one for the next UX workshop…

Remember these babies from the 80s?… I was thinking about them yesterday as the cabin crew on my Qantas flight politely checked in before take-off with at least 10 passengers who had without realizing it placed their elbow on the ‘call’ button of their inflight controls ‘cleverly’ embedded in the armrest in the ‘refurbished’ Airbus for my flight from Sydney to Perth. The button is right where you put your elbow especially if dealing with tricky elbow etiquette with a fellow economy comrade sitting next to you – it was a 4 hour flight so I had time to ponder how many times, and how much time, the crew had spent doing these checks, and on how many flights they have repeated this ritual… not sure how long ago the innovative refurbishment was but it was a simple reminder of the most basic of design principles “user experience”… I like that you could not accidentally press the buttons in the ‘old school’ design… one for the next UX workshop…

P.S. I love how the buttons are below the indicator screen which takes up 50% of the unit. If the buttons were above the screen, then there would be a further 50% reduction in the potential for wandering elbows leading to unintended cabin crew calls.