Pushing UX to the Limits

I have very mixed feelings about the importance of good user experience (UX) in technology products. Very often ironizing on UX gurus' posts who think UX is super fundamental. Scott Jenson for example have cried rivers over control panels in microwave ovens. True, some of them are quite baroque, and myself - when it comes to microwave ovens - I do prefer just two mechanical dials: power and time. Same for air fryers: temperature and time. But really it does not take a super high IQ to use a microwave oven. A bit higher one is probably necessary to set up an alarm clock in a hotel: 99% of time they show wrong time and then it is unclear which time is the current time and which is the alarm time and if the alarm is on or off. Long gone are the times of travel clocks with the alarm hand and the pop-up "armed" button: nobody needed instructions to operate them. Nowadays even the iOS 26 alarm clock is misleading - if you have an alarm entry that is off and you click it and then "confirm", it remains off.

On the other hand there is the business aspect - products with good UX sell better. To the point that even a not so useful product can be a great seller if it has a great UX.

The case I wanted to bring up today is the Flighty app. It is one of the prettiest iOS app I have ever seen. It is not that very necessary app, as most of the features it has, are already present in the native airline apps (the good ones, like the United Airlines app). Or are available in 3rd arty flight tracking apps like the Flight Radar 24. Also unless you pay the subscription fee, Flighty is really really annoying. To the point that you either pay what they want or delete the app.

But it is very pretty. Especially the rotating Earth with the past and future flights looks very cool. In particular, when you have multiple long distance flights. And the UX in almost every detail has been pushed to the absolute limits. Flighty can import flights (past and planned) from email, which is quite convenient, as otherwise people would not bother (re)entering the data. Comparing that to Tripit (a more all-around travel planning app), Flighty has much higher success rate importing flights. It still fails with some emails either by not importing at all, or importing flights at wrong dates (the second issue can be quite serious, as not everyone may spot the problem and then you may miss your flights if you rely on the app). Manual entry with Flighty is also way quicker and smoother (compared to Tripit) - clicks are shaved to the absolute minimum. Even fields like [Booking code] have direct "Paste" buttons beside them (yes it is very likely you would be copying the booking code from somewhere, rather than typing it). The Paste button changes to "Copy" once the booking code is entered. Somebody must have gone really deeply to absolutely minimize the effort to use the app. I have not seen anything like that before.

As I said, the necessity to have this app is quite limited. Similar things (although not as nicely consolidated and presented) have been available in other apps. On top of that, it makes mistakes. The flight I am booked on this Monday morning (LH1627 Krakow - Munich) shows 0% cancelations in the last 60 days. But it actually was canceled on Nov 9. I discussed this with the Flighty support, who said thank you and reassured me that the app reflected now the correct status. Which it has not - still shows 0% canceled. And finally - Flighty is only handling flights, unlike Tripit, which aims at consolidating full itineraries. But Tripit looks ugly in comparison.

Is this app overdone - maybe. But on the other hand - I went and paid the annual subscription. If it was not that intriguingly well polished - I would not care. So yes - great UX drives business and sales. And it of course is pleasant to have things designed thoughtfully. A great example to follow.