4 totally doable ways to improve the ux of baggage claims

A few years ago, in one of the most recommended Medium posts, Masterclass founder David Rogier shared some wisdom about getting hired and standing out from the crowd. In order to snag an MBA internship at IDEO, he wrote a picture book about how he would improve baggage claims, called “A Day at the Baggage Claim.” He got the internship.

I really like this story, and the creative ideas David had. Airport UX is an overlooked topic, but one that could most benefit from a redesign. I thought it would be cool to build on David’s original analysis, so here are some ideas I had about how to further improve the baggage claim experience:

1. Use Dead Space

My last 2 flights, I returned home late at night. And both times, there was only ONE carousel returning bags to passengers. There were at least THREE flights waiting for their bags at the same carousel. I asked around, and people reported having similar experiences coming off of huge international flights.

Even if each of the 3+ flights had had their own carousel, that still would have meant dozens of people waiting at each one. Airports direct all passengers from a particular flight to the same carousel, because there is no way to individualize pickups. Or is there…?

Problem: Airport has 10 carousels and only uses 1.

Solution: Distribute bags to all carousels, even for passengers on the same flight. Instead of grouping by flight, deliver an SMS message specifying which carousel each person’s bags will arrive on.

All bags are tagged — sensors inside the conveyer belt system can scan each bag and determine its ultimate destination.

This also eliminates the pain of looking for info screens and searching for the flight number & corresponding baggage claim carousel.

Maximize the dead space of empty carousels.

2. Think Utilitarian

I used to walk as quickly as possible to the baggage claim so that I could grab my bags as soon as they came out. If you don’t hurry, then you won’t get a spot! And then you’re doomed to stand in the back, craning your neck and hoping to catch a glimpse of your bag, which, even if you do find, you won’t be able to grab unless you sneak in awkwardly between two people or go to the very very end of the queue.

Problem: Passengers stand as close to the belt as possible, even when they are not actively reaching for a bag.

It is uncomfortable, invades personal space, and blocks the view & pathway for all other passengers.

Solution: If everyone stood 6–8 feet back from the belt, then more people would have a clear view of the bags on the carousel.

And if people only stepped forward when actually retrieving a bag, they would have enough room to securely grab the bag and swing it out without jostling fellow passengers/UX victims.

(All airports I’ve been to have plenty of room for this distance)

Acting unselfishly benefits everyone (Prisoner’s Dilemma)

3. Set Better Expectations

Usually, I scramble to find a spot near the belt opening where I can stand and watch for my bags to arrive. I stand vigilantly, examining each bag as it comes out, trying to remember if my bag was blue or more of a blue-black? As I wait for a completely undetermined amount of time, my anticipation and disappointment rise and fall erratically.

Problem: People have no good way of knowing when their bags have arrived.

They must visually scan each bag as it comes out and exclude it until they find a match, like the worst sorting algorithm ever.

Solution: Place a sensor in the doorway that all bags emerge from, and send a text to each passenger when his/her bag is actually on the belt.

Setting and meeting expectations leads to greater customer satisfaction

4. Use Dead Time

Finally, baggage claims — like much of the airport — are black holes of wasted time. So much of what we do at the airport is waiting. At the baggage claim, we’re confronted with an awkward amount of time where nothing productive can be begun, nothing meaningful can be had, and nothing relaxing can be enjoyed. It’s pure dead time.

That seems like a phenomenal waste.

Turns out airports have already dealt with this issue before. You know what their solution was? TO MOVE THE BAGGAGE CLAIMS FURTHER AWAY FROM THE GATE. Shankar Vedantam talks about this in Hidden Brain -- apparently airports were receiving so many complaints about the wait time at the baggage claim that they added a longer walk. Sad part is...this actually worked. Humans are obsessed with "preoccupied time." We need to feel as if we are doing something, otherwise waiting is excruciatingly boring. And we hate boring. (In a study Shankar discussed in his podcast, people literally chose to shock themselves rather than sit and do nothing for 15 minutes.)

So you have a lot of people with nothing to do that are ready to be engaged by something. How can we use this wisely?

This is a great opportunity to learn something, to have a meaningful social experience, or contribute to something productive.

4a. Learn Something

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the museum exhibits SFO airport had in the international terminal. We would always have hours to kill, and those exhibits were life preservers in a sea of boredom.

So many airports could follow/expand on this model and put educational exhibits in baggage claim areas. With nothing else to do but go on their phones, people would naturally gravitate toward these installations and hopefully learn something in the process. How great would it be to learn, while waiting for your bags, that hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backward, or that clownfish are all born male, and some turn female later on? Even better would be the interactive exhibits, which have a sign that says “Touch Me!” and can teach people about the concept of inertia, or magnetism, etc.

4b. Crowdsource Human Ability to Do Something Productive

Here’s an example: there’s a fascinating project called EyeWire, from Sebastian Seung’s lab at MIT (now @ Princeton). It’s an online puzzle game that’s really easy to learn, and helps neuroscientists map the brain. Users play by tracing neurons and synapses, confirming connections that can then be used in research of the visual system. Over 200,000 users from 145 countries are currently playing the game — a phenomenal example of how collective human intelligence can accelerate a common goal. (play EyeWire!)

If there were a few computer kiosks in the baggage claim area with information about EyeWire and a chance to play the game, imagine how much progress we could make! We could turn that dead time into a very real contribution that may lead to a new discovery about the brain.

Other examples of crowdsourced contributions are:

• Planet Four: exploring the surface of Mars
• Tomnod: scanning satellite imagery to help search and rescue efforts
• Foldit: helping computers fold proteins

There are many ways we can leverage human ability to solve big problems. Giving people a way to donate their dead time in the airport will be a huge step.

4c. Donate and Raise Awareness

Those coin vortex things. Immensely satisfying. If there were 3 in the claim area, all representing a different nonprofit, people could learn about different initiatives and get rid of their spare change in a meaningful and entertaining way. UNICEF already does collections on planes; why not in the baggage claim too?

4d. Product Demos

All that down time would also be a great opportunity to try a new product. Even if you wouldn’t normally stop to check out the new Surface tablet, it’s amazing what seems interesting when you have nothing else to do. You could try out a Microsoft Surface book, the new Samsung phone, or an HTC Vive. This is certainly a huge opportunity for engagement marketing, in a way that alleviates boredom and creates a genuine learning interaction.

Companies could also leverage this time to talk to users, and gather more customer feedback. I get so bored at baggage claims, I would gladly go to a kiosk screen and fill out a user survey in exchange for a piece of mint or candy (much-needed after a long flight).

The best part of all this is that the advertising opportunity would be a source of revenue for the airport, which could use that money to, say, make baggage claims more efficient? A win for all parties involved.

Other Miscellaneous Ideas

• Social/game area — where people can solve puzzles or play short games
• Take-a-book, leave-a-book system: A lot of people read on planes, and presumably finish their books at some point. This would be a great way to pay forward the joy of reading. (Magazines also accepted.)

These ideas really aren’t limited to baggage claims — anywhere where people wait and have dead time, such as trains and bus stations, are also opportunities just waiting for a productive re-design.

As I thought through these ideas, the central theme that started to emerge was the problem of resource allocation. There are so many areas where we are doing a poor job of using our time and space. Life is short — why spend it waiting around? Here’s to designing better spaces.