On Nov 23, 2009, at 6:25 PM, Alan Wexelblat wrote:
Start here: http://dustincurtis.com/incompetence.html
It's a story about user experience and American Airlines, both in the
real world and their online presence. The main blog post links back
to Curtis' original complaint about AA's horrid user experience, and
to a response he received from an Interaction Designer inside the
company. Who was then outed and fired.
At heart it's a small story about fitting user experience into a (big)
corporate culture. Or not.
Really, it's a story about how an independent designer doesn't get the
world of big corporation politics. And, it's a story about how a
company which doesn't like its laundry aired in public deals with
employees who reveal stuff publicly.
This is not the first time an employee was canned because he spoke out
of school. It won't be the last.
AA has a history of both being an innovator in experience design. They
were the first airline to embrace mobile. They've done amazing things
with wayfinding. They were the first with online checkin. They've done
some innovative things on the web. Go back 25 years and you can see
real innovation in ticketing and loyalty programs. (Don't get me wrong
-- I'm not an AA fan boy. In fact, they are one of my least favorite
airlines to fly. Personally, I regularly tell my friends to avoid them
if possible. But credit is due for their innovative approach to IT.)
They also get bogged down in politics like many great companies.
From a design standpoint, there's really no story in the Dustin
Curtis thing. Any of us could sit down and, ignoring all the political
realities of a big company, come up with an "improved" redesign. But,
that's not where the challenge is, is it? It's working within the
constraints that gives design its real challenges.
There's nothing to see here. Move along.
That's my opinion.
Jared
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