The Psychology of Airport Design
Design psychology is a very real thing. It’s used practically everywhere - schools, hospitals, roads, and yes, airports. Here’s just a few principles of design psychology:
Hick’s Law: The more options a user has, the longer it takes them to make a decision.
Gestalt Principles: Proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, connectedness (read more about them here.
Color Psychology: The colors used dictate how someone perceives something. For example, a company trying to give of an air of luxury or sophistication, like Rolex or Louis Vuitton, will use a color pallet with a lot of rich colors (golds, deep blue, silver). A company trying to appear more fun, like Southwest Airlines or McDonalds will use a lot of bright colors.
Visual Hierarchy: Items should be arranged in order of importance (like on signage)
Biophilic Design: Incorporating natural elements into the design (a very famous example is Singapore Changi Airport’s Jewel Rain Vortex and Butterfly Garden)
One of the key elements in designing an airport is ease of navigation. People are often stressed, are managing a lot of things, or just coming off a very long flight when they’re in airports, which are massive labyrinths full of a lot of things to do. A huge part of this is making sure that you have good signage. There are 4 principles of signage:
1. Clarity: You should be able to understand the sign at a glance
2. Visibility: Signs should be visible easily - you shouldn’t have to go in search of them
3. Consistency: It should be visually consistent, with a set color pallet, font, and size
4. Relevance: Only put the most important information on signs, nothing else extra
Flooring has a big impact on the overall feel and function of an airport too, in ways you might not expect. The way tile can be laid out in specific patterns can help subconsciously direct the flow of traffic. Going back to the rule of visual hierarchy, darker colored tiles are often sparingly against lighter colored tiles to direct people to important locations, like security, baggage claim, or customs. The same principle applies on carpeting. Lighting is a big deal too. “People are drawn towards warm colors and light, so designers can use these things to pull people in one direction,” said environmental psychologist Sally Augustine in an interview with The Points Guy. “People also like to stay on the same surface, so if they’re walking on carpet, they have a tendency to keep walking on that same carpet.”
When I was researching this, I reached out to my neighbor, an architect at a major architecture firm, who’s portfolio incudes U.S. Bank Stadium (Minneapolis), the American Airlines Center (Dallas), Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis), SoFi Stadium (Los Angeles), as well as some aviation projects, including the ATL modernization project, the DFW International Airport Terminal D, the Orlando International Airport’s People Mover complex, part of San Francisco International Airport’s Harvey Milk Terminal, and the Grand Rapids Airport remodel, which my neighbor was a part of.
He told me that a big part of airport design is making things feel integrated. There’s a divide between the pre and post security areas at an airport, which can often make things feel broken up and fragmented. Security is, of course, necessary, but there are ways to make it feel more naturally integrated into the overall flow of the airport. For example, making the airside space visible from the landsite area (using techniques like a lot of glass and a sloped ceiling) can make it seem a little big less broken up.
“When we’re designing something like an airport, it’s very unique. For a lot of people, it’s the first impression they get of a city, so we do want to add some local flair, to make it feel unique,” he said. For example, the Minneapolis - Saint Paul International Airport has a large mural (and an entire shop devoted to) the music icon Prince, who is from the area. There’s also a large art piece (a twisting glass display with colorful lights), modeled after the aurora borealis (some of the best places to watch the Northern Lights are in Minnesota). Just below the statue, integrated into the floor are more colored LEDs, designed to represent some of the lakes in the Minneapolis area.
Another airport with a lot of local flair that I’ve noticed is the Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport (the city it’s designed to serve is in Ohio, but CVG itself is in Hebron, Kentucky). There was a massive map of Kentucky in the main hall after TSA with all the bourbon distilleries around the state, something Kentucky is famous for.
At this point, airports feel like shopping malls with airplanes. There are hundreds of businesses - from full service restaurants to news stands in a terminal, all of whom are trying to attract passengers. Part of the design of the airport does include some of the same tactics that are used at a grocery store of fast food chain to get people to spend their money - bright colors, very visible signs, and the same recognizable branding that you see everywhere. There’s also some airport -specific tactics. For example, they want to make the retail spaces as attractive as possible, so you spend the most amount of time there. Sometimes, the walkways will even curve to prolong your exposure to all the stores. Research shows that every extra minute spent in retail areas increases the chance of an impulse buy, whether that be a good book for the long flight ahead or a burger and fries for while you wait.
There’s also elements that need to be tailored to an airport experience. For example, it’s not practical to put store that sell big items (most of the time) in terminals, since people don’t have the space to bring those with them. There are some exceptions - the gym equipment retailer Peloton has a retail store in the Chicago - O’hare International Airport. You can try out and purchase all sorts of gear there, from weights to treadmills, and have it shipped to your home in 60+ countries. Foodwise, at non-sit down restaurants, the product needs to be easily moved, quick, and ideally crafted for planes (IE: not messy or smelly). That’s why there are so many of those grab and go stores, since they’re so convenient.
As I mentioned, airports are often stressful places, especially for nervous flyers. There are a few design psychology tricks employed to help keep travelers calm. For one, a lot of natural light. Artificial lighting has been shown to significantly negatively impact anxiety, so using as much natural lighting as possible is best. Designers also want to keep visual and noise stimuli to a minimum. Little things, like making sure the music is consistent throughout the terminal and that the signs all employ the same font and color scheme make all the difference. Another component of helping travelers feel more comfortable is giving them the illusion of choice. Airports may confine passengers to a limited space, but by providing options—like diverse seating arrangements near the gate—they create an illusion of choice, giving travelers a sense of control over their surroundings. Even at a subconscious level, the feeling of choice can be very impactful. But you don’t want too many choices - it can be overwhelming.