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Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

reuters.com

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Re: Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

#11

Post by lucasjung »

alex_martin wrote: post #4

Aircraft must be the antithesis to Agile work and continuous iteration. It's a completely different mindset to anything I've done. Imagine it: 'I pushed a new flight yoke to 737 v2.199. It crashed so I've fixed the bug in v2.200. '

It depends on the type of aircraft, it's intended purpose, and how mature the design is. My current work involves developmental testing of aircraft, and one of the programs I'm working on is using spiral development. The iteration isn't continuous, and it's not nearly as fast as software, but it's pretty fast compared to other programs.

Also, even the more stable and mature aircraft designs get relatively frequent software updates, and there is a lot of software in aircraft these days. The interesting part is where the faster iteration process of software development meets the slower process of aircraft development. The software developers are constantly iterating just like you would expect them to, and then every so often spin off a version for release on the side. That release version goes through extensive testing (mostly regression testing to make sure nothing that used to work is now broken) before it ever makes it onto an aircraft. Usually a few fixes are required as well. While all of that is happening, there are still people working on the next version.

Re: Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

#13

Post by nodata »

vivek47 wrote: post #12

I have always wondered why it doesn't work like this: Press the button once to call. Press it again to cancel the call (if it was pressed by mistake). With a firmware update, this solution can even be retro-fitted to existing planes.

They could also stick a red sticker around the press-to-call button to mark it as being different.

And to turn the light on you could push the light itself.

Re: Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

#14

Post by yardie »

d_r wrote: post #5
btilly wrote: post #2

Yay. Now can I have a similar button in a restaurant? So I don't have to have my conversation interrupted by people coming by to ask me how dinner is going, and do I can get issues (like running out of water) addressed promptly.

Many restaurants in China do in fact have such a set of buttons at every table. As an added optimization, wait staff there typically use some kind of mobile devices to order food instead of using paper. I haven't seen many other countries, but I'm surprised both of these innovations aren't more prevalent here in the States.

Most restaurants in the US aren't as big as some of the chinese restaurants I've been to. The cost/benefit of having a mobile device for each waiter rather than a waiter station with a terminal would be minuscule. One thing some of the busier restaurants are doing is use pagers when there is a waiting list.

Re: Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

#15

Post by ugh »

d_r wrote: post #5
btilly wrote: post #2

Yay. Now can I have a similar button in a restaurant? So I don't have to have my conversation interrupted by people coming by to ask me how dinner is going, and do I can get issues (like running out of water) addressed promptly.

Many restaurants in China do in fact have such a set of buttons at every table. As an added optimization, wait staff there typically use some kind of mobile devices to order food instead of using paper. I haven't seen many other countries, but I'm surprised both of these innovations aren't more prevalent here in the States.

I have seen several restaurants in Germany try those mobile gizmos but they tend to disappear after a short time: Too slow, too unflexible. Their UI is just horrible as soon as customized orders come up. Well, their UI is probably horrible in general but extra horrible when you leave the path.

As for buttons, why not follow Larry David's lead and put a bell on every table?

Re: Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

#16

Post by po »

btilly wrote: post #2

Yay. Now can I have a similar button in a restaurant? So I don't have to have my conversation interrupted by people coming by to ask me how dinner is going, and do I can get issues (like running out of water) addressed promptly.

They're pretty standard here in Japan. They look (and work) like wireless doorbells. At first it can be hard to get used to the fact that the waiter won't come over until you've pushed the button but after a while you really start to appreciate it.

Also, in the US I always felt slightly guilty calling a waiter over as if I'm calling him out on not doing his job. Here, if they don't have the doorbell thingy it's expected that you'll shout すみません！ when you're ready to order.

The other major design issue with airplanes is putting the buttons on a remote and then jamming it into the armrest next to your butt so you can accidentally hit it when you're sleeping or shifting around. It's the airplane equivalent of pocket dialing.

Re: Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

#17

Post by jacques_chester »

tomjen3 wrote: post #10
enko wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on, it wasn't that badly written, and the ideas and insight more than made up for it. I'd definitely recommend it.

Agreed, it was pretty good. Of course once I read it, I started to wonder if I could code mana.

The author has already patented the idea.

Re: Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

#18

Post by gaius »

po wrote: post #16
btilly wrote: post #2

Yay. Now can I have a similar button in a restaurant? So I don't have to have my conversation interrupted by people coming by to ask me how dinner is going, and do I can get issues (like running out of water) addressed promptly.

They're pretty standard here in Japan. They look (and work) like wireless doorbells. At first it can be hard to get used to the fact that the waiter won't come over until you've pushed the button but after a while you really start to appreciate it. Also, in the US I always felt slightly guilty calling a waiter over as if I'm calling him out on not doing his job. Here, if they don't have the doorbell thingy it's expec…

Japan-themed restaurants in London too, like Yo! Sushi.

Re: Boeing right's a wrong: The flight attendant button

#20

Post by furyg3 »

ugh wrote: post #15
d_r wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many restaurants in China do in fact have such a set of buttons at every table. As an added optimization, wait staff there typically use some kind of mobile devices to order food instead of using paper. I haven't seen many other countries, but I'm surprised both of these innovations aren't more prevalent here in the States.

I have seen several restaurants in Germany try those mobile gizmos but they tend to disappear after a short time: Too slow, too unflexible. Their UI is just horrible as soon as customized orders come up. Well, their UI is probably horrible in general but extra horrible when you leave the path. As for buttons, why not follow Larry David's lead and put a bell on every table?

Slowness of the interface isn't really a huge problem, because it can still speed up service and improve efficiency.

Just last week I was sitting at a terrace located a little ways away from the restaurant itself. The waitress punched in our drink orders, but we stopped her from turning around and asked her about the specials. Our beers arrived before she finished describing them.

This place had one order-taker and one or two 'runners' who delivered and bussed. Increasing latency while taking orders isn't nice... but in this case it completely obliterated message delivery time (and a whole lot of legwork).

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