soulsight®

We all know how cumbersome and exhausting air travel can be these days. From the long lines and incessant delays to the irritable gate attendants and headache-inducing neon lights. Fun, fun. Well, imagine for a moment, if you will, that you were given respite from the hideous underbelly of air travel and instead granted the gift of a truly calming and – dare I say it? – visually arresting experience. Would you believe me? I wouldn't have either, but that was before I had my first (and now certainly not my last) flight on Virgin America.

I was first aware of Virgin America's keen attention to design when I arrived at the terminal to print out my boarding pass. Goodbye to the days of kiosks that look like they were designed in 1973. Goodbye to the oversized tickets crammed with confusing algorithms of numbers, letters, and barcodes. Hello, lovely white touch-screen monitors and cute (pocket sized!) boarding passes with only the relevant information I need (neatly justified left, of course).

From the moment I walked into the Virgin America gate area, I was immediately transported away from the hustle and bustle of the offending airport terminal and instead swept away to an open area lounge space with warm lighting, minimalist touch screens on tables for visitors to use for free, and, believe it or not, a vase of fresh flowers out on display. Wow.

What became abundantly clear to me at that point (and not just because I work in the design industry) is that this brand actually recognized the importance of leveraging design to enhance the consumer experience and interaction with the brand. This simple ethos was carried through when I boarded the plane. As soon as you step onto the jet bridge, you notice that something feels a bit different. There's a soft purple glow trickling into the jet bridge that increases as you make your way to the plane. Once you walk onto the plane, the striking yet calming mood lighting engulfs the interior of the plane as faint spa music gently plays. Ahhhhhh.

The sensorial feast continues when you sit down and first realize that you have your very own touch screen (a very exciting moment, actually) that offers a plethora of activities from movies, games, and instant messaging with other passengers to dining options that are just a click away. The screen's interface is so well-designed with clear visuals and icons aiding in the user experience that even the hip 78-year-old woman sitting next to me seemed to have no trouble at all ordering various snacks and a movie throughout the course of her flight.

Alas, there were more special details to enjoy during the flight. When I popped into the restroom to freshen up, I was struck by a card propped behind the soap pump on the sink as well as a colorful postcard pamphlet sitting next to the paper towels. Both cards were touting Method Soap's iconic bottle. Catering to a younger, modern traveler, Virgin cleverly leveraged its relationship with a very relevant brand for the same consumer target – thus creating an immediate link in consumers' hearts and minds that these two brands share similar ideologies of eco-friendly and smart design.

Virgin America's sensitivity to aesthetics and functional design innovation truly made for a more enriching travel experience. Adam Wells, the Design Director for Virgin Group USA, perhaps put it best: “At any given moment, a user’s experience can make or break the relationship he/she has with a brand. Every point of contact is a potentially defining moment; brands must design with that in mind.” Virgin America's brand experience not only shifted the paradigm of air travel, but truly redefined the consumer experience and raised the bar for its competition. Well done, Virgin America. I look forward to traveling the friendly skies with you again.