Friday, April 30, 2004
Interaction design and airports
In the Herald and Tribune, Harvey Molotch ponders the design issues surrounding the design of airport security. There are many interacting factors at play here: design of artefacts (trays, detectors etc), protocols for behaviour (who goes where and what do they do), support for the user (do we needhelpers on hand to guide people unfamiliar with the procedures?) etc. This is a major design challenge. In fact, in terms of "designed spaces", I think airports probably come near the top of the list in terms of design needs. Think about it - there are large numbers of people that need to be guided into specific areas, supported in performing specific tasks before moving on to other areas for specific times, whilst at the same time all obeying specific security protocols to make sure there are no alarms raised. The design of airport interactions would make for a good case study in a HCI class, and improvements to specific interactions and areas could form the basis for a design project.
In the Herald and Tribune, Harvey Molotch ponders the design issues surrounding the design of airport security. There are many interacting factors at play here: design of artefacts (trays, detectors etc), protocols for behaviour (who goes where and what do they do), support for the user (do we needhelpers on hand to guide people unfamiliar with the procedures?) etc. This is a major design challenge. In fact, in terms of "designed spaces", I think airports probably come near the top of the list in terms of design needs. Think about it - there are large numbers of people that need to be guided into specific areas, supported in performing specific tasks before moving on to other areas for specific times, whilst at the same time all obeying specific security protocols to make sure there are no alarms raised. The design of airport interactions would make for a good case study in a HCI class, and improvements to specific interactions and areas could form the basis for a design project.
(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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