offers in say, Costa coffee as a compensation for the flight delay.

People are at the heart of any service experience.

As I mentioned earlier, airports can be pretty dull places to kill time. My journey through Porto airport was made much more pleasant by the rich experience delivered by the live band. At a time where so much of our experiences are augmented by technology, my experience highlighted how valuable humanising a service can be. I think it's crucial that the interaction is meaningful to the customer.

I'm not saying that humanising all touch points at an airport, a hospital or shop is the answer to service experience success. However, observing how users fill gaps in their time while on the service journey, is a starting point to designing more rewarding, engaging and valuable experiences for them.