Angled Whiteboards

There was an interesting article in the New York Times the other day about how one long line and many check-outs results in less wait time than many shorter lines to individual check-outs. (Of course they do, for me - I always choose the line with the longest wait, no matter how many people are in it. Don’t you?)

Anyway, the queuing theory behind the model is far from new. No, what was interesting to me was that most people had to actually experience it to believe one LONG line could result in a shorter overall wait.

Earlier this year we implemented on-demand image fetching in the GameTap Deluxe Player - mainly to make the initial download smaller. For instance, you go to a game infocard, you might very well see an “Image Loading” where the picture is supposed to be. Okay, no problem. But we didn’t implement on-demand images everywhere. Why not? We had to experience it to know that even though our goal was met (reduced initial download time) the actual user experience felt all kinds of broken.

Just try spinning the Wheel of Destiny (Gotta Getta Game) in the search ring when there are no GamePlates loaded. Talk about meeting a goal and failing at the same time. And it took experiencing it to know it.

How does this relate to long lines? I dunno, just made me think of it.

And the moral of the story is: when it comes to lines - you can’t make a wrong choice if there’s no choice at all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Design Paths.