For FAQ’s sake
An investigation into the digitalisation of the travel agency through the lens of Ryanair’s customer service. The company’s help centre presents itself as an instrument for smooth user experience and speedy troubleshooting. Yet what lies beneath this friendly front is an intricate design for minimising human interaction.
Taking a mistakenly booked flight as a starting point, the research tactics entailed testing every communication channel available. What followed was a prolonged series of unanswered calls, endless form-writing, opaque phone menus and desperate FAQ reading. These frustrated learnings have been channelled into the GEO—DESIGN: Budget Airlines Help Centre.
All pictures © Boudewijn Bollmann
Van Abbemuseum,
Eindhoven, Netherlands
2021
An investigation into the digitalisation of the travel agency through the lens of Ryanair’s customer service. The company’s help centre presents itself as an instrument for smooth user experience and speedy troubleshooting. Yet what lies beneath this friendly front is an intricate design for minimising human interaction.
Taking a mistakenly booked flight as a starting point, the research tactics entailed testing every communication channel available. What followed was a prolonged series of unanswered calls, endless form-writing, opaque phone menus and desperate FAQ reading. These frustrated learnings have been channelled into the GEO—DESIGN: Budget Airlines Help Centre.
All pictures © Boudewijn Bollmann
Van Abbemuseum,
Eindhoven, Netherlands
2021
