Design and the Human Factor

Office workers "forget to stand"

2012-01-25T10:20:00.000Z

Reported by the BBC, a study recently presented at the British Psychological Society's annual conference suggests that people are spending longer sat at their desks and forget to stand, walk around and get the benefits of some posture change. Workers are now spending on average nearly 6 hours a day at their desk!

Some suggest reminders to get up are a way to solve this such as a post-it note on your screen. We think it is better solved through design. Office layouts should put things like bins and printers away from desks so workers have to get up to use them. Organisational and job design can also support thinking about the office layout to encourage and require more face to face working with a variety of workspaces. For the more adventurous, the provision of sit/stand workstations can build some posture change into the workstation - in our office we find the good old drawing board remains a useful working area.

By nature people will get "sucked" into their work. They won't get up and move around unless required to or they have some positive incentive. Good design can do both of these.

Airport security - follow up

2012-01-20T15:08:00.001Z

As a follow up to the last post on airport security and the passenger experience, our John Wood wrote an article for Security Middle East magazine covering this area. Have a look at the article on our website: http://www.ccd-hf.co.uk/p/Press-Articles/

Improving the passenger experience of airport security

2012-01-06T14:41:00.002Z

Those who have been getting some sun over Christmas or for the rest of us starting to think about booking our summer holidays (or those just trying to get to the next meeting) the issue of airport security can send a shudder down the spine. It has to be one of the least enjoyable aspects of any trip (marginally ahead of waiting for the bus in the rain in the long stay car park or the fun of the Piccadilly Line out to Heathrow!). But fortunately airport operators know this and are all becoming much more focused on our experience as passengers. So improving the experience of getting through security is high on the priority list.

In the States, groups have started to suggest that the future lies in getting screening technology out there much of which is still in early development at the moment. Certainly for the passenger if this does anything to reduce queues then it has one tick. Individual body scanners are becoming more common at airports but there are still concerns around issues like privacy. Sorting these are key to getting user acceptance and delivering the enhanced passenger experience that is wanted.

The other approach is not about the physical environment and technology but reducing the number of people who are screened. It is contentious but in the States again they are taking the first steps towards profiling and offering faster screening for pre-approved passengers. Other schemes are being developed that reduce screening of children and allow aircraft staff to bypass screening all together. Many are questioning how foolproof such approaches can be.

In the end improving the security processes are likely to be mostly about technology but to get the technology working, being effective and accepted by the travelling public, the human elements of the design and implementation must be kept at the front of the process.

People Shaped Innovation

2012-01-03T14:22:00.000Z

A good friend of CCD, Matt Marsh from Firsthand Experience, gave this talk to a TEDx event recently and we wanted to share it.

Its an interesting discussion about innovation and the early insight of human-centered approaches. Matt's point about understanding people's needs and wants as an early part of the design process is really interesting. He highlights a number of failures that might have been prevented with a more user-led process...amazing that some of them got through even though user-centered approaches are often now used in the design process.

The only question back to Matt is how you push and shape needs through innovation by creating things that people didn't know they want until they use it and adapt it. Do we need to have the failures to find the successes?

Perhaps it is a different mind set that is needed in that early part of the process...abstracting to understand goals and needs and not moving to solutions as designers are often drawn towards.

The British Road Sign

2011-12-22T14:10:00.000Z

Is there a better example of human-centered design than the road sign? The Design Museum has recently added the UK road sign design to its collection recognising it as a classic.

The standardisation and consistency of design means that we all understand them

They are remarkably effective at transmitting the necessary information in the often short time that a driver had before they pass it.

The brilliance, when the design was first developed in the 1950s, was recognising that the designers need to understand people and how they would process the information. The research around reading distances and clarity hadn't been done, so the design had to be developed by trial and error...but critically informed by prototyping and testing. They recognised, for example, that the mix of upper and lower case was critical in readability.

Ultimately they have succeeded as a design to the extent that we no longer notice their quality and therefore have hardly changed over the years. As long as they are put in the right place which is another story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15990443

Prosthetics and wearable technology

2011-12-02T09:44:00.000Z

This story about a man who has adapted his prosthetic arm to embed a smartphone in it raises some interesting thoughts and questions.

The first is the around the continual striving of individuals to make technology work for them. A really great idea seems to suffer from a lack of support from suppliers and manufacturers and took some individual determination to make it happen. The result, as is often the case, then becomes attractive to the bigger boys to take up.

The second is the simplicity of the solution. It's not about complex technology or interfaces but taking the modern accessible technology and using it in a different way.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20125446-1/man-embeds-smartphone-into-prosthetic-arm/

iPhone and the female voice

2011-11-22T12:39:00.000Z

On launch. much was made of the new iPhone 4S and the use of a female voice for its Siri technology...except in France and UK where the default is male (you change it for a female voice but only with a US or Australian accent!). Some of the press here have reported studies that say a female voice is "more pleasing" (we've not done any research ourselves). But why are we different in the UK (or France)? There seem to be lots of theories about the choice of a male or female voice for different purposes but nothing to explain why we and the French seem to regard this different from the rest of the world (and Apple seem to be keeping quiet on the subject too!). Any thoughts?

Perhaps the bigger question is whether Siri is any good or not. We have iPhones as our company phones so have all had a play with it in the office. It's certainly surprised us with being able to answer questions other than "what is the weather tomorrow?". And find these answers is quicker than doing a web search. But there's something strange about asking your phone questions in public! Maybe for now, until we all get used to the technology as it grows (and maybe becomes the main way we interact), its seems to be something for occasional use when there is no-one around!

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-computer-voices/index.html

Call for entries for Ergonomics Design Award

2011-11-10T17:00:00.002Z

The Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors have opened the call for entries for the next Ergonomics Design Award which we sponsor.

The award is open to all designers who can demonstrate the application of ergonomics to this highest standard in a project, product or design. It's all about showing quality of user centered design in whatever capacity it is applied. It brings a financial prize as well as the kudos of having been awarded the prize from a really high class judging panel.

The first two years of the award produced two very different winners with the London Underground S-Stock trains by Bombardier last year and a welding visor for 3M in the first year. And a really wide range of other shortlisted products and designs too.

So if you are interested, go to http://www.ergonomics.org.uk/awards/ergonomics-design-award to find out more information and how to apply. Good luck!

Is there a future for driverless trains?

2011-10-25T12:33:00.000+01:00

Does the new Heathrow pod system herald a new advance in driver-less, personal transport? Are we likely to see major changes in rail-based transport systems? Previously on this blog we've talked about interesting ideas for high-speed rail. This article on the BBC highlighted a number of technologies especially around high speed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9617577.stm

What we found interesting is the point made right at the bottom of the piece about the value in performance of removing the human driver. The claim (note, not sourced) is that driverless systems are 30% more efficient than those with an unreliable human at the controls.

Driverless trains are often a contentiousness issue. Claims are usually made that it will decrease safety. We're not aware of the evidence for this and note that these claims are frequently made by trade unions who do have another agenda. It often seems that as passengers we want the security of knowing that there is a person in the cab - but it's likely that most people don't know the extent of automation on the Underground for example. One can see the advantages with driverless systems - not least losing the problem of the train not running as the driver isn't available! Perhaps one question is how to these automated trains deal with perturbed or emergency situations - how are the passengers kept informed? Who is there to help them?

Better hospital IT 'would save thousands of lives'

2011-10-23T19:27:00.000+01:00

Interesting perspective on hospital performance and issues like patient safety based on providing better IT support. We know human performance in environments like these is not always reliable so IT systems would appear to be a useful way of better supporting staff.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15340102

The big "if" is whether these kinds of systems can be adequately designed to meet the needs of the front line staff. Will they be sufficiently usable in the field?

Military touchscreen applications

2011-10-17T15:22:00.000+01:00

We keep looking for applications of multi-touch that go beyond spinning photos around and zooming in and out. We came across this article about a product aimed at military commanders wanting to get that command and control over the battlefield: http://engt.co/rag6MG

We don't know if this product is any good but it might tap into the potential of multi-touch to deliver intuitive interfaces that don't require extensive training or place great demand on the operator to remember how to use it in stressful situations.

Bicycle indicators - useful or not?

2011-08-26T10:25:00.000+01:00

A while ago we came across this innovative product for an integrated bike light, mirror and indicator. It's an interesting idea to remove the need for the cyclist to remove their hands from the handle bars

The interesting question seemed to be one of conditioning for the car drivers. Drivers are used to looking for hand signals (even if they aren't very good at seeing them) so would they really notice more of a motorbike-style indicator on a bicycle and would they recognise it as an indicator?

Heart patient dies after alarm turned down

2011-07-01T15:11:00.000+01:00

Some may have seen this sad story in the papers this week - http://www.metro.co.uk/news/867880-patient-dies-after-staff-turn-down-volume-on-heart-monitor-alarm - of a patient who died after staff apparently turned down the volume on the heart monitor and failed to see the flashing warning light until it was too late.

The story highlights a number of broader issues. Firstly is designing to prevent people from being able to take undesirable actions such as turning down the volume on the monitor. Second, is designing to understand human behavior - was it that the alarm sounded too loudly in relation to the normal background noise levels or there were false alarms that led to the staff turning it down?

Finally is the need to look at the design with different perspectives. The designer of the heart monitor would probably not have been able to foresee that not only would the alarm be turned down but the speakers would be turned around and paperwork put against them. So the design process for implementation needs to consider the environment into which the system is being put and how it will be used. This is something that Ergonomists and Human Factors Engineers are good at and have a role to play

Cable Car for London

2011-05-25T12:33:00.002+01:00

Naked promotion of one of our current projects but we thought some might be interested to see the videos of the cable car that is coming to London next year

We have been appointed to provide human factors to the Mace design team under URS/Scott Wilson

What do passengers say they want in airports?

2011-05-22T17:54:00.005+01:00

Continuing the theme of our recent posts on airport design and meeting the needs of the passengers, we came across this blog post of a survey of what they said they wanted: http://www.futuretravelexperience.com/2011/05/what-do-passengers-really-want/

Biggest desire? Signage, communications, staff - people want to know where to go, how to get there, where their plane is, etc. They also want a human to deliver some of this - so signs and interactive kiosks will only get you so far in meeting passenger needs.

