Los Angeles World Airports
Product design, branding, and campaign elevating the LAX employee experience
What do you do when you manage the busiest origin and destination airport in the world, serviced by over 40,000 employees who share the goal of making LAX the gold standard of airports? Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the governing body managing LAX, turned to Designit as a partner in their modernization process. We quickly identified a vital need: creating a digital experience that would connect employees to the airport, provide access to tools and content, and elevate the employee and traveler experiences.
Making a flight plan
We packed our bags and headed to Los Angeles to create Altitude, a mobile digital product that helps transform airport operations and the employee experience. We fully immersed ourselves in airport functions and the daily lives of employees. After interviewing employees and conducting observational research, we tested our concepts and prototypes to quickly gain insights. We then launched the Altitude MVP.
Altitude takes flight
With Altitude in hand, LAX employees can do their jobs more efficiently, with tools such as problem reporting and a service directory. The employee experience has been enhanced as well, with vendor discounts and commuting options. And to improve communication, Altitude features a news hub and feedback tool.
In addition to creating the Altitude digital product, our global One Designit team established the Altitude brand as something to unite all employees. This included naming exercises, expanding upon the LAX color palette, and logo designs. We also created a campaign platform to promote Altitude around the airport, including tactics such as Altitude-themed posters, bus clings, pens, challenge coins, lanyards, business cards, flyers, and more to get the word out.
Prepare for landing
Adding wings to the employee experience
Altitude launched in the summer of 2023, and early employee feedback has been promising. Our ability to marry a design-thinking approach with an agile delivery process helped LAWA move toward their goal of making LAX the gold standard of airports. Current and anticipated new features in Altitude are expected to support increased adoption and benefits to LAX employees, including:
• Work tools to report, track, and resolve issues that would otherwise impede the airport experience for everyone.
• Centralized communication, including alerts for important notes, vital construction news, and coming events, and a searchable, digital catalog of answers to frequently asked traveler questions.
• Job benefits and perks, including employee discounts, shuttle tracker way finding, and a job board with all open positions across the airport.
• Personalized information catered to the employees’ job type and terminal to tailor the level of information and different tools in the future, such as terminal-specific alerts, career advancement recommendations, and kudos/accolades.