Abnormal situations and Design

I got to experience such a situation first hand when Eyjafjallajoekull started to erupt.
On Saturday I learnt that my Sunday evening flight to return to Frankfurt is cancelled.
Now starts the process of finding alternatives ways to get home.

• Step 1: Being a weekend, the office travel help line is not responding to calls.
• Step 2: Delta numbers stated on their websites have a minimum waiting time of 45 mintues
• Step 3: Delta website offers no UPFRONT information on the home page of volcano related updates. Click on 'Flight Information' > Itineraries > (Here there is a small one liners about flight schedule impact) > Enter confirmation number > Click on Find Alternatives > The date drop down only allows you to find an alternative for the 'next day' (tomorrow). Wow! Given the situation, isn't it obvious that the next day will not be available? What if I was willing to wait for 2 weeks and wanted an alternate flight?
• Step 4: Check general flight availability to somewhere in Europe via Delta's regular flight booking feature. ERROR! This facility is not available currently

After all these attempts, to do something from my hotel room I was left with no other option but to go to the airport.

A huge line waits in front of the Delta international counters.  A Delta staff gives us a 'Service Advisory' post card with a number to call and tells us, either you wait in the line here or you call them and be prepared to be put on hold for a long time.

I got a new reservation for the following Sunday, 25th April.

Meanwhile, my office travel team helps me get on a flight to Rome on Tue evening instead of waiting untill Sunday.

Once in Rome, I figured there are no flights to Southern Germany available. So train was an option.

In the Rome train station ticket counter I am welcomed by posters stating, 'all trains to Northern Europe are booked untill 23rd April 2010.'

Service Design
I noticed, there seems to be some attempt to 'filter' the desperate versus the not so desperate passengers. I can understand the need to 'filter' to be able to manage the volume of impacted people, but I wonder if this is the best way to do so:

• Delta provided the 'Service Advisory' number on postcards handed out only at the airport. (A different number from those mentioned on their website). So did they assume, that the really desperate passengers will come to the airport? So they will hand this number to just them?
• In the Rome train station, these posters of trains booked untill 23rd April might have made many passengers go away without waiting in line. To me, the definition of Northern Europe was not clear. Was it UK/Scandinavia/northern France/northern Germany or did Frankfurt/Stuttgart/ etc also fall under this because they were towards the north from Rome. So I decided to check anyway. I was desperate indeed.
• I did manage to get a train ticket to Stuttgart, leaving the same evening.

Perhaps I was plain lucky. But when things are in so much flux - bookings, cancellations, these reservation systems would be constantly updating...so it cannot be true that everything is completely booked. If that was the case, the counters could well be closed. Right?

Moreso, in abnormal situations, the design of such services need to be more 'comforting' to its consumers. But more often than not, systems fail to function efficiently, when they are needed the most.

Compared to a lot of other impacted people, I was fortunate enough to be relatively more comfortable. It however made me think, of ways such situations can be handled better. How can these services be handled better?
Posters stating, 'all trains booked...' at the entrance of ticket counters; getting a special phone number to call only at the airport somehow makes me distrust such services.

• Perhaps in such situations, some people are more comfortable talking to another 'human being' than interacting with some machines?
• Alternatively, can there be some 'self service' machines installed in airports/ train stations that lets you analyze your options - if you are willing to wait, what are your options...if you are desperate, what are your options...
• For those who can wait, perhaps there are some package deals of accomodation, pick up and drop to/from the airport/train station; combine this with a flight/train/bus tickets; local SIM card/ internet facility etc.
• For those who cannot wait, suggest alternate routes, pricing information etc.
• Essentially: some 'decision support' possibilities
• Many people were running out of money - can there be some ways to help them get some money on loan untill they get to their destinations? - in the days of huge bail outs, clearly, there can be some way to help people out
• Many international airports do not have a basic 'sleeping in' facilities - with stringent immigration regulations; visa time running out, cant there be a way to offer passengers a way to sleep in the airport in a more comfortable way? I know some airports - e.g. Schiphol made a lot of attempt towards such things. Even were flexible with their visa norms. However, not every airport and country did as much.

Design of Train Stations
Europe, like India has an extensive rail network. Thousands of people travel by train on a daily basis. Typically people tend to have more luggage while travelling by train (compared to travelling by air). Yet, so often, train stations do not offer simple facilities like, luggage trolleys; escalators/ elevators to move between levels;enough seating space; places to store luggage saftely for a few hours; an in-transit hotel to be able to sleep in...

Perhaps it is too much to expect such facilities in every train station in a country. However, I think it is important that the MAIN train station of BIG CITIES to have them.

While I have more questions than answers right now, I see a world of opportunity out there to better design services, spaces to handle abnormal situations better. Would love to hear and discuss ideas from you all too...

@CHI, Reflections

How 'local' a job is, even in a globalized world we live in.

Through many sessions, courses and conversations at CHI2010 in Atlanta, I got insights into the 'American' perspective to things.