Maybe they want wifi as the second need so that they can email and tweet all their friends when the get lost or stuck in a queue

Should electric cars be made to go "vroom"?

2011-05-20T17:50:00.000+01:00

This takes us back to one of our earliest posts on electric vehicles. In that post we were looking at the design of a new electric scooter. It occurred to us in testing the scooter that one of the potential problems with similar electric vehicles was the lack of noise and therefore an increased risk to pedestrians and other road users who wouldn't hear us coming.

We found some information then suggesting that EU directives banned manufacturers from artificially introducing noise.

However, this recent post on the BBC website suggests that with increasing numbers of electric vehicles starting to hit the streets this is now a recognised problem and people are researching the right kind of solution.

Robots helping us in old age?

2011-05-20T17:40:00.000+01:00

This picture is from the National Geographic website as part of their feature ‘7 Billion Population’. As the title suggests the global population is soon to reach this figure with an ever increasing proportion of elderly people.

The image shows a 69year old Japanese lady being assisted by a robot to do her supermarket shopping and was part of a research study by the researchers from Keihanna Science City, Kyoto, Japan. In a country with a population of 128million, 29million are elderly and already outnumber the young. This has raised concerns about who will be able to care for their older generations in years to come and what are the possible alternatives to relying on humans for support.

The concepts of robots assisting or replacing humans in industry is nothing new, but incorporating them into our every day lives is perhaps considered, by most, as still being slightly unnerving. The films Terminator and iRobot spring to mind!

The design of substitute support humans would need to be robust and look at not only the user requirements but also how the two would interact: for example, would the user respond to voice, touch etc, could the robots perform multi-functions, would they be able to ‘talk’ to their owners and what happens in the event of a break down or malfunction, especially in the middle of a supermarket? Further consideration would need to be given to training the users how to interact with the robots and this could prove difficult with the population groups that would perhaps benefit the most, such as the elderly.

Nevertheless, in the future, the integration of robots into everyday civilization could be a feasible option to help solve some serious issues as a result of our ever demanding global population, but the success is likely to rely heavily upon the human being kept at the centre of the design.

Improving the security experience at Gatwick?

2011-04-27T21:58:00.001+01:00

We hear that Gatwick is planning to significantly enhance the passenger experience when it opens its new South Terminal.

New technology is coming including automated barcode scanners replacing boarding-pass checkers. We understand that the new security lounge will use state of the art crowd-measuring technology to identify the shortest queue. According to the Time to Wander blog, the airport said “we’re going to use colour-coded lighting. A queue with a waiting time of a minute or less will be one colour, and we’ll use others for two, three and four minutes. And we’re getting rid of the queueing system we inherited from BAA. You’ll come into the hall, join the shortest queue, and if it slows down, you can go and join another. We’re trying to do things differently.”

There are plans to have 19 colour-coded lanes in place when the new South Terminal fully opens in August, one of which will be reserved for families and those requiring special assistance.

Great to see airports starting to compete to offer a better experience than others.

These sound like some interesting ideas to help passengers. The colour-coded lighting might be a really good way to help people understand the dynamics of the various queues that face them - we will wait to see if it works. It could see a better distribution of people and a positive sense of choice for the passenger. It'll be really interesting to see if firstly passengers understand the coding and then how responsive the system is to the dynamic changes in queue.

We certainly applaud the shift to allowing passengers some sense of freedom rather than current stressful more controlling approach. Being able to change lanes seems interesting but will you see a chaotic movement of people when their lane changes colour! We shall see...

What will airports of the future look like - a passenger perspective

2011-04-19T17:54:00.000+01:00

Following on from the last post is this video from the BBC on the airports of the future: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/fast_track/9443769.stm.

The piece is based around the premise that in 20 years time passenger numbers will double to pass 12 billion so airports and cities will have to cope with more people using and working in them. One suggestion has been the "aerotropolis" - a city with the airport at its centre rather than on its fringes as they are at present.

The video raises lots of interesting possibilities but for us we are most interested in the human side of how passengers will use these changing, growing airports.

One of the keys seems to be the notion of airports that are designed to be big rather than what we have at the moment which are airports that grow incrementally or remain too small for the passenger numbers. An interesting challenge to keep an airport still feeling manageable and navigable. Maybe you need will need to divide the space up into many more smaller terminals and keep the distance from your arriving transport to plane as small as possible.

Clearly technology will play its part. One can envisage technologies like electronic paper providing a ticket or boarding card that is interactive and actually helps direct you from entry to gate.

New ways of providing transit for people across and around the airport will be required as the walking distances will be too big. Again this might mean lots of different ways into the airport whilst providing an environment that isn't too confusing - not easy!

As the video pointed out if we think the hassle of security is bad now one can imagine that it won't get better without a step change in the technology. New scanning technologies that can speed up the security process will emerge but need to well designed to be usable by staff so that the human interaction isn't something that slows it all down again.

Airport terminals for people

2011-04-13T21:08:00.000+01:00

We came across this really interesting design for the new Terminal 2 at San Francisco International which will be mainly used by Virgin Atlantic. So much of it seems to have been designed for the people who actually use it - the passenger.

We loved the "recompose zone" as you emerge from the stress of security...

...other neat features like hydration stations to help people fill their own bottles rather than have to buy expensive bottled water

...local food outlets rather than the usual chains and desk space in the waiting areas

London Ambulance fallback failure

2011-04-13T20:56:00.001+01:00

Some readers may have seen the article in the London press about the London Ambulance Service having some problems with maintaining effective control during fallback when there was a fire in their control centre.

The fire was an electrical fire in a UPS. The fire meant that operations had to move to the fallback control room in Bow. However the report into the events revealed a number of failings in their procedures, when they got to the fallback control there were problems with glare on screens and problems with technical language being used in the control room that hampered communications.

Clearly operational effectiveness during this event were significantly degraded and LAS has learnt some harsh lessons including deciding to keep their fallback control room "live".

This event features many common issues for control centres when looking at fallback arrangements.

The procedures for moving out and setting up the new control are rarely exercised or tested.
The switching of the technology is not well designed to be reliable.
It is difficult to determine the duration of the fallback and therefore to what degree the fallback control room has to match the main control room functionality.
The fallback control room often suffers from a lower level of design - it's often not really designed at all.

Many of these issues arise as a fallback control room is seen as a facility which is rarely used and therefore investment is made elsewhere. As LAS perhaps found out, this is fine until you need it and find it doesn't work or doesn't work well enough.

Report into Heathrow Winter Resilience

2011-03-26T11:09:00.000Z

The recent enquiry report into the response at Heathrow airport to the recent winter snow raised many interesting points about communications in a complex control environment and responding to difficult situations.

The report highlighted the problems in managing real-time communications between different groups and functions all trying to collaborate. We often see this in our control room design work - the resource required to disseminate information is often too much so only partial information is shared. We have been looking at a number of projects recently where shared systems automatically enable visibility of information held by other functions so reducing this problem - providing communications in parallel rather than serial.

This kind of information sharing is important for different teams to retain the "big picture" overview of the situation, one which is often changing rapidly. Good situational awareness is critical for the right decisions to be made at all levels of crisis response.

The report also flagged some interesting issues about the physical location of controls in relation to the events going on (many of the control rooms involved had no visibility of the airfield to give them that important contextual information) and in relation to each other. Co-location of control rooms has its problems but it can be effective in short-cutting some of the communication flows.

One final point of note was the importance given to managing passenger needs during the crisis. Inevitably the focus of many operations during events like this is to focus on restoring the service as quickly as possible. But if all resources are directed on this then the operation ignores supporting the passengers during this stressful experience. It was good to see recommendations covering passenger welfare both in terms of provision of regular, up to date information and in providing temporary facilities in the airport.

So many uses for glass

2011-03-23T17:02:00.001Z

Another look into the future...especially around multi-touch interfaces. Although our first reaction was "what a lot of finger prints"!

Although this is clear a promotion for the various uses of glass technology it did raise some interesting questions about do we want access to information and communications technology in so many parts of our lives?

Are train seats too narrow?

2011-03-22T17:57:00.000Z

According to an article in the Metro this morning (http://bit.ly/fyYP0v) MPs are calling for wider seats on South West Trains as the current design is causing "physical damage" to passengers. However according to the South West Trains website which summarises the conclusions of the report there are issues related to people fitting the seats but this is a "comfort issue not a health risk".

The ergonomics study concludes that 59% of the population will be outside of the seating "envelope" with their elbows - i.e. not very comfortable.

The design of trains is complex. You need to get the capacity otherwise people are standing or can't get on at all. Running more services or having longer trains aren't that easy as answers. However it seems a shame that a comfort issue is seen as almost acceptable - once again it is the passenger that suffers from the compromise.

Last nights Dispatches programme on C4 made similar points about the passenger experience in the UK

Are you consolidating your control rooms?

2011-03-21T16:05:00.002Z

The issue

The current economic climate is forcing many organisations to look at the consolidation of control rooms as a way to save money. This might mean operating with fewer control rooms and moving to a more centralised structure; or it might be mergers / co-locations with related functions or organisations. The challenge is still to get more from less.

There are some very real cost savings that can be made. Fewer control rooms is likely to result in fewer staff controlling the same infrastructure; fewer rooms can reduce the property portfolio of an organisation. Consolidation can also bring about sharing of back-office functions and reduced maintenance costs.

Technology is often the enabling force. More powerful systems and automation are allowing more infrastructure to be controlled by fewer people. As the nature of "control" changes to increased monitoring and occasional intervention, new technology is changing the way the growing volumes of data can be acceptably presented to operators. Communications technology is allowing more remote operation and connections to be made between related control functions - this can be a way of providing more resilience in the system.

The challenges

One of the major challenges in delivering control room consolidation is managing the change for the staff. Resistance can risk successful project delivery and acceptance. One key is to get staff involved in the process. But it's also important to understand the culture of the organisation and how things get done.

Overcoming the loss of local knowledge is often critical as control moves further away from the infrastructure under control. It is also often an important issue for the public who may interact with the control room.

There are very human issues around this change in the operator role. So careful attention has to be paid to workload management, job design, selection and the design of systems interfaces and support tools.

