Not the car for gangsters

Place: sequoia nat. Park, ca

Design problem: what if you found yourself inside the trunk of a car? How would you get out? Now, I know, You're asking how someone would get there in the first place... let's just say that maybe you took out a loan from the wrong person.

Solutions: our rental car has a safety pull cord inside the trunk. It shows a drawing of a person leaping out of the trunk on it. I'm not sure you could actually see this in the dark, so possibly a glow in the dark pull cord or possibly some mood lighting for unexpected trunk rides might be in order.

Misuse of multimedia systems

Place: westfield shopping center, san francisco

Design problem: the large floor map of the mall in the information kiosk is a large touch screen. It is placed next to a static listing of businesses and locations. Touching the map removes the mall floorplan and replaces it with a dialog box offering a variety of services such as searching for a brand or store name. However public information kiosks are often used simultaneously by multiple customers. In the current design if one person touches the screen, no other customer is able to get their questions answered until the first has completed their interaction. When I first saw the kiosk there was a crowd of people standing around it - not in amazement - but with irritated looks waiting for an elderly shopper to finish using the device. Most walked off without getting the information they wanted.

Proposed solutions: the potential for mall kiosk systems is high. They can show you how to get to a store from your current location, or let you search for a specific product and see if it in stock or compare prices (this kiosk did not do this). However they must support multiple users at the same time, be at least as efficient as the old paper posters for common tasks (e.g. Browsing stores in a category), and they should ultimately make the shopping experience better - not more frustrating. Multiple smaller kiosks would help, as would side by side paper and digital kiosks, so that the paper could be used while the digital one was busy.

The two photos demonstrate the new unusable touch screen and the old usable printed poster (located in different parts of the mall).

Getting off an aircraft

Place: on a recently landed plane in Florida

Design problem: A lot of people need to get off a plane in a short period of time, *every time* a plane lands. The current solution is to make one or two long single-file lines go out *one* door. Is there a worse possible solution to this problem?; only not letting people off comes to mind. The issue is partially how the plane is managed (the administration Southwest airlines) and partially how it is structured (e.g. Boeing).

Potential solutions: Many busy buses have two doors - with good reason. Trains also have multiple doors. Virgin airlines in Australia boarded and emptied planes from both the front and the back of the plane at the same time. This helps, but it only cuts the problem in half. The real problem is that people need to unclip their seatbelt, get into the aisle, find their bags, and check if they have forgotten anything - all while having a line behind them. A passing lane works on a freeway for slow motorists, why not on an airplane? Make the plane a little wider and the passengers a lot happier. And why not use three doors to enter and exit? Sure, it might require redesigning the entry ramps and planes, or deplaning people onto the tarmac, but the customers would get in and out more rapidly (which makes the airlines more timely) and customers would be less frustrated with their flights.

Thinking outside the box: another thing that would help would be to make the plane double decker, with bags placed in lockers in front of each passenger instead of above them. That way people could access their luggage without getting up from their seats during the flight (no more 'your baggage may have shifted warnings'), and you wouldn't have to fight for a free spot in the communal lockers. It also would mean that passengers wouldn't block the communal aisle from affording movement while they are getting their bags ready. In summary: at the time of boarding or deplaning, the aisle is a communal space which is having far too many tasks required of it at the same time; no wonder passengers get annoyed whenever they have to take a flight.

Safety lectures on airplanes

Place: southwest airlines flight, seattle

Design problem: Can you imagine getting on your fifth flight of the year and not hearing the same safety lecture for the fifth time? Wouldn't it be nice to just read your book in relative silence before takeoff? Does anyone actually listen to those announcements? I don't think I have ever listened to one, and I travel a fair bit. Furthermore I doubt anyone remembers significant parts of a boring repetitive safety lecture after they've just survived a crash landing. The current system is a significant reduction in the (already greatly diminished) quality of the air travel experience.

Possible solutions: The airline passenger is part of a captive audience who has to stay in a seat for long periods. Their ability to use devices (e.g. Ipods, dvds, games, phones) is highly controlled by airline staff, with little distraction possible at certain times. With so much time being spent bored, sitting looking at the back of the seat in front, why is this space not being used to convey safety information?

Remove the audio safety sermon and put in a simple graphical overview of safety instructions on the back of the seats. Even I would know the safety procedures if I had nothing else to read. Alternatively, have an automated system which verbally announces simple procedures in the event of a crash - just in time information. Plane travel doesn't have to feel like being in boot camp.

Replacement of car parts

Place: Festival parking lot, Shelton WA

Design problem: GMC Jimmy cars have a plastic grill on the front of the car. A rock can easily fly up and chip or break portions of the grill leaving the car looking bad. Cost of repair is $24 for the letter. But cost of shop labor time to repair is $80. It turns out that replacing the letter requires dismantling the entire front of the car (because the pins holding the letter go far back in), and it requires special screw drivers which most people don't have.

Potential solutions: Make emblem letters that are cheap and dismantle from the front of the car; mold the emblem into the front grill so it can't fall out; use standard parts so people can fix their own cars; allow access to the front grill from inside the engine compartment so repairs can easily be made; lastly make it easy to replace all small parts on the car should something happen to them.

Street signs on highways

Place: North of Portland on I-5

Design issue: How many times have you been driving down the highway and wondered what the speed limit is, but couldn't see a sign? Or similarly when you see a sign coming up, but a big truck blocks it out as you drive by? This is both annoying to drivers and unsafe.

Possible solutions include: signs on both sides of the road; bigger signs that can be seen farther away; wireless transmission of upcoming sign content to a screen in your car that tells you the current speed limit and lets you review signs you've just passed; putting trucks in a seperate designated lane in the center of the road similar to a carpool lane where they don't obstruct vision to the side of the road. Any other ideas?

Shoes and design compromises

Place: Olympia Washington

Design issue: I was thrilled to see Keen come out with sandles that were both waterproof and had a closed toe on them. No more stubbing toes on tidepool rocks! But it brings along with it a new problem: small rocks get into the toe via the sides and then they don't fall back out easily so you have to take off the shoe or walk painfully. So a design solution brings with it a new design problem. I think the solution might lie in a design that encloses the foot less while still providing reasonable protection in high risk areas such as the toes.