The impact of well-thought-out subtlety

Once in a while, as a designer of primarily digital products and services, you get the opportunity to solve a problem that doesn't necessarily lie in the digital realm. And when you get that chance, you must seize it. That's exactly what we did for Schiphol.

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As the innovation club of Makerstreet, we were asked to take a critical look at the passenger experience at Schiphol and find a way to continuously improve it. By setting up living labs, we set to work on different parts of the passenger journey to put our ideas to the test.

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Of course, there are many innovations and ideas when it comes to technology, such as the new 3D scanners that will allow you to leave that bottle of water in your bag in the future, easily find your way with digital signage on your mobile, or reserve a time slot to calmly undergo the security check.

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But a lot of opportunities really revolve around 'human-to-human' solutions. Even a small improvement in the process and a finely tuned human interaction, such as between the security officer and the passenger, for example, works wonders, I can tell you. And I deliberately say 'works' because we have validated that in a living lab we set up at one of the departure halls of Schiphol.

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Over a 4-week period, we observed very closely, delved into the psychology of the passenger, and A/B tested interventions live. Right in front of you. Without realizing it, you may have been exposed to one of our experiments.

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The result? Passengers who experienced the same security procedure - coat and bag on the belt, through the security scan, sometimes being searched, coat and bag off the belt again, and onward - but with an extra positive after-taste.

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It is not surprising, therefore, that we are now going to work with Schiphol in the coming months to apply these validated improvements to a comprehensive departure filter in the form of a pilot project to see if this way of interacting with passengers can be widely adopted

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So if you are or will be at Schiphol Airport in the next few weeks, I am curious to see if you will notice these subtle changes at security. Although, should you happen to be traveling with children, that Family Lane is really not to be missed.

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The fact that we are allowed to do this proves to us once again that innovation does not always mean doing things differently or doing things completely differently. Sometimes it simply means taking a critical look at your existing processes and making the necessary adjustments based on what you see happening in a living lab.