The important factors are first, paying the necessary consideration to the human issues when making this kind of change; and secondly, a joined up design based on operational needs that considers control & comms systems in parallel with the control room itself.

For more detail, download our white paper from www.ccd-design.co.uk/p/White-Papers/

Sunset Chapel - human architecture

2011-03-10T08:58:00.001Z

Whilst lots of the entries on this blog are serious, sometimes its nice to post things we just like. The Sunset Chapel in Acapulco, Mexico is one of those.

This memorial chapel looks to be an amazing place. The bare concrete structure with its elevation, location and orientation creates an atmosphere and an incredible light.

It seems to be a place that perfectly meets the human need for contemplation and reflection. A wonderful marriage of design and human factors but in a surprising way.

Design by Esteban and Sebastián Suárez of Mexico City-based BNKR Arquitectura

Rail fares advice "inadequate" - are there design solutions?

2011-03-03T11:24:00.003Z

According to Which?, the advice that passengers receive on selecting the right train fare is inadquate - www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12563302.

Why is this and what could be done to fix the problem? Well we've tried to give the problem some thought and come up with some ideas.

1) The train companies need to start thinking more like passengers and how they plan their journeys.
How do we think about a journey when we travel? We know where we want to start, where we want to go, what time we want to leave or arrive, whether we need to go via somewhere or stop off and whether we want to go with the shortest journey time or lowest cost. We might know when we want to travel one way but not be sure of when we are going to return; or I might want to return to or from a different station.

So why can't the ticket machines, websites and the staff in the ticket offices get our travel requirements in a similar way? Ticket machines and websites could be designed to help you with this kind of route planning based around asking questions and allowing more freedom of potential responses. Staff in ticket offices could be given intelligent support systems to help them diagnose what the customer wants.

2) Simplify the ticket options.
Some efforts have been made in the last few years to reduce the complexity of the ticket structures but its still not that simple. For example, who really understands the range of what peak vs off peak really means on different lines? Do you know when off-peak starts? How do you find out?

So why don't ticket machines, offices and websites give you this information? If you specify a departure time towards the end of the peak, why can't you be given the clear option of delaying slightly and getting a cheaper ticket? The information on restrictions (and opportunities) needs to be pushed visibly at the passenger so they can make better decisions.

3) Ease the complex regulations
Whilst the railway industry clearly has to run as a business, some of the regulations that operate and restrict are arcane and impenitrable. For example, rules about breaking journeys or how you can't easily buy a ticket to extend a journey beyond the reach of your Oyster card in London. None of this is passenger focused.

The industry is clearly poorly set up for this. The structure makes it difficult to buy tickets that use services from different train operating companies. But as passengers we take a "train", we don't take a Virgin train or a FCC train. The distinction between companies should be invisible. One thing this does is push you towards using the train company websites individually. What a pain to maintain different logons for each website! Why can't we have one single website (like the Trainline offers on a commercial basis)?

7/7 inquest - control room design failings?

2011-03-02T17:14:00.001Z

Recently at the 7/7 inquest we saw evidence given that shows up failings in how the ambulance control room operated at a time of high stress and pressure.

See some of the press coverage: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12598785

Some examples from the evidence given:

There was only one person logging calls and vital information was written on scraps of paper (the inference being that some of these were lost or the information not utilised)
The whiteboard that was being used to log the events was positioned too high for the person acting as scribe such that they could only write on the bottom half.
Two people allocated key roles in the management of the incident hadn't been trained in the "gold command" procedures
The transfer of staff from normal operations to the Gold command room was delayed as the system required staff to logout of one workstation before logging in elsewhere; presumably they weren't aware of this. This caused a backlog in calls.

In our experience, these kinds of problems are not as rare as one might hope but can be designed out with the right approach.

Often not enough focus is placed on how control rooms deal with these major events as they are so rare - but doing so increases the risk of failings such as those identified at the inquest.

At the very least, events such as this are prominent reminders to other services to re-examine how they do things and that lessons can be learnt to improve systems and processes and get the design of these control rooms right.

The right approach is to integrate the design of the processes & procedures with the control room design and the development of the control & communication systems. All too often they are dealt with seperately which leaves these kinds of chinks in the overall incident management system.

Doors opened on moving Vic Line train - human error?

2011-02-25T11:38:00.006Z

Transport for London (TfL) said the doors were immediately closed again. It added that the driver confirmed the incident on Wednesday evening was the result of human error.

A TfL spokesman said: "London Underground has launched a full investigation after a southbound 67-stock Victoria line train approaching Brixton on Wednesday evening unexpectedly opened its doors as it came to rest at a red signal. "The train was checked following the incident and no customers were affected."

This seems a pretty good example of where the failure is actually in allowing the human to make the error in the first place. Whether in the design of the door operation or in how they are maintained, designing out the potential to make this kind of error is the important factor.

How to get on a train without it stopping?

2011-02-21T16:00:00.002Z

Followers of this blog will know that we're always interested in human issues in design related to transport systems. Clearly one of the issues with high speed rail is how you avoid stopping which wastes time and energy - but stopping is useful to the passengers to actually get on and off.

So we were amused and interested to see this solution from an engineer in China. The idea being the train doesn't stop - you get on a sort of transit vehicle which hooks up to the train as it passes the station, you then move down into the train itself. The transit vehicle stays attached and the people getting off at the next station move into as they approach the station; it disconnects and slowly comes to a halt at the station.

Whether the hassle of having to get down to one end of the train to get off will be worth the potential improvements in journey time is perhaps debatable. An interesting solution though!

Can we get back to something more tactile?

2011-02-11T15:15:00.001Z

Access to digital media has transformed many areas of our lives. Yet in some ways it has removed something - see how iTunes looks to keep the artwork of album covers - and one of those is something interactive and tactile.

We came across this interesting concept from IDEO for a music player that gets some of this back again...

c60 Redux from IDEO on Vimeo.

The office of the future...1981 style

2011-02-09T10:22:00.001Z

Just following on from the previous post, we came across this video from Imperial College of their vision for future offices...

It contains some interesting things that aren't too far off like accessing information in a similar way to the internet, scanning documents to create digital versions. But we loved that they didn't think phones would have changed much. Anyway, hope you find it interesting too.

Multi-touch interfaces - now and a vision from the past

2011-02-08T15:14:00.000Z

We're involved in some interesting projects applying multitouch to the design of new control systems - hopefully we'll be able to post something on these soon. But in the meantime we thought it was interesting to compare one of the current systems - Microsoft Surface...

...with this video we came across of a long forgotten idea from Sun in 1994 for future systems called Starfire.

It's a big desk but there's lots there that isn't a million miles away - touch interaction, video-conferencing, instant messaging, collaborative working environments on documents, scanning & embedded information into other media, 3D modelling and texture mapping, etc. Maybe we still have some way to go on voice control & telepresence.

What does "ergonomics" mean for designing work spaces & buildings?

2011-02-07T14:01:00.000Z

At CCD, most of our work is the application of ergonomics/human factors to the design of the built environment; in particular to control centres. But the use of the term "ergonomics" often brings confusion and misunderstanding about what we actually do and the value that it brings to projects.

This seems to be largely due to the strengthening association of the term ergonomics with office seating, mice, keyboards, etc, and by its use in marketing some consumer products.

So for the built environment more and more people think that ergonomics/human factors is just about the physical work space - is the desk at the right height? Can the user reach something?

These are important but only describe a small portion of the approach that ergonomics should bring to human centered design. So what does it really do?

Well for us, it is a broader design of the working "system" around the human. This can be physical but it's not just about minimising RSI - its about communication, facilitating team working, spatial relationships. It's about creating a working environment that is suitable for the work that is being done.

It's also about the socio-technical issues and the interaction between people, teams and technology. What are the jobs we are asking people to do? How do we manage the change that the design of the environment or the technology will bring about?

And it's also about the psychological. How will people behave in diffierent environments which we design? How can we influence motivation, vigilance or even feelings of wellbeing?

Until we can reclaim the word ergonomics from its increasingly narrowly perceived definition, perhaps we have to stop using it to get the message across? But then how do designers who use the broader application of ergonomics differentiate themselves?

Holograms to help you get through airport security?

2011-02-02T11:47:00.004Z

Luton Airport are introducing holographic helpers to advise passengers and help them to get through the security checks more easily and efficiently.

An interesting concept. As we all know airport security is confusing and stressful. There are an array of signs trying to tell us what to do but trying to absorb this information in this situation is difficult - so we usually fail to do so, further increasing the stress of the uncertainty.

Perhaps the ideal would be just to have more staff on duty but the repition of information is something people aren't great at doing - certainly not with any enthusiasm - and we have to recognise that the cost would be high.

People are best for responding to questions and dealing with odd events. So it would seem that something like these holograms, that can deliver the basic information in a more absorbable way, may have something going for them.

Anyone going through Luton Airport that sees them in operation, please do comment with your views.

Bjarke Ingels: 3 warp-speed architecture tales

2011-02-01T15:49:00.000Z

We liked this...and we thought you might too

Where do good ideas come from?

2011-01-31T16:34:00.000Z

Interesting little piece from the BBC interviewing Steven Johnson on his book "Where good ideas come from".

We also like the cartoon scribing at the start from Cognitive Media, who we've used in some of our internal meetings.

Impact of Poor Design on Patients

2011-01-17T11:39:00.000Z

We came across this interesting article on the link between design in hospitals and the impact on the patients and their recovery.

The British Medical Association is calling on healthcare organisations to prioritise design in all future building projects. A new report presents research showing that the architectural environment can significantly affect patients’ recovery times. In contrast, poorly designed hospitals and surgeries can cause anxiety, delirium, high blood pressure and increased use of painkillers, it says. The report, The Psychological and Social Needs of Patients, published this month, consolidates many pieces of research that underline the link between design and patient recovery.

It was welcomed by John Cooper, chairman of Architects for Health, who intends to contact the BMA to show how better design could save the NHS money in the medium term. “I will demonstrate that if you embody these findings into your design it might cost you a bit more but in revenue terms you will make savings after three to five years,” he said.

