Marisa Garcia Seattle-based design firm TEAGUE seeks insights and expertise from flight crew, cabin crew, airline services and technical staff, as well as passengers, for its ‘Flying Aces’ research programme: designed to make air travel better.
As the design firm explains: “Flying Aces are experts at the front lines of the commercial aviation industry—including pilots, flight attendants, passengers, and maintenance and operations professionals—who are pre-screened to participate in design research conducted by the design consultancy TEAGUE. The Flying Aces program gives TEAGUE designers and strategists essential access to the people who will actually use the products, services, and experiences being designed for the future.”
TEAGUE is the original design consultancy, founded in 1926 by design pioneer Walter Dorwin Teague. The company has been responsible for helping to design many firsts including the Polaroid camera, the UPS truck, Texaco-branded service stations, the Pringles canister, and the Xbox.
TEAGUE’s commitment to improving aviation goes way, way back. The consultancy has designed the interior of every Boeing commercial airplane ever produced—including the revolutionary 787 Dreamliner.
“At TEAGUE we make things—whether they’re products, services, or experiences. We do this through interdisciplinary teams of industrial designers, interaction designers, researchers, strategists, engineers, and other talents spanning everything from branding to robotics,” the firm explains. “This imperative to make things is driven by our belief in connecting strategy with execution. We call this approach thinking through making and it’s at the heart of everything we do.”
Do Your Part to Improve Air Travel
- If you work as a pilot, you could contribute a valuable understanding of a broad range of cabin environment needs, especially complex spaces like the flight deck.
- Flight attendants could share insights on the challenges, facilities and skills needed to deliver superior service to a diverse mix of passengers while ensuring passenger safety.
- Catering teams can share their perspectives on the intricacies of creating delectable in-flight experiences while dealing with the demanding schedules of rapid turn-around and volume preparation of meals.
- Maintenance and engineering personnel could share important viewpoints on operational inefficiencies at airlines and on potential innovations in materials and equipment which could help propel the industry forward and advance flight technologies.
- Passengers can finally have their say in the design of tomorrow’s flying experience. As the ultimate end-users of the air travel experience they can share their personal point of view of on the challenges and opportunities ahead for the airline industry.
Flying Aces contribute to making the world of commercial aviation a better place, one experience at a time.—TEAGUE
As a “Flying Ace” you could be invited by the firm to participate in early product testing, take surveys, and be interviewed one-on-one or share your opinions in focus groups. Most activities are online, which makes keeping up with the program easy for busy globe-trotters, but some opportunities do require in-person participation.
If you’re a match for one of TEAGUE’s studies, the firm would contact you to share all the details, including a compensation for your time. You can decide whether or not to participate in individual studies.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up and make the skies a better place. (Plus, make money!)
Give it a Try
Do you feel overwhelming germophobia on the plane? (Me too! I never fly without my vitamins and sanitizer-wipes.)
Take the current TEAGUE “Flying Aces” survey: “The Dirty Secrets of Air Travel”
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