Why Airplanes Aren’t Made for People and Other Unspoken Truths
I’m sitting in the front of an Airbus A340, and I’m wondering why what I’ve been through is so strange. The plane carries 240 people, but we all go through the same bottleneck, one by one (baaah, baaah, baaah) to get on board.
Planes should really allow people to board through the entire side, so that everyone can get on in three minutes. But the new A380s, which can carry 800 people when configured completely for steerage, will have the same bovine boarding. Who thought this was the way to do it?
When we land, we walk a good half-mile or more, through winding corridors, to reach immigration. Here, at least, they have a multitude of stations, but still huge backups for those without special lines. Then we have to walk another hundred yards and take two elevators to reach the lot where the limo is parked.
The trouble is that airplanes were not built for passengers and neither were airports. Airframe designers, municipal engineers, and immigration officials don’t care about passenger comfort, they care about their own needs and avoiding litigation. How is “Let them walk a mile so that we save building costs” different from “Let them eat cake so we can save the best for ourselves”? (The “cake” to which the lady referred, was actually bread.)
Some years ago, an executive at Ford, appalled when she found she couldn’t gracefully get into one of her own new car designs, ordered her male design team to wear skits during business hours. She told them if they didn’t improve access for women, she’d also put them in heels. The design improved quite rapidly.
What if consumers, clients, customers and all other relevant alliterative categories were involved in the design of the structures, procedures, and processes they’d be using most often? Would the doctor still press a cold stethoscope to your chest? Would you wear those humiliating hospital gowns? Would the division of motor vehicles make you take a ticket and wait around for three hours? Would subway cars have the same kind of seating?
I doubt it.
I try to design experiences my clients find attractive and compelling, which is not hard when you ask them. Why isn’t that a universal endeavor?
© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.
Jim
Great post. You couldn’t get involved with the London undergroud could you?
Some say it was brioche. But hey who cares, cakey bread, right?
Garry Beavis
The head honcho of the public transport system here said it would be mismanagement on his part if more train carriages were employed during peak hour and everyone got a seat. He said it’s called peak hour for a reason so we need to cram everyone in.
Morons in charge!
Roberta Matuson
Yet another wonderful post Alan.
Gary, be grateful they haven’t added more trains. Here’s what happened in Boston. I read with excitement that many of the Green Line trolleys would now have three cars to help alleviate everyone being crammed. What they failed to say is they were going to be running less trains. After waiting twenty minutes for a train during rush hour, you can imagine what it was like as people tried like heck to just got on the darn thing.
Gretchen
This makes me think of the author Donald Norman, who shows an example in one of his design books of a parking machine covered in notes that people had stuck on it. These notes told people how to use the machine, which apparently was difficult to use otherwise. Design failure! (See http://www.jnd.org/ for more from him on design.)
Alan Weiss
Virtually any modern Mercedes turns the heated seats down and then off during continual use. The Bentleys allow you keep it a given setting for as long as you like. Who decides best when my seat is heated, someone in Dusseldorf or me? Is the heat seat designed as a “feature” or a true buyer benefit?
You know why TV killed movies? Because you had to go to the movies, but TV came to you. That is the essence of the difference. TV is movies designed by consumers, who don’t want to have to leave the house if they don’t want to do so.
At the original Narita Airport, the multi-million dollar baggage carousels threw the bags onto the floor, so they had to employ two people per carousel to put them back on again.
Jose
Makes me think about the “buyer.” It’s obvious Airbus identified the buyer. But it’s not clear if Airbus, the buyer, or both ignored the needs of the ultimate buyer or “user” of the product. When projects are based on the lowest bid, concessions must be made unfavorably toward the ultimate buyer or user. In this case us the consumer.
Alan Weiss
Airlines make money from passengers but are not designed for the needs of passengers.
Quick example: Flight attendants pontificate that they are primarily here for our safety, but 90% or their job involved cabin service, and safety issues arise one in 100,000 flights. It’s nonsense. Get off the PA and serve me a drink.
Bob Ligget
You’ve written about this before and with a wry smile I thought about it last week on our flights to and from Kauai. I know of several airports that have recently touted their new “upgrades” but are simply cosmetic and not functional. The basic design always remains the same. Always. By the way, we experienced some of the worst customer service from Delta in recent memory, but a gate agent from their partner Hawaiian Air in Kauai saved the day. And yes, I’m writing them to compliment her.
Alan Weiss
Roberta, designed by the MTA not by riders….