DECONSTRUCTING THE AIRPORT is a video from a New Yorker Magazine conference held in May this year.
In the video Malcolm Gladwell introduces Paco Underhill who is an architectural expert on retail space human factors design. Mr. Gladwell provides keen insight on how to remake air travel for the twenty-first century.
Paco Underhill is the architectural analog to what we in the computer industry call Human Factors or Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Basically, Mr Underhill's job is to make spaces like airports more usable and human friendly.
WATCH THIS VIDEO!
All of the videos from this New Yorker conference are excellent and available free on iTunes (look for podcasts).
A couple of easy to remember bits of information from Mr Underhill:
- Roughly 50% of people entering an airport use the potty before boarding their flight.
- On the average, it takes women longer than men to clear through the restroom.
- Men and women's restrooms generally have the same square footage. (meaning the men's room has more stations)
- Airplane potties are one of the few publicly accessible restrooms that are shared between men and women.
Mr Underhill follows up with two big questions:
- Why aren't women's airport restrooms designed to serve the same number of women per unit time as men's restrooms?
- Why aren't there seperate Men and Women's facilities aboard aircraft? Why do they have to be shared?
Mr Underhill also talks about the architectural information architecture needed for effective communications and observation in airports. Understand that different airport constituencies have different needs. Passengers, Airlines, Security, vendors, etc. Basic stuff like where is my gate, baggage claim, waiting area? Why do airports like Dublin have uncomfortable metal chairs? (I've been to Dublin and those chairs were more comfortable than padded chairs in some US airports.)
Great video. I really enjoyed it and wish all airport, airline, and security administrators would give it a view and really think about what Underhill is saying.