Alistair Cory, principal of health specialist NBBJ, said: “It’s great that an organisation like the BMA is not just recognising the importance of good design but shouting about it.

“I hope the report will encourage the appointment of someone senior on the client side as a design champion who can fight for the cause. We have found that to be critical.”

The report’s recommendations include eliminating long corridors because nurses can spend up to 40% of their time walking instead of caring for patients. It also warns that patients should not be overcrowded and should have a variety of spacious, quiet, well-lit and well-ventilated spaces with pleasant views. Researchers found patients hospitalised for depression stayed an average of 3.7 days fewer if they were assigned east-facing rooms exposed to morning light, compared to patients in west-facing rooms with less sunlight.

The report said: “Healthcare building design should extend beyond functional efficiency, marketing and cost. It should promote wellness by creating physical surroundings that are psychologically supportive…

“There is a developing evidence base on the psychosocial, and physical costs of not meeting [patient’s] needs, and on the positive effects of changing the way in which we care, and the environment in which we offer care.”

Good evidence that designing for people and understanding the physical and psychological response to that design can really pay dividends.

What is the future for Fire & Rescue Service control rooms?

2011-01-13T13:28:00.000Z

The cancellation of the FiReControl project announced by the Government at the end of December, has thrown the future of Fire & Rescue Service control rooms into chaos. Many Services in need of modernisation of their control rooms had held off in the knowledge that FiReControl would deliver new purpose built regional centres and a new national integrated system.

The Government has just announced a consultation exercise to look at the options for the Fire Service. In the context of the tough economic climate in the public sector we see three potential choices:

Upgrade existing control rooms and systems – which may require significant investment
Consolidation, mergers or co-location with other emergency services such as Police or Ambulance to make more effective use of existing buildings and systems
Life stretch – making the existing facilities last longer in the hope that the economic strictures will change or regionalization will reappear in a future project

New control rooms are likely to re-use or expand existing buildings rather than incur the cost of new build. Some Fire & Rescue Services have let their existing rooms dilapidate or have to vacate their current premises in anticipation of moving to the new centres so will have to take some sort of action. Projects must ensure that the right working environment is provided and the adaptation of existing structures usually brings constraints. The right expertise is needed to ensure that good design decisions are made to adapt the existing structure to provide an ergonomic work space.

There is also the question of what will become of the now built Regional Control Centres? Will the Government consider tri-services controls for that area or possibly sell the buildings off for use by other agencies or even for a totally different use like call centres?

Some services may have to consider upgrading their call handling and mobilisation systems. This is where the FiReControl project fell down and where other previous projects have had problems. Our key message for success is to understand and map the user requirements at an early stage, make sure that the system delivers those and get the end users involved throughout the development and testing of the system. Going for the cheapest solution may not be a great idea either however tempting in the current climate.

Perhaps the main challenge will come where the Fire & Rescue Services merge or co-locate their control rooms with those of their neighbours to get operational benefits or cut costs. These projects will have to carefully consider the design of the enlarged control room and the systems that will be used – but what is usually forgotten or inadequately addressed is the management of the change that will take place . All control room design projects involve change but where organisations come together the need to address the socio-technical issues is higher.

One of the major challenges here is to assess the impact on team working and things like the retention of local knowledge. At a detailed level, there will probably be changes in processes and procedures, in management and supervision. But there may also be changes in operational philosophy and the fundamentals of “how things get done”. Organisations are different so developing this new common way of working is often hard. The key is how the project takes the staff on “the journey” and involves them in the change – without this the chances of getting their buy-in and commitment to the change is low and resistance increases the risk of project failure.

Designing better map interfaces

2011-01-12T11:15:00.001Z

Many systems, especially those in control rooms such as mobilisation for the emergency services, use maps as a key part of the user interface. However getting the usability of these maps is not always simple.

There are many different aspects to get right - the normal 'point & click' interface doesn't make navigation easy - the combination of dragging, centering and zooming can be cumbersome.

But also getting the map itself to be readable, given the potential volume of information, can be complex. The most successful approach to this is through layering of information and Google Maps has used a number of methods that have cracked some of the problems.

For city labels, Google gives each label a white background eliminating the map detail behind the label. It also uses more classes or types of label than other mapping systems. Google also uses a lighter shade for the labels of the lower classes. These all combine to make the labels on Google Maps very readable and reduce the apperance of visual clutter.

Google Maps also applies some decluttering tricks around the major urban areas and seemingly around the spacing of cities.

To see visual demonstration of these methods from Google, head to www.41latitude.com/post/2072504768/google-maps-label-readability

So some interesting lessons about clutter for designers of all maps.

Anyone seen any other good examples?

Extending the life of control rooms

2011-01-12T10:56:00.002Z

Many companies have had to make significant cutbacks meaning that investment funds for new facilities are scarce or non-existence. But in safety-critical environments there is a need to ensure that systems and controls are maintained at maximum operating efficiency. As a result, many organisations are looking at how they can extend the life of their existing assets and make their operations leaner.

To tackle this challenge, we've launched a new ‘Control Room Life Stretch’ service to show organisations how to extend the life span of their control centres by spending only where there is real value. This is a fixed-cost audit to identify where the weaknesses and risks lie and where investment is required or savings can be made. It then makes recommendations based on cost/benefit.

Economic realities cannot impact on safety or operating efficiency in control rooms, but many organisations have had to put their investment plans on hold in the short-term. With ‘Life Stretch’ we aim to help those organisations which need to increase the lifespan of mission critical environments like control centres. We have developed the product following demand from existing clients who need to prevent system obsolescence, reduce the risk of operator error and ensure their facility can cope with increasing demands or changes in the external world. The process can help reduce ongoing costs such as maintenance as well as improve overall performance.

Following an in-depth audit by one of our consultants, we produce a ‘Life Stretch Plan’ which illustrates options, associated costs and resources required.

You can find out more at www.ccd-design.co.uk/p/News/a/Extending-the-life-of-control-rooms/

CCTV & changes for control rooms?

2010-12-21T17:00:00.001Z

We recently spotted two pieces in the press about changes to the way security control rooms might operate.

The first was the new system for enabling members of the public to monitor CCTV images in shops on behalf of the owner and receive a reward for successfully spotting criminal activity. Perhaps this does reflect the fact that many CCTV cameras are not watched by someone in a control room and only provide a means to record criminal activity in the hope that a prosecution can follow. There do seem to be some dangers associated with this, as identified in the article, in particular the lack of training of those doing the watching. But interesting never the less.

The second item was on the use of microphones in support of cameras to detect gunshots on the streets. We don't know anything about the technology here but have looked at how you might present the information back in the control room and support the operator in getting visual images of the right area and then making good decisions. We await the outcome of the trial with interest.

Transport chaos and the passenger

2010-12-20T19:14:00.001Z

As the snow comes down so the UK transport system descends in to chaos. Given the general irregularity of heavy snow perhaps this is understandable.

But, as a group concerned with people, what stands out when watching the news reports is the number of people stuck at airports and train stations saying "we've been given no information".

How can this be so? It would appear from the ground that so much of the organisations and operators' focus goes into sorting the problem that not enough effort is paid to informing the customers.

In these difficult situations, people need a constant flow of updated information. Organisations are looking at using more technological solutions like Twitter to support this. But this never replaces a well informed member of staff who can deal with questions and actually answer them.

I saw a piece last night on the news where trains had been cancelled at Peterborough and there was the usual chaos with uninformed staff, a lack of replacement buses ready to go and a total lack of organisation to help passengers know where and when to get the bus. This suggests a lack of contingency planning on behalf of the operators to know what they are going to do when faced with difficult circumstances when things go wrong.

Transport is key to our economy. In a civilised society we should be able to run a transport system that is passenger or user focused. This means responding effectively to passenger needs for information when things go wrong.

Is it really "ergonomic"?

2010-12-03T13:53:00.000Z

The Ergonomists within our team often moan about this issue so we thought it was about time we talked about it on the blog! How has "ergonomic" become a term that is owned by the marketing department? What does it mean if you are seeing a product described as being "ergonomic"?

The usual application seems to mean that something is curvy and therefore roughly shaped to fit your fingers or other part of your body. This is where the majority of hand-held gadgets such as computer mice, scissors, knives, etc make their claim. However this claim to fit the body doesn't stack up against the wide variety of anthropometric dimensions we find across the population - it might fit for you but it won't fit most other people.

Being "ergonomic" is about design to match the task being performed and allowing you to do it safely etc. So some computer mice can make the claim as they help you interact with your computer and they may be carefully designed to minimise the risk of musculo-skeletal injuries but most don't.

One of our non-Ergonomics staff raised the question having been advised that pencil grips can be good in aiding writing skill development for children.

A quick Google search flags that these are usually sold as "ergonomically correct" products. To use they are not really ergonomic because the designer thinks they will fit the hand perfectly but because the thicker grip suits a child's hand and dexterity better and enables them to perform the task of writing better.

What do you think about "ergonomic" products?

Can traffic light design work better for drivers?

2010-11-22T12:55:00.001Z

In an earlier blog post (http://ccd-design.blogspot.com/2010/06/pedestrian-countdown-trial-in-london.html) we talked about the trial that TfL were conducting with a countdown to provide more information to pedestrians on the time left before the lights change.

We have now come across this conceptual design for traffic lights that provide similar countdown information to drivers - http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/11/18/sands-of-traffic-times/

There are some obvious ergonomics questions about whether the signs could be accurately perceived by drivers, moving at speed, at a distance.

However the principle of providing another level of information to reduce stress and warn of changing states is interesting.

Wayfinding is more than signage - using other visual clues

2010-11-15T11:24:00.000Z

Wayfinding around complex buildings and spaces is a difficult task. The main tactic is usually static signage. However this has problems in the volume of information that can be presented and more importantly absorbed and understood by the user. To deal with this we are seeing more interesting ways to convey wayfinding information - here are some examples that we've come across recently

Firstly, is Wayfinder Wallpaper created by Mike&Maaike for rollout. An essentially decorative finish that attempts to embed wayfinding information in the visual.

The second example is the design for the Eureka Tower Car Park in Melbourne by Axel Peemoeller. This uses distorted lettering on the walls which when viewed from the right angle give a strong message.

