Swiss International Air Lines’ insistence on serving chilled champagne to its short-haul business class passengers forced Bombardier to work galley chillers into the design of the CSeries – an addition the manufacturer had not planned to include. Dick Powell, co-founder and chairman of design agency Seymourpowell, says this is a prime example of asking the ‘why not?’ question, which is fundamental to the work designers do.
Speaking at yesterday’s Passenger Experience Conference, Powell hammered home the difference between businesses and designers, saying: “It’s a business’s job to ask ‘why’, but designers ask ‘why not?’”
Powell’s point was underscored later in the conference – but this time it was a business asking ‘why not’, and a manufacturer left grappling for an answer.
Alexa Luppi, manager of cabin development at Swiss, says the airline – the launch customer for the CSeries – “gave Bombardier a hard time with the things we wanted to have”. Chief of those demands was “a chilled galley in the front” because “we need our champagne to be chilled”.
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Bombardier Commercial Aircraft vice-president and head of marketing Patrick Baudis, sitting on the same panel as Luppi, admitted that this had not been in the original plan. “We weren’t designing galleys with this in mind… but you’ve got to understand why airlines want something and find a solution,” he says.
“You’ve got to listen. We’re talking about the customer experience and, for Swiss, it is important how they serve their business-class passengers.”
Swiss got its way, proving Powell’s point that asking why something can’t be done is often more useful than asking why things are the way they are.
“’Why not?’ was the question and there was never a ‘no’ [from Bombardier], which was a nice experience,” says Luppi.
Swiss got its cabin crews involved early in the process of planning for Bombardier’s new single-aisle aircraft, in order for their “inputs to be realised”, says Luppi. “We always get our crew on board early because we should integrate them in the process.
“Our crews were very keen to fly on this aircraft… If you have a happy crew, you have happy passengers.”
Using examples from multiple industries, Powell told delegates attending the conference about the importance of design in bridging the gap between innovation and reality. “Innovation fails when businesses can’t embrace change,” he says, likening large companies to “giant jellies” that “shake around with activity” when thinking about how to switch things up – but “after a while they go back to how they were”.
Design should be worked into every touchpoint along the customer’s experience, in order to prevent airline brands from becoming tainted, argues Powell. “It takes years to build a brand but you can destroy a brand with a sneer,” he says.
Deborah Dawton, chief executive of the Design Business Asociation, agrees, saying: “The holy grail is the customer experience – how do you get design to work for you across all touchpoints? There is no excuse for getting this wrong.”
Source: Flight Daily News
