I always assumed that Ryan Air's design follows a deliberate dark pattern so as to maximise the likelihood you will end up paying for a missed flight / wrong baggage size etc.
I read the title and immediately thought "oh no, not again" thinking this was yet another "portfolio redesign".<p>Thankfully it's actually a redesign by Ryanair itself. Whenever I have a paper boarding pass I always fold it into my password so this is a great improvement.
A very nice improvement over the old boarding pass. The information is laid out much more clearly and seems more easy to scan.<p>The only minor change I'd consider is having a black-and-white version of the pass without large solid blocks of colour (for example, by using line icons for graphics instead). This would save a lttle bit on printer ink.
The new design seems to make sense, but I'm somewhat skeptical these are all their own ideas.<p>They have an odd history of straight up copying ideas, sometimes verbatim...to the point where it's embarrassing.[1]<p>[1] <a href="http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/print.main?id=3402022" rel="nofollow">http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/pr...</a><p>Edit: Yep. That clever boarding pass where you fold it in fours...Virgin America, back in 2014. <a href="https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/87CD50B8DF1070152893052624896_21fecd30072.0.2.13977125890185955206.mp4?versionId=QihFNyugGQ7xN1nDpuSkhx5KavBbr.N5" rel="nofollow">https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/87CD50B8DF10701528930526248...</a><p>Edit 2: In retrospect, I suppose this sounds pretty harsh. The connotation of "Labs", "Research", "Design", etc just sticks in my craw...especially when paired with what's basically a copy of another airline's idea, rolled out with operational testing that didn't involve the actual operational groups.
I find it interesting that if you fold the pass according to the instructions, you get the core pass on the front and the ads on the back, while if you do the opposite, you get the core pass on the front and the schedule on the back.
"A large part of Ryanair’s revenue is generated by ancillary income, so allowing for ad space was an important business requirement."<p>They seem to care so much about their ad space, that I wonder if I can edit the boarding pass, remove the ads before printing it and still board my plane. How long before they start aggressively promoting stuff in the cabin for the whole duration of the trip?
I've never flown with an American company, but I have flown quite a bit with a few here in Europe, particularly Norwegian and they use a digital boarding pass that I add to the Wallet app on my iPhone. It's super convenient and really nice.
What are the problems with the new design from operational staffs perspective?<p>The article ends by saying they wished they had taken operational staffs opinion into account, but there are no examples with things this does worse than the old.
Looks similar to a paper version of a United Mobile boarding pass:
<a href="http://pointsmilesandmartinis.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/screen568x568-2.jpeg" rel="nofollow">http://pointsmilesandmartinis.boardingarea.com/wp-content/up...</a><p>Still, an improvement... I always assumed the form factor was driven by the ticket printers installed for the airport gate agents.
I flew Ryanair a couple of weeks ago, without having been aware of the boarding pass re-design.<p>I saw immediately that it was meant to be folded into quarters. <i>Neat</i>, I thought. Then I found myself referring to each section at various times, and actually finding the information <i>really useful</i>.<p>It's great to be pleasantly surprised by well-considered design.
Complete fail. Ryanair first, customer last as per usual. Why do they make their customer print advertisements? Have they done anything to reduce the amount of ink required?
> If you forgot to print your own boarding pass you’d incur a hefty fee for the convenience of Ryanair printing it for you.<p>Yes that happened to me. Worst flight check-in user-experience ever.