Finally, a signage and wayfinding approach from Ralston & Bau for the Storehagen Atrim in Norway. This borrows heavily from railway/metro maps and signage to provide wayfinding in an office building. This provides a common visual linkage throughout the building.

So there many other visual ways in which users can be helped to navigate spaces and these can integrate well into the interior design. We can't be sure how well any of these examples or other similar designs work but we found them thought-provoking in at least thinking of other ways to help people make sense of a space.

Managing overcrowding on trains

2010-11-09T15:34:00.000Z

With the release today of the MP's report declaring that overcrowding on trains will only get worse attention will surely turn to how design and human behaviour can help.

On the BBC website today one expert declares that it is all about creating and maintaining flow. This may well be true but it seems to us to deny many of the basic motivations that govern human behaviour in this situation - in an overcrowded train, with potentially a long journey ahead, you want a seat or at least a good place to stand. Mass transit is a de-personalised experience - as evidenced everyday by the impersonal behaviour that everyone exhibits on the Tube. So selfish acts become easier and everyone wants to be first never mind keeping the "flow".

So the real need seems to be to look at how design can address the challenge but accepting the way that people will behave. Obviously the easy solution is to avoid the overcrowding in the first place but there seems to be limited appetite to spend enough to increase capacity as the MPs highlighted. So can you change the design of the doors or the vestibule area? Can you change the way the passengers are managed at the station and on the platform?

At CCD we have certainly worked on station and rolling stock projects that have attempted to address some of these issues. Projects that have sought to understand the human behavior better, or where we have worked with the designers and engineers to improve the interior of the carriage. All of these projects have been successful but it seems that the challenges are only increasing and perhaps now is the time for more innovative thinking.

Developments in road traffic management - carrots & sticks?

2010-11-04T18:14:00.003Z

There has been much news in recent weeks of developments in the safety & management on our roads. Some of the measures featured enforce the rules punishing those who break the rules. Others are aimed at influencing our behaviour for the better. Our question is which measures are likely to be successful?

Carrots:

The government last week confirmed hard shoulder running projects for the M25. How will these help to improve our road journeys? How will they improve motorway safety? Our work on the M42 pilot trial suggested that hard shoulder running can be operated safely opening opportunities to reduce congestion, reducing the disruption from accidents and helping those drivers who have broken down or are involved in an accident to remain safe.

In the context of government spending cuts what can drivers do themselves to improve safety? How can technology help and even have side benefits such as getting a better rate of mpg.

There are plenty of challenges for the driver such as keeping alert whilst driving, judging distances, judging what other drivers intend to do. We are now seeing more technology enter the car to try and help - sat navs to help navigation but now also providing things like congestion information and speed camera detection. There are other systems emerging like Foot-lite (http://www.foot-lite.net).which tries to provide advice and information on eco-driving; or manufacturers like BMW producing cars that start to anticpate accidents about to happen and respond.

Sticks:

There was news last week of the police getting their own lorry to be able to see into other lorry cabs to see drivers who are using mobile phones as well as to raise awareness of the blind spot in lorries that cause accidents with cyclists.

We've also seen the news of the new ASSET speed camera that is intended to be fitted in vehicles used by traffic police to:

measure speed
film inside a vehicle and see if the driver is wearing a seatbelt
read number plates to instantly recognise cars without insurance
record tax disks
monitor distances between vehicles for detecting tailgaters

It will be interesting to see if these new technologies for inforcement have any influence over driver behaviour and compliance - especially when compared with some of the existing technologies like the GATSO cameras. Also, will we see any of the perhaps unintended consequences we saw with speed cameras such as excessive breaking when they were spotted by the driver?

There are a whole host of interesting human factors applied research issues to be explored!

International Control Room Design Conference - our thoughts...

2010-11-01T13:26:00.006Z

Nearly 100 delegates and half-a-dozen exhibitors represented the leading practitioneers in control room design at the recent ICOCO conference held in Paris. And we were there in force with four presentations and an exhibition. If you want to see more on what we talked about, visit our website at http://www.ccd-design.co.uk/p/Conference-Presentations/

What did we learn from the event?

Firstly that there remains a strong commitment to a user-centered design approach - which is just how we like it! This underlines how ISO 10064 has become the de-facto standard in the area and its role in ensuring that ergonomics is a central factor in design.

Secondly, the use of large overview displays in control rooms continues to present challenges. The message that "content is king" was discussed by a number of the presenters and was even reinforced by the display manufacturers! These expensive displays continue to be provided in control rooms even when there is little in the way of an operational rationale - the marketing department often holding the power.

Finally, that technology in control rooms continues to move at a fairly slow pace. It was left to our own Adam Parkes and a very few others to talk about emerging technologies and the potential that they might unlock.

Overall, it was great to finally have a good technical conference to be able to discuss and debate some of the issues and questions we see in our daily work...and to learn from others how what we can do better in the future.

Reflections on Norman Foster's RIBA Annual Discourse

2010-10-28T09:28:00.002+01:00

During this stimulating and thought provoking talk, Lord Foster raised some very interesting points which, sat in the audience as a Human Factors professional, got me thinking….

A number of residental buildings were built in India (not by Foster) to re-house occupants of a slum. However, years later they still sat empty because dispite being more modern and providing sanitation, they did not provide the same quality of life and integration for live/work/retail that the close knit community of the slum provides.

Key lesson - Understand the User, understand how they live and work, understand how they interact and use their built environment - then start designing.

MASDAR - A sustainable city being built in Abu-Dhabi. Foster + Partners have been integral to the project developing the arcitectural blueprint and design thinking. They put a lot of effort into analysing how buildings have historically been built in hot environments and took a U turn from the "modern" building design that you commonly see across the middle east - large glass towers.

To make the Masdar buildings and streets naturally cooler - thus requiring less air conditioning to maintain a comfortable environment, lessing the power burden that they had to produce using the solar panel farms.

They took inspiration from desert settlements to:

Orientate the city to ensure that the cooling winds naturally swept through the streets and open park areas.
Positioned wind collection towers to naturally ventilate buildings.
Constructed buildings with carefully orientated windows, which were shaded by arabic patterned fins to avoid direct sunlight.
Provided walkways and open courtyards between buildings with natural shade, foliage and small water features to provide usable outdoor space. Which have been shown to have significantly lower radiant heat than similar courtyards in Abu Dhabi City and thus feel more pleasant.

Lord Foster stated that it took a lot of convincing to get buy in from the developers, as his low rise buildings did not have his usual WoW factor. But through determination they got there, and he believes that is to key to enabling the city to be sustainable.

Key lesson - Don't follow convention. Analyse the key challenging features of the local environment (e.g. intense heat) then investigate novel ways to overcome it, or at least best adapt to them. Look at historic designs in places you might not expect and look to nature for inspiration.

If you wish to see Lord Foster's presentation, a video can be found at http://www.gleeds.tv/index.cfm?video=783

Deralict buildings and the role of design in community identity

2010-10-12T12:21:00.001+01:00

Hastings Pier has recently burnt down by arsonists. Its loss raises a question of cultural identity and building function. The pier has been out of use since 1996 and become increasingly derelict. Is Hastings still Hastings if it doesn’t have a pier? What about civic pride/sense of identity? Is a derelict building like graffiti – shows no-one cares, break down of society…attracts more crime.

The pier had no “useful function” in the modern world…but maybe it did. It was part of Hastings’ identity, surely as such it was performing a useful function and it should never been allowed to fall in to disrepair. Brighton was once famous for having two state-of-the-art piers, now it is famous for having allowed the West Pier to go to rack and ruin. Is Brighton now half the place it was? Should the Lanes in Brighton be bulldozed and replaced with a modern shopping mall to improve pedestrian access? Is this neglect of manmade landmarks one of the contributory factors in the creation of “clone towns” and a rootless society with no sense of identity?

As an example of the opposite, the village of Corfe Castle in Dorset is dominated by the ruins of the castle that was blown up by Cromwell’s troops during the civil war. It has not functioned as a castle since, yet the ruins give the village its identity and the ruins are kept in good repair. As it no longer fulfills its function of being a castle should it be dismantled stone by stone and the stones recycled to build houses? Would the people in the village prefer to live in Corfe Hill or Corfe Castle? Would anyone go out of their way to visit Corfe Hill? Would they even bother to get out of their car and walk up the hill if the remains of the castle were not there?

These buildings do play an important role in the local identify but they must be kept and maintained as something that is recognised as important.

Personal security in the community

2010-10-06T13:48:00.000+01:00

In a piece in World Architecture News recently, we discussed the nature of the surveillance society in relation to the future of control rooms. One issue we highlighted was how the presence of things like CCTV cameras actually intimidates people and produces this atmosphere of fear. What is required is to breakdown some of these barriers and integrate the means of protection into the community. We gave the example of the old police boxes as something that achieved this in the past

Well perhaps they are making a comeback...we spotted this article on a new police kiosk in Preston that provides information to the public and also allows direct communication access to the Police control room. Although perhaps not a surprise that the kiosk itself is monitored by CCTV!

Control room safety in pipeline operations

2010-10-05T16:43:00.000+01:00

From the US, came this interesting piece on utility / pipeline control room operations and human error. It features some interesting views on operator fatigue and training possibly contributing to failures to spot abnormal operating conditions and subsequent incidents.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16230206?source=rss&nclick_check=1

It seems surprising that the understanding of the contribution of the use of the SCADA systems was not captured in accident investigation data until this year!

What is also surprising to us is why fundamental issues like alarm flooding have not been managed in parts of the pipeline industry in the way that they have in others.

Making air travel even more unpleasant?

2010-09-20T14:03:00.001+01:00

Over recent years, air travel has become a less and less enjoyable passenger experience. Notably the increase in security at airports has meant queues and hassle; budget airlines have given us low cost but the pay off is a scramble to get a seat, paying for loads of extras, etc.

Now it seems that the industry is making moves to make it even less comfortable with this new concept in seating called the SkyRider that is proposed for short flights of less than 3 hours - see http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS293848794420100913. As you can see the official photo doesn't look too bad.

However, these images of the demo seats suggests it would be a pretty unpleasant experience and probably not tolerable for most people.

Future screen technology??

