They’re both made less intimidating by knowing what to expect.
Yesterday, Paul Barker and I joined the British Aviation Group (BAG) Key Themes Deep Dive on Passenger Experience and Human Factors. It was an uplifting hour with some of the top minds in aviation and user experience discussing how to make air travel better for everyone.
What struck us most was that accessibility was placed front and centre. One powerful insight shared:
“To deliver a good customer experience, you first need to have customers. And if around 20% of the population is experiencing some form of anxiety or mental health challenge at any time, it’s essential to make those people feel safe, welcomed and confident.”
Airports can be overwhelming places—bright, noisy, fast-moving. For an infrequent flyer or someone with a hidden need, they can be outright terrifying. But knowledge dispels fear.
Show someone in advance where the toilets are.
Where to check in their bag.
Where to change a child’s nappy.
Where to find the right gate—and a cup of tea—and the fear begins to ease.
But it’s not just airports.
Take Morrab Surgery in Penzance.
It’s a compact GP surgery in West Cornwall. It took 125 carefully planned scan positions to cover just 332 square metres. Compare that with Brownsville Airport in South Texas, where we used 755 scans to cover approximately 18,500 square metres—from check-in to baggage reclaim.
The difference isn’t just in square metres.
It’s in how people use those spaces.
A sports hall and a museum gallery might be the same size, but one needs just a handful of scans. The other—full of exhibits, corners, signage and important decisions—may need a hundred. Because people don’t navigate flat planes, they navigate complexity.
Sometimes, a scan can change a life.
A close friend of mine is a stage 3 cervical cancer survivor. Her diagnosis was delayed—partly because her symptoms were dismissed, but also because she was terrified of hospitals.
When her partner finally convinced her to request tests and scans, she still put it off because of a deeply rooted phobia of unfamiliar clinical spaces.
Years later, she told me:
“If I could have seen what the hospital looked like in advance—even just the waiting room—I would have gone in much sooner.”
That’s why 125 scan positions at a surgery aren’t excessive.
They’re essential.
Make the unfamiliar feel familiar.
We’re often told:
“Oh, I thought this would cost much more!”
And then comes the next question: “Why so many scans?”
Because every scan helps answer an unspoken question.
Because for a nervous visitor, the difference between one scan and ten can be the difference between turning up and cancelling.
So whether it’s 125 scans at Morrab Surgery or 755 scans at Brownsville Airport, the goal is always the same:
Make the unfamiliar feel familiar.
Make the scary feel survivable.
Make that first visit possible.
Owner CEO
Ocean 3D Ltd
25/07/2025