Lufthansa AG turned to UXalliance to perform usability tests on prototypes of their “Inflight Entertainment” (IFE) system’s user interface. This interface, designed for long-distance airplanes, enables passengers to exert individual control over the entertainment on offer on board (movies, music, or games).
Weconducted user tests in Germany, China, and Egypt in order to take intoconsideration the heterogeneity and cultural diversity of passengers oflong-haul flights. Torecreate the most realistic test situation, we reproduced the on-boardenvironment by employing aircraft seats and replicating the actual seatdistance and screen sizes, besides using the prototypes of the entry media. We carried out the tests on all the specific inputmedia (handsets) provided for each service class (First, Business and EconomyClass), with a thorough consideration of the differences among their designs.
Theaim of the study was to check the usability of the interface, in order to:
Theresults of our study provided important clues as to how the user interfaceprototypes could be improved and optimized.