2010-09-03T13:08:00.000+01:00

We came across this which presents some interesting ideas about the future of screen techology and how that will impact on interfaces and how information is accessed and distributed. We might be able to do without the news whilst brushing our teeth first thing in the morning though!

Preventing human error even in TV control rooms

2010-08-31T09:40:00.001+01:00

There have been lots of examples recently of the impact of human error in control rooms especially in the US.

However, there are implications even in non-safety critical control rooms such as in TV broadcasting. It seems sometime ago now that ITV bungled the World Cup football going off to an ad break whilst England were scoring one of their few goals in the tournament.

It now seems that they are taking a low-tech approach to try to prevent it this human error happening again -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/7960203/ITV-covers-up-control-room-buttons-to-avoid-repeat-of-World-Cup-goal-fiasco.html

Can we do without traffic signals?

2010-08-24T08:24:00.000+01:00

On the face of it the idea of removing traffic lights from junctions seems crazy. Surely chaos would result with regular accidents.

This experiment near Bristol suggests that maybe it can work - since the trial started they've seen a reduction in congestion despite an increase in traffic...with almost no accidents.

There is of course an interesting issue of driver education & training - for a while at least, the norms of negotiating such a junction are likely to remain with some drivers assuming they have a right of way when perhaps they don't any more. This also impacts on how pedestrians, in particular those with visual impairments, negotiate the traffic.

What seems most interesting about this trial is how both drivers and pedestrians seem to arrive at mutually beneficial behaviours that allow all to "share" the space.

Runaway train underlines importance of operator-centered design

2010-08-23T10:31:00.000+01:00

The recent incident with the run-away maintenance train on London Underground underlines the importance of designing control rooms around the needs of the operators. The information that has surfaced (www.railnews.co.uk/news/metro/2010/08/19-leaked-video-shows-49-second.html) show how the operators were able to avoid the incident becoming a disaster by clearing the path ahead of the runaway.

This required them to exercise all of their skill and training.

But it also required a control room and control system that allowed them identify the incident, understand what was happening, and work together on deciding what action to take and implementing it.

We await the publication of the RAIB report to see more detail on this.

New uses for railway stations

2010-08-13T11:06:00.001+01:00

We've talked in this blog and in press articles about the potential for using station buildings or buildings near station for community or commercial uses - in part to promote better security by having more activity going on in or around the station.

And here is a great example from Edge Hill station in Liverpool where a disused building in the station has been put to use as an art gallery: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10937574

The problems with alarms

2010-08-03T13:36:00.001+01:00

Following on from the discussions on the events in the BP control room, we spotted this piece in the New York Times which serves as a timely reminder of the problems of nuisance alarms and excessive alarm rates.

As Human Factors professionals and control room designers, one of our most common tasks is to persuade engineers that not every alarm need to be presented to the operator and safe ways have to be found of managing situations that cause high rates of alarms. We hope that it is a problem that is becoming better understood and recognised.

The reality in control rooms when it all goes wrong

2010-07-27T16:55:00.001+01:00

For those of us working in the control room design industry it is often easy to forget the reality of what happens to the operators when it all goes wrong and disaster happens.

For a reminder, read this account of what happened in the control room when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded - http://tinyurl.com/3ahwsxo

Can good architecture influence behaviour?

2010-07-26T16:39:00.002+01:00

Can the good design of buildings actually influence behaviour? There seems to be a body of evidence from the education sector that it can certainly reduce negative behaviours.

Providing an environment that is enriching, that is human, that people want to care for and has been considered to remove opportunities for unwanted behaviours seems to be key.

This feature recently on the BBC highlighted some areas to cover: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10720349

The interesting extension for us is the extent to which good design & architecture can take good behaviours and make them better.

Augmented Reality in manufacturing

2010-07-26T10:47:00.006+01:00

Augmented reality is already starting to permiate into consumer products - the advent of the iPhone and Blackberry with in-built GPS, cameras and compasses is allowing applications to know where you are and what you are looking at and layer over relevant information to the scene.

However, we've been more interested in how this technology can be applied to the working environment and business solutions. This example from SAP shows nicely how it can help in production processes to support the operator in finding the parts they need - in an environment that is not tolerant of human error.

Or this example from BMW of how augmented reality might support a technician maintaining a car. This has enormous potential to support training and enable better workflow.

Naturally, for human factors professionals there are concerns about de-skilling and usability, however the potential is fasinating.

As we look more at this area, we'll post more articles, so look out for them

Tube station training & simulation facility

2010-07-23T09:19:00.001+01:00

The rail industry in the UK has long been on the slow side at investing in training & simulation facilities. So it was most welcome to see the development of a new facility for Transport for London to simulate tube station operations (as reported in the Evening Standard)

Counter to the argument put by the Taxpayers' Alliance, on-the-job training can rarely equip staff with all the skills and, critically, experience they need - the nature of this working environment is that some scenarios will rarely be faced in real life but the staff still need to be prepared for when it does happen. Simulation is therefore the best way to get this.

Let us hope that more of this kind of investment is made to enable our transport operators to deal better with the unexpected.

The external image control rooms can give...

2010-07-21T15:08:00.001+01:00

The news channels have all been covering the further deepening of the crisis at BP - the latest being the photoshopping of the images of the control room dealing with the leaking oil well to make it look like they were busier and that the photos were taken more recently it raises the question of to what degree should control rooms be designed to give the right public image?

All of us involved in designing control rooms have experience of putting large video walls in that we all know are largely for show. These walls mean that photos taken of the room or visitors coming in see a control room that has visual impact and the look of "being in control".

Also an interesting issue is designing control rooms for peak resourcing or maximum manning levels. This means that often the control room can feel quite empty and therefore give a quite different perception.

The interior design also plays a part. We always talk to our clients about the image that they wish to portray and words like hi-tech, clean, modern, cutting edge, etc frequently emerge. Demonstrating that again, they want the image to be clear that they are in control and are using the latest technology to do so. We've also recently talked on the blog, and will do more so, about the influence of the film industry on what clients are looking for - we expect this to continue.

So the challenge seems to be designing control rooms that meet their main purpose but also give the right image - without anyone having to resort to doctoring images later on

Are station ticket machines "confusing"?

2010-07-21T10:11:00.002+01:00

Passenger Focus have highlighted the issue of how ticket machines are confusing and difficult to use for rail passengers: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10701953. It is an issue that we have been talking about on this blog and in some of our other activities for a while now.

The train companies point to satisfaction surveys as evidence that there isn't actually a problem. However, from our experience, this isn't a reliable measure of the usability of the machines. Observational studies, like the one we did on bus ticket machines are required to really understand if people are having problems and what they are. Ticket machines are there to help speed up the process of buying tickets and reduce queues - if people don't use them because of these kinds of issues then it is a real problem as the queues at the ticket offices will build quickly.

What do you think?

Is usability an issue with ticket machines? What are the problems you've experienced? Does the solution lie with the train operating company or the developers of the machines themselves?

Multi-touch interfaces in airport traffic planning

2010-07-16T10:58:00.003+01:00

We've been spending some time recently looking at the potential for the use of multi-touch interfaces in control room design. It seems to be a strongly emerging technology in the consumer market but so far hasn't made so much impact in the world of command and control.

In digging around we came across this video from American Airlines where they were looking to introduce a multi-touch system to replace a rather antiquated paper-based system in an airport traffic planning environment which plans the movements of planes on the ground.

For those of you attending the International Control Room Design Conference in Paris this October, look out for the paper from Adam Parkes on multi-touch interfaces - there may also be a sneak preview of the paper later in the summer on the CCD website.

How human factors can improve train interiors

2010-07-09T11:36:00.002+01:00

As the railway industry becomes more focused on the passenger, the role of human factors in producing good design that delivers what the passenger wants is becoming more important.

In this article in the International Railway Journal this month, our very own Mike Stearn highlights the areas in which improvements can be made.

This starts with understanding the different kinds of passengers travelling on the service, what they need and how they behave. How do you develop better seat design taking into account that a significant behaviour on trains is sleeping? How do you improve the personal space and facilites to account for increasing use of laptops and other mobile devices? How do you make access to luggage storage easier? How do you better provide information to passengers on the performance of the service?

Read on and find out!

User centered design in times of austerity

2010-07-06T11:19:00.000+01:00

As the economic reality tightens its grip on both the public and private sector, what part can user centered design play?

Firstly, within projects is it a "nice to have" or a necessity? Our experience is that it is an investment and the pay-off is in minimising the risk of later re-design when it's found that it can't be used by the user. Get it right first time - surely this is a tangible benefit to all projects.

What else can user centered design bring? Most strongly it is part of good design. Involving users and designing for them produces products and systems that are better. They are more usable and useful and are therefore better accepted and liked. This can give a competitive edge to the producer. In times when people are more careful and selective about what products and services they use this is critical.

A focus on the user can also enable innovation and getting more for less from the design process. Deliver what is useful and needed - ignore the rest.

Finally, these times are hard for almost all of us. What we need is design that can inspire, lift us up and make our lives easier. We need this now more than ever.

Legible London delivers user focused design

2010-07-05T12:21:00.000+01:00

Walking around London is being transformed by a wonderful piece of user-focused design (from Applied Information Group). The two features of Legible London that really work for us are firstly the orientation of the maps to the direction you are facing. This is different from the traditional orientation of having north at the top but makes so much more sense when walking.

The second element that seems to work so well for users is the indication of "time to walk". Time is the scale of the map not distance which reflects what the user actually needs to know.

The comparison with the map in a bus stop near our office with none of these features was stark - in fact on that map you couldn't even tell where you were!

What about "standing seats" in transport?

2010-07-04T12:18:00.000+01:00

All transport systems seem to be suffering from capacity and overcrowding posing the question of how can we fit more people on the train, plane, etc?

Perhaps as its usual PR-approach Ryanair have suggested that standing seats might be a way forwards. This article on the BBC website lines a number of people up to shoot the idea down as far as aviation is concerned (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8779388.stm).

But what about in rail? Could it help in the very crowded urban rail environments where just standing in the armpit of our neighbour is the reality for many of us?

