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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

#21

Post by valisystem »

bartl wrote: post #19

That's what you get when designers feel obliged to uniformize a user interface, thus, that buttons must look very alike, irrespective of their purpose, and be placed in a group. I bet quite a few websites and softwares have similar problems.

Bad design comes in many ways, mainly along the two axis of aesthetics and relevancy. This is a great example where the designer dismissed relevancy to improve aesthetics easily.

You've seen this in many average products, but I feel I have to insist that it is not due to design in general, but more due to the average designer lacking the talent to solve the two axis equation properly.

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

#22

Post by henrikschroder »

enko wrote: post #7
alex_martin wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A restaurant the runs like an Amazon warehouse? Where the staff are controlled by a little robotic handset. "turn left and pick up credit card terminal. Then go to table 32." "say: 'how was your food today sir?' Sounds fucking awful even if it does get you 10s faster service.

You basically just described Manna: http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

Welcome to The Culture.. er.. I mean The Australia Project.

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

#24

Post by Zakharov »

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.

The last time I was on a plane, I remember there being a "cancel call attendant" near the "call attendant" button on the remote. I believe that was on a 747.

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

#25

Post by MattLaroche »

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.

On most planes I've flown on that is exactly how it works. The flight attendant comes by and presses it again when he gets to the row.

Some others have call and cancel buttons separately in either remote controls or armrest built controls.

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

#26

Post by ugh »

furyg3 wrote: post #20
ugh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

I guess that's the problem. The restaurants I like are rather small. They have only two or so people. I guess there is apoint when the restaurant is large enough when those mobile devices pay off.

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

#27

Post by GiraffeNecktie »

GiraffeNecktie wrote: post #23

It's (still) in an awkward position for some of the people who might need it the most. My elderly mother, for example, doesn't have the range of motion in her arms to reach up that high.

Wow. Interesting that I was downvoted. I wonder why?
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