Get The Guy Sitting There To Reach Over And … Oh, Never Mind

March 23, 2016 by Dave Haynes

touchscreenifucan

A regular reader sent in a note from a departure lounge at JFK, where a media company and airport management team decided to put an interactive “experience” screen on a support column.

Problem is, if it’s like the scene at most U.S. airports, an optimal experience for passengers is finding a precious seat at a gate, not killing time taking faux pix with the Statue of Liberty.

So the screen went in, and then someone else decided to put a rows of seats right in front of it. Or no one tagged the display to say this one wasn’t going to work as an interactive piece … because there was a row of seats right there, and interacting meant sitting in someone’s lap.

And those are quite possibly power ports along the bottom of that screen, which pretty much ensures people are going to park their butts in front and charge up their devices.

Things work a lot better when it’s not just about the tech or the idea. It’s also about why the screen is there, exactly where is the there, what’s the best use case and who is going to use and see the screens, and how they’ll get used

Doubtful the stakeholders went through that exercise, and there’s a good chance they don’t even recognize there’s a problem.

 

  1. nickki says:

    awww…what a waste..

  2. We see things like this more than I think we should. The company has been paid, however the ones suffering is the airport or the airline that purchased it to benefit their customers. It hurts to see things like this but it’s good to learn from others mistakes and do it right the next time.

  3. Ken Goldberg says:

    I’d rate the odds at 75% that the post was chosen because there was already power there in addition to the open wall, and that nobody reviewed the site survey beyond the happy news that no electricians were required to install.

  4. Dave Haynes says:

    Yup, the digital signage landscape is riddled with examples of screens placed where there was available space and it was easy to install, as opposed to what actually made some sense.

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