Well in our user-focused world these seats might offer some support that is preferable to standing but doesn't allow the passenger to do many of the things they want to on a train - sleep being an obvious one. Although tasks like using laptops for work or reading would be possible and actually easier than when standing. Luggage is probably still a bit of a problem. However, it would give a more enclosed personal space which is something that most of us look for in the uncomfortable world of commuting.

Is sitting up straight really ergonomic?

2010-07-02T13:47:00.001+01:00

This recent article on the BBC website suggested that sitting up straight to work wasn't actually as good for your back as previously suggested.

…an interesting report suggesting the low-strain result of slouching, we're sure that the results are right, but what about the conclusions in the article? The report could easily be misinterpreted

The posture may be OK for relaxing (isn’t this what this is all about?), but for all those people working on a computer at a desk, it can raise other problems:

Viewing distance to the computer screen is much increased in this position, making great demands on visual acuity. This posture makes the person lift their head, whereas, with an upright posture the head is more naturally balanced. For many people, there will be a tendency to strain the head forward, creating more trouble in the neck than it saves in the lower back.
This is particularly true of those who wear varifocal glasses, since the increased viewing distance prompts a view through a higher part of the lens, which in turn forces the head more forward
It’s difficult to hold the arms outstretched for any length of time, so this seating posture needs to be combined with a lower desk, moved close in to the body – which limits freedom to fidget around. Everyone agrees (do they?) that regular movement is good!

The illustration shows a chair with what appears to be a good lumbar support. I would predict a very different result if the chair had been a canvas deck-chair, where the lumbar region has to be supported by the body’s own musculature.

Most of us have seen, heard of or tried the “kneeling” chair, designed to reduce the angle between pelvis and thighs. This has only a marginal success, not because the reduced pelvic angle is bad – it isn’t, but most “kneeling” chair designs actually limit freedom to move the legs as widely as an “ordinary” one. People with weak knees also suffer from the load on their knees

So, for most of us, an upright posture will still be the all-round winner for the working environment. As Ergonomists, we will probably continue to encourage people to sit upright when working and, critically, to keep up with breaks and changes in posture.

CERN LHC smashes beam collision record

2010-06-30T10:38:00.000+01:00

Having worked on the CERN LHC project to design the control room, we somehow feel part of the project (despite the fact that we understand absolutely nothing about the physics!).

So it's great to see the programme advancing and meeting its objectives - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10430234.stm

Understanding how the train service operates

2010-06-29T13:03:00.001+01:00

Much of the human factors work we do in the transport industry is, in the end, about making the train service more passenger and therefore customer focused. Criticising the railways in the UK for being too inward focused on how they operate has often been too easy. One example of this is in how train operating companies explain to the passengers what is happening when things go wrong. All too often this is done using technical "railway" language: they talk about trains as units, they talk about "operational difficulties"...And they don't have an easy way to explain why they take certain decisions to recover the service.

So it was good to see First Capital Connect making an effort to explain some of the background to operational decisions so that the passenger can make more sense of what is going on (see www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/spotlight). This information is on their website and also on posters on their trains.

Understanding what is happening can remove a major source of stress from the travelling experience.

The many uses for iPad

2010-06-24T11:38:00.001+01:00

People find amazing ways to use new technology and quickly adapt it for their own use. We spotted this great example of a doctor in Japan using the iPad to make it easier for him to manipulate the images he uses during surgery.

Our Top 10 Station Hates

2010-06-21T11:20:00.001+01:00

Working on a number of station design projects prompted some lunch-time discussion at CCD on what we hate about stations - remembering we are all commuters as well as designers! So here is our Top 10 hates about stations.

1. The way the design of stations means that groups of people congregate, with all their luggage, in the same place as the main flow of people moving through the station. A difficult issue to sort!

2. The location of equipment, in particular ticket machines and information boards, that encourage people to stop and gather again blocking some of the flows of people. This is avoidable.

3. The dreadful usability of some ticket machines - they are slow and the touchscreens unresponsive; they use non-QWERTY keyboards making entry of destination information etc harder

4. Why do ticket machines give so little information on things like fare types? Saying "this ticket has restrictions" is no help to anyone. A simpler fare structure would help too.

5. Queues for ticket machines and windows - more ticket machines are helping but doesn't stop us hating the queues

6. We understand that ticket gates are necessary for revenue protection but their reliability, especially at peak times, is a hate - the frequency with which tickets are not accepted raises the annoyance factor for all and is really embarassing for those stuck with the dud ticket. A stress we could do without

7. Why is signage so often unhelpful for those not in the know? For example, signs directing you to either an eastbound or westbound service assumes some knowledge of the local geography

8. Where the revenue from advertising and retail comes before wayfinding - sticking adverts in front of information signs is a biggie; or sticking useless signs telling you to "take care" just where you can trip over them.

9. Toilets that are poor quality AND you have to pay extra to use - the new minimum standards should help this

10. Why is the level of information provided when things are going wrong so poor? Operators try hard but it never seems good enough - and a pre-recorded apology doesn't do much to help. Better ways to disseminate information AND more meaningful information please (no more "operational difficulties")

Now, we'd like to think that we're a bunch of people who want to look positively and get involved in the solution not just rant about problems for others to sort - the discussion suggested we've got some work to do!

What do you think about UK stations and what needs fixing? Or better still, what do you love that we need to do more of?

Pedestrian Countdown Trial in London

2010-06-16T14:23:00.001+01:00

At CCD, much of our work is on transport systems and we are always interested in designs that help improve the passenger, or in this case, pedestrian experience.

Transport for London are conducting an interesting trial in to the use of countdown indicators on pedestrian crossings. The countdown signal shows the person crossing how long you have to cross the road after the "green man" light has gone out and before the red man light goes on.

As an intial reaction it seems like a positive step in giving more information to the passenger, removing a source of stress and uncertainty, etc.

Of course the really useful information would be to show how long until the traffic is stopped and you can cross!

Find out more about the trial at www.tfl.gov.uk/pedestriancountdown

Controlling crowds with ice-cream van music

2010-06-07T14:56:00.001+01:00

We spotted this item on the BBC news site about the Police in Northern Ireland using ice-cream van music to calm troublemakers - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10170966.stm

It struck us as interesting on one hand how it appeared to be an effective intervention on this occasion but also how it was also frowned upon by management and the local council.

It has some similarities, although in a more serious setting, to our earlier blog post on the use of music to influence people using stairs

Has anyone any views or experiences on other ways in which the behaviour of crowds or groups of people have been modified like this?

Health & Safety gone mad? What can ergonomics do?

2010-05-21T12:21:00.001+01:00

There are always articles appearing in the press about "barmy" decisions taken on the basis of "health & safety", usually by local authorities. The theme is usually an over-reaction to what, for most of us, would seem a fairly non-hazardous activity in an attempt to remove any trace of liability.

Two articles in the press this week highlight this again: firstly, this article appeared in Metro (http://tinyurl.com/3668ey2) on children doing work repairing a carving in a chalk hill - a task that the Probation Service assessed as too risky for their offenders to do. Second, was this article in the Evening Standard about a letter box that has been closed as it has been assessed as a handling risk for postmen as it is too low (http://tinyurl.com/34ucswr).

Our argument is not whether these decisions were right or wrong but that these types of story often suggest a problem with a lack of understanding of ergonomics, physiology and the liklihood of particular actions causing injury.

The situation on the hillside might have been addressed through identifying control measures such as appropriate footwear and training which could have reduced the risks to an acceptable level.

The postbox is interesting as the ergonomics of manual handling requires consideration of the frequency of handling, the nature of the loads as well as the posture and environment. A poor posture, such as a low height, is not automatically an unacceptable risk if the handing is not frequent (once a day not usually being regarded as constant) and the loads are not heavy or unstable.

To produce sensible results the risk assessment process required in Health & Safety law requires a sensible judgement on probablility and consequence (i.e. you cannot eliminate risk) as well as a good and competent understanding of ergonomics.

The Value of Mock-ups in the Design Process

2010-05-15T21:37:00.001+01:00

We have always believed in the value of the full-scale mock-up trial in the design process. In our toolkit of design methodologies it offers an un-rivaled way of getting end users & other stakeholders involved. It allows them to visual and spatially see the design in a way that many struggle to with drawings: for example, it is often difficult to visualise the size of a space or the distance between objects. It allows them to interact with the design in real-time: when we design a control room for example, they can pick up a desk and move it; if we want to change the desk we can re-shape it if we've used cardboard as our material.

No CAD or other tool offers these benefits in a way that is as quick or as cheap to deliver. Whilst sometimes sceptical at the outset, almost all our clients see and agree the benefit of the approach when the exercise is completed.

Now it seems we are not alone! In this article (http://tinyurl.com/2wuwbbq) Airbus gained significant benefits in the design of the XWB fuselage through the use of mock-ups. It allowed them to avoid the mistakes of previous projects which had relied on CAD modelling and for testing future assembly processes.

The lesson seems to be that we have a variety of design tools at our disposal. The skills is to bring the right ones in for the right purposes and rarely to rely on one method.

Our thoughts on recent report on driving and the aging population

2010-05-01T15:44:00.001+01:00

A recent report from the RAC Foundation tackled the subject of the older driver and maintaining their mobility. Entitled "Maintaining safe mobility for the aging population" it covered a number of human factors issues in relation to car design and the design of road signage.

This comprehensive report stands aside from the fear that old drivers kill people and cause others to have accidents. It starts by assuming that the benefits of mobility apply at least as much to older people as to anyone else and looks at older drivers’ habits as well as their accident rates. The question seems to be “Why shouldn’t we impose special rules on older drivers” rather than “Older drivers are less safe – should we limit them?”

There is a careful (and exhaustive) study of actual accident rates involving older drivers, showing that their accident rate is little higher than other drivers and way below that of young, inexperienced drivers. Accident rate per mile driven is higher, but older people drive less, so the actual number of accidents is low. The studies included comparison of differing driver legislation in other countries to evaluate the effects of the law and national culture. It seems that more limiting legislation, as applied in some sountries does not improve road safety significantly – it only limits personal freedom.

A criticism might be that the report doesn’t successfully quantify the contribution of older people’s driving to other drivers’ accidents.