• There were practitioners who were younger than me, with far lesser experience than me, but were 'Directors/ Vice President' of User Experience in different companies. Many of them left university just a year or two ago and are already in such positions.
• I heard university students speaking of 'strategic' projects...
• A lot of 'job' oriented networking compared to 'sharing/learning' oriented networking
• I heard, 'given the economic situation for the past many years, it is perfectly fine to look at resume of people who had switched jobs every year.'
• People switch jobs very often and it is not seen in negative light
• The learning and experience of having worked in different companies in their different styles, is seen as a 'growth' for a professional. Having a long list of company names in the resume is seen in positive light.
• I heard, 'if a person has not been promoted in their last job, it’s something to investigate. There could be a reason.'
• I’m not sure, I wonder if there is a sort of pressure resulting of all this on a professional to move fast, grow (vertically) fast, make more money, be more visible...?
• One should get rid of the ‘bad apples’ (in a team context) rather than spoiling a box of good apples.

All through, I was comparing such insights to Germany and to India. Many of these things will not hold true when set in Germany.

• It’s not common to find very young professionals at senior positions like Director/Vice President etc.
• Promotions happen at a very slow pace. People spend between 5-10 years (could be more) in the same position/levels.
• People do not switch jobs as much
• Things are lot more hierarchical, 
• 'strategic' work, is most often restricted to senior management.
• A professional's growth within a company is a long term plan - in the range of 10-30 years.
• Depending on the level of the professional, there could be legal implications to asking them to leave.

Looking at India, I think it is closer to the American style.

• Professionals do switch jobs often (maybe not every year)
• 'Titles' are important part of one's job, self esteem, social contexts
• People want to grow fast, make more money...

Given these 'localized' flavors of a job, I’m wondering what it means in a global context. While people take up international jobs, beneath the surface there can be lots of impacts. Lots of socio-economic aspects related to work practices, labor laws, HR policies; etc that come into play – things that need to be considered while hiring / searching for jobs / settling in a new job. It is important to have the right expectations.

This also highlights the fact that while working in multi-national, culturally diverse corporations, it is important to be aware of such differences; stop looking at things at face value and stop expecting some ‘universal’ policies. We need to accept the fact that there is no leveling ground – a ‘job’ is indeed deeply rooted in it social and cultural contexts.

@CHI: Day 1

A panel of 'researchers' talking about how HCI needs to be more involved in 'deep infrastructure' aspects of software...HCI community should come up with a 'killer app'; HCI should lead 'infrastructure' ....
- to me it seemed like the panelists were far away from realities of how practioners work.
We are very much involved in such discussions. Agreed we do not have the right amount of 'influence' most of the time. Sometimes we do. But we definitely are involved in the discussions, trying to bring in the aspect of how decisions at the infrastructure can impact the user experience.

'Design' in principle dictates coming up with a solution in a certain time, space and context by taking into account all the different 'constraints' - often conflicting ones.
Likewise we do. In the real world, we need to take into account multiple product standards too.

So in this day and age where 'collaboration' is the ONLY way, this panel seemed too dated to me.

@CHI: Day 1

40 per cent of americans said "sports looks better" when asked why the would switch to HD on TV.
Sports has a lot happening on the way it is influencing our lives...big space for 'design'

Innovation, Steve Jobs and more...

Disclaimer: I do not want to take away any credit from Steve Jobs and what he does. I love Apple products and the entire experience around them.

Apple products and its User Experience has become a 'poster' for everyone in the industry. I am a huge fan of it too. However, I could not believe that they did all this by some sheer magic and just by a SINGLE personality like Steve Jobs. I was convinced that they would have their own challenges, which they successfully overcome - reflects in their end products.
I do not believe that life would be a bed of roses for Jonathan Ive and his team of designers. I am certain they would have their internal challenges too. I mean which true 'designer' would enjoy working in a place that did not have challenges to overcome?

'And the award goes to...the supply chain guy' I came across this article and blogpost by accident on the internet and felt, reassured. I could relate to Apple as a 'corporation' more after reading this. It reassured me of my belief that the level of 'innovation' that Apple was able to deliver to its consumers, cannot be possible without a lot of other things working in a certain way. Some of them mentioned in the article:

• simplifying the product portfolio to reduce manufacturing costs and increase profit margins,
• making a product available simultaneously in multiple countries to increase product launch impact
• while reducing marketing costs,
• making a one-size-fits-all cell phone without a physical keyboard to accommodate any current and future keyboard configuration and decrease localization costs,
• using open-source FreeBSD as the core of Apple OS X to provide stability to the OS and focus precious development efforts in a market-differentiating OS experience,
• locating the core of their developers in Cupertino, CA rather than outsourcing development to India to make development tasks more effective and achieve better alignment around user-focused corporate culture,

Clearly:

• its not enough for board members and other members of senior management to start telling people to be 'innovative' when so many things around them are not ENABLING them to do so.
• true innovation can only happen when things are thought through - across organizational silos. 
• innovation isnt something restricted to 'individuals.' It is ALWAYS a result of multiple people contributing towards a COMMON/SHARED VISION/GOAL.
• innovation is about entrepreneurial spirit
• innovation is about some BRAVE decisions to solve problems at the root level and turn things around.
• innovation is not restricted just to a bunch of 'designers' 
• innovation means 'cleaning things up internally' to be able to better serve the consumers.
• innovation is NOT skin deep