It is interesting to note that older people are more frail than younger people, so accidents to them tend to be more serious; and that if forced on to buses or walking, older people are likely to have more accidents.

The message is simple: Keep older people driving if practicable – it helps to sustain their independence, which is really important for everyone.

One-Way Streets go against human behaviour

2010-04-30T11:04:00.001+01:00

A further great example of how the design of things needs to accommodate and respond to human behaviour.

In this interesting article in The Times, well known design commentator Stephen Bayley charts the reverse in the use of one-way streets. In it he highlights how, in part, this is because "one-way systems are wrong because they are counterintuitive and seek to impose a spurious logic on human behaviour...".

http://tinyurl.com/34bhsdk

Simple, good design solutions can deliver user adoption - #264: The electric scooter

2010-04-15T16:39:00.004+01:00

Often it is getting the small but critical details right in good design that makes the difference to whether users accept and take-up a new technology or product or don't.

Take electric scooters as an example. This should be a really successful product - cheap to run, environmentally friendly, etc should enable the electric scooter to steal market share from its petrol brother. But so far it hasn't and why not?

One major issue with most electric scooters is the charging of the battery - this requires access to a close socket and therefore probably a garage, or running a cable from inside the house. Neither of these work well for the main target market for scooter riders - the city dweller. For people in cities, they don't usually have a garage and the scooter lives in the street. So the electric scooter fails to meet a fundamental user need.

However one new product seems to have overcome this - Econogo's Yogo scooter - how? By designing the battery to be removable so it can be taken inside to charge. How simple...how come no-one has done it before?

Good user-centered design also brings other benefits - removing the battery gives the owner added security as the local joyriders will find it hard to nick with no power source.

A simple yet clever design solution seems to have opened up the electric scooter market to a whole new group of potential scooter users. We're impressed...in fact our MD is booking his test drive next week.

Does healthcare pay enough attention to human factors?

2010-04-01T14:11:00.001+01:00

The importance of human factors within high risk environments such as rail, aviation and oil and gas is well documented. One of the main reasons for this is that the consequences of ignoring human factors in these types of environments could potentially be catastrophic and lead to large loss of life. It is therefore surprising that a high risk environment where there is less awareness of human factors is within the healthcare sector. Especially when some studies have concluded that more people die from medical error each year than in road accidents or individual forms of cancer.

Applying human factors principles is key in aspects such as the design of medical equipment, design of labelling on medication packs, procedures and training for healthcare staff as well as addressing cultural/hierarchical difficulties which could impact on communication.

The Clinical Human Factors Group (CHFG) is a charity which has brought together a group of experts and clinicians in an effort to increase awareness of human factors within healthcare environments. In addition, The Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors has its own Healthcare Group and they are currently trying to raise the profile of this topic.

One of the main problems currently seems to be acceptance that human factors has a role to play within this sector: this maybe due to a lack of understanding of the topic or because of the culture of the healthcare system. It is the goal of both of these groups to challenge and change this and to improve safety within healthcare.

This amazing video gives some insight into the role of human factors in critical surgical environments and makes the point that these issues are well understood and accepted within aviation - why not in healthcare?

Just A Routine Operation from thinkpublic on Vimeo.

CERN LHC produces record breaking collisions

2010-03-31T07:44:00.004+01:00

We're delighted to see the success yesterday of the LHC to take a great leap forwards in its experimental programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8593780.stm

What is even nicer for us is to see the video of this ground breaking event taking place in the control room we designed!

It's the small details that count as well in good station design

2010-03-26T10:54:00.001Z

To work, stations must provide key elements such as a layout that allows passenger flow and facilities to an appropriate standard. However, to deliver passenger satisfaction it is also the small details that count.

King’s Cross Station is currently being redeveloped and CCD are involved in providing the human factors support to the programme. When going to the King's Cross project offices on site we have to walk past Platform 9¾ as made famous by the Harry Potter series of stories and films. Fans of the series will know that Platform 9¾ at King's Cross is the point where Harry Potter and his friends can board the Hogwart’s Express to attend Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizadry.

While the series and platform are fictional, a real life sign and trolley has been installed in the station close to the entrance to the real Platform 9.

Providing this, and ensuring that it remains in place during the development (it has been moved and there are signs directing visitors to its new location), is a small detail but one which will enhance the use of King's Cross for thousands of tourists and visitors to the station.

Stand near it for any length of time and you'll see just how many fans come to have their photograph taken as they too run through the wall.

Is this a good ergonomic solution for infrequent laptop use?

2010-03-24T15:45:00.001Z

We spotted this product from IKEA as a neat solution for infrequent use of laptops in the home. It probably does work OK for domestic situations but the ergonomics of it would need some work for a commercial application.

The main problem is that there is no height adjustability which you'd need to account for the variety of people who might use the facility.

But we could see the benefits of something that took up little space when not in use and allowed walk-up use. It provoked some interesting discussions in our office on solutions for drop-in hotdesking.

How will HS2 impact on station design?

2010-03-16T15:40:00.001Z

The announcement by the Government to proceed with High Speed 2 and place its main station at Euston raises some interesting questions about how the station will be redesigned to accommodate this.

The masterplan being developed by Terry Farrell / Arup will be looking at how to deal with the huge trains coming and going but one of the main issues will be how will the station manages the numbers of passengers moving through the station. It is said that HS2 will deliver the equivalent of a 747 jumbo jet's worth of passengers into and out of Euston every 90 seconds!

This will require a radically different approach to wayfinding and moving passengers - possibly separating arrivals and departures as happens as airports.

The design will also have to consider how to move this volume of people to and from the station in this central location - something no railway station in this country has had to manage to date. This will include the Euston & Euston Square Underground stations and the surrounding street network.

It's going to be fascinating to see how this massive project can deliver an inspiring station that is still easy to use and welcoming for passengers.

Terry Farrell & Partner's Masterplan for Euston station

Buggies on buses & the impact on wheelchair users

2010-03-11T13:29:00.001Z

It was widely reported in the press yesterday that the DfT are consulting on a proposal to "crackdown" on parents with buggies on buses (see the BBC News for example). The actual wording of the DfT consultation is slightly milder identifying concern with buggies taking spaces for wheelchairs and detering wheelchair users from using the bus.

This was an issue CCD looked at for Transport for London in a research study into the use of buggies on buses. We looked specifically some of these attitudinal and emotional issues for parents and other bus users including those in wheelchairs. The case study of the work can be found on our website.

We concluded that there were a number of issues around the design of the interior of the bus, the lack of available help from staff, issues with buses moving off and communication with/from the driver that made the use of the wheelchair/buggy space more problematic. It seemed that these make the options open to buggy users to make the space available are limited especially on crowded buses.

Green Design & Ergonomics Benefits

2010-03-10T13:23:00.001Z

In all aspects of design there is an increasing need to consider the environmental impact of the design. As with most other design consultancies we are more and more using products and solutions that deliver environmental benefit to our clients.

However, what is often underestimated is the ergonomic benefit that some of these interventions can provide to the people who use or work in a building or space.

For example, we are often designing control facilities which may be underground or in a window-less environment. The use of light pipes to transmit natural daylight into these environments gives an eco-benefit to the client in terms of reduced electricity usage...but critically it delivers a real psychological value to the staff working in the room but getting natural light to the working environment.

We are also finding more uses of natural, living roofing materials. These provide a clear environmental benefit both in terms of insulation to the building but also the plant-life on the roof. However they also provide a real psychological benefit to people working in the building through a sense of connection to the natural world and a more attractive working environment.

Eco-design can help us to save the planet but also to deliver day-to-day benefits to the people using our designs.

Is it safe to manage a station with less staff?

2010-03-09T10:00:00.003Z

The recent claims in the news that LUL are planning to reduce the numbers of staff on station platforms (http://bit.ly/biujz9) highlights the issue of the role of staff in stations and how information and control systems are used to manage them.

We know that passenger satisfaction is strongly linked to the visible presence of staff in stations - they provide a source of live information and a sense of security. This is not easily replaced by information systems or operators in a central control room.

Technology can have a role. We are frequently asked to look at new technology and determine if its use gives an operation that can be as safe as a human being on the front-line. For example, our recent work looking at the use of CCTV in driver only operated trains provided evidence that it was a safe process.

However, people have qualities that are not easily replicated or replaced by technology. So caution must always be taken to use technology where it is appropriate and not where people are better.

The final issue is can stations be effectively managed from a control room? Can operators have a full awareness of situations through using IT systems and CCTV images or do they need people on the ground to support them? Do staff on the platforms enable a better quality of commnunication to passengers or management of a crowd?

Situations such as evacuation or crowding are complex and dynamic and the role of station staff is important although it is difficult to demonstrate that operation without them is inherently unsafe or impractical.

The balance in these areas is difficult to achieve but it needs consideration of the operational situation and a careful allocation of the role of the human and of technology.

Using displays to support passenger wayfinding

2010-02-04T09:31:00.002Z

We thought this advert was a great example of the conflict between passenger needs and the more commercial demands of an airport or other transport interchange.

The copy suggests how the display technology is perfect for helping passengers navigate the airport and have a great experience...yet the image is showing how the displays can be used to advertise retail or other commercial opportunities.

It would be nice to think that in delivering a better passenger experience at airports the displays would be mainly used to help people get to their flights

Is there a better way to influence passenger behaviour?

2010-02-01T12:02:00.002Z

Railway stations, along with airports, are mainly designed to deliver throughput of people along with retail opportunities for the operator. Whilst all these are important for the success of the station it sometimes feels that the individual needs of the passenger are further down the list of priorities.

For example, at Kings Cross in the rush-hour you can watch the battle between passengers and the operators. Passengers all want a seat and when seats are in short supply they want to make sure they are first on the train. To do this they try to get as close as possible to the platform our train is arriving at. But the announcement of the platform is usually left until the incoming train arrives. This creates a stand-off with the passengers guessing which platform the train will arrive at and congregating around the barriers - ignoring all the calls over the public address to return to the main concourse. Whilst there are many operational reasons for this it is a constant fight against the behaviour of the crowd.

Maybe we need to be more imaginative about how we influence behaviour in public spaces such as stations. We loved this video of changing how people used stairs by making it fun. Not necessarily practical but thought-provoking never the less...