Tips for Consciously Learning in Museums (without Killing the Fun)

by Saul Carliner

The summer travel season, when many of us explore new places and experience new things, is ripe with opportunities for true informal learning—that is, learning where you, as the learner, set the objectives and determine for yourself when you have achieved them. 

(This differs from informal learning for the workplace, which represents more of a partnership between employers and workers on the process, content, location, and purpose of learning, and—like other types of informal learning—can happen consciously or unconsciously. See Chapter 1 of Informal Learning Basics for more about these definitions.)

Some might learn a new sport. Some might try a new artistic activity, like journal writing or painting.  Some might try their hand at cooking a different type of cuisine.  Some might hike new paths. 

And some, like me, might explore new museums.  Museums captured my imagination at a young age, fostered my intellectual awakening, and provided many hours of wonder about—and engagement with—art, history, science, nature, and even music.  More immediate to the point, museums fostered my interest in informal learning, because that’s what they do.

So how can you get the most from your museum visit—without killing it?  Here are some tips.

Start with a flexible agenda.  From the get-go, give yourself permission to wander and explore whatever strikes your fancy. This museum visit isn’t a business meeting where you have specific tasks to accomplish; it’s supposed to be fun.  So don’t kill it by over-planning it.

Once inside, focus on what interests you.   See something that catches your attention?  Go to it.  Gaze at it. Read about it.  Linger all you want, or leave in an instant if it doesn’t seem to be what you thought it was.  You have free choice to explore; that’s why museums call the type of learning that goes on within their walls free-choice learning.

Follow the efforts to attract your attention.  Part of the fun of a museum is the unexpected discovery and exhibit designers go out of their way to provide you with opportunities to have one or two of those.  Enticing you to the museum to see a special exhibition, designers purposely place it in the back of the museum so that you’ll have to walk past the permanent exhibition—and perhaps, wander into it (much like grocery stores place the milk at the back to entice you to purchase something else along the way).

Within exhibits, designers try to beckon visitors to explore by effectively using sight lines and sizes of objects to catch your attention.  Or they might use sound or similar audiovisual devices to attract visitors to other parts of the exhibition or building. 

Get a general sense of what’s going on.  Unlike a casino, where they shut off access to daylight and remove all the clocks so you’ll keep gambling, museums are not trying to disorient you. 

On the contrary, museum design teams want you to know where you are and what you’re seeing.  That’s why most designers place orientation labels in each gallery so you’ll know the topic addressed in that gallery and why it’s significant. 

When something interests you a bit, go a bit deeper.  Some galleries strike a chord and motivate visitors to learn more about the topic.  That’s why most museum exhibition designers—especially in science, history, technology, cultural, and similar museums—provide a second set of labels, each of which explores a key theme within the broad topic of the gallery. 

These labels usually define the key theme and explain its relationship to the main topic of the gallery, and provide additional context.  In some exhibitions, thematic labels highlight some key or signature objects in the gallery. 

If something interests you a lot, go even deeper than that.  In some instances, either because you have an innate interest in the theme of the exhibition or because the exhibition designers inspired interest, you want to learn even more—about the broad themes and about individual objects. 

So many museums provide additional labels that go into further depth about the topic.  Section or case labels describe a sub-theme within a particular theme; object labels provide details on each object. 

When you’re not sure what to do, get “help.”  Most museums offer guided tours by trained guides, called docents. The tours are usually free, so if you’re not sure where to begin your visit or what to view while in the building, try this option.  Docents are trained to make sure you see key highlights of the collection on display, but most add a personal story or two and in the process of doing so, share their infectious enthusiasm for the museum.  So even though you might start a visit with little interest, the docent might inspire some. 

Docent tours also make sense when you face a language barrier .  Most museums display labels in a limited number of languages.  If yours isn’t one of them, you might miss out on the experience because you can’t get information about galleries and objects that interest you. Many museums offer tours in languages other than the ones on display. 

But some people still feel uncomfortable with docent tours.  Ask if the museum has a translation of the exhibition labels.  Some have special books that you can use within the museum; others have “apps” on the iPad or audioguides (that is, audio devices you can use while in the museum) that provide information in your language. 

And if nothing interests you, don’t read anything.  You can just look at the objects and appreciate them for what they are—something to look at.  Or just sit on a bench and observe the other visitors interacting with the exhibition. 

That’s the key characteristic of free-choice learning: you’re free to choose whether or not you feel like learning about something—or learn about anything at all.

And to be honest, most museums have so many exhibitions and so many labels that you couldn’t read everything on a single visit if you wanted to.  (That also gives you a reason to return.) 

Continue your learning.  Over the next several posts, I’ll share some thoughts about museums I’ve recently visited.  Maybe that will spark your interest in visiting one of the ones mentioned—or another one of your choice. 

Tip: For more information about the links between informal learning and museums, see the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Informal Learning Basics.   

The Travel Experience on Subways

Rail basically lives up to its reputation as a “more civilized” way of travel—and so does its “cousin,” subways (also known as metros and mass transit).  Perfect? No.  Travel by mass transit posed some interesting challenges, like these.

My first experience on the Madrid Metro was an experience in getting lost. Totally lost.  Admittedly, it was partly my fault; I didn’t call the hotel in advance to find out which Metro stop to take, much less write down its address and telephone number.  But the hotel shares some of the blame; it did not list the actual name of the Metro stop on its website, much less the name of the specific exit to take.

My first indication of a problem was at the train station.  I went to the information desk to get information about the Metro system.  The guy at the desk said he worked for the rail system, not the metro.

We made it to the presumed subway station and discovered it had 5 exits.  We didn’t know which one to take, and couldn’t find an area guide on the walls that might suggest which of the five was most appropriate for us.  I chose one; I quickly learned that wasn’t the right one.   I learned two valuable lessons from that experience; useful, tourist-oriented signage is an essential component of a great Metro.  In the meantime, make sure you have thorough directions.

Déjà vu all over again in Berlin.   I had traveled on the Berlin subway system before, so I felt comfortable using it this time.  It’s extensive, it goes nearly everywhere we wanted to go (except directly to Museum Island) and runs on an honor system (there are no turnstiles to go through).

So I wasn’t prepared for a bizarre situation that happened my first time using the subway on this trip.  After the fifth station, the sixth stop on the line was the same as the fourth stop.  And the seventh station was the same as the third stop.  According to the map on the train, that wasn’t the plan.

Apparently, part of the line on which I was traveling was closed for renovations.  There was an announcement on the train but, because it was in German, I couldn’t understand it.  I learned a valuable lesson from this experience: when lines are interrupted or stations closed for renovations, place a temporary marker on the subway map over the area to provide a visual cue to passengers. Also update the website with similar information.

That said, I found the subway maps for the Berlin metro to be unusually complicated and difficult to follow in contrast to systems of similar size and complexity.  This system has many routes, but the small type on the route maps made identifying route and station names all the more challenging.  Directional signage within stations was similarly confusing.  For example, no direct link exists between the S-bahn and U-bahn trains though directional   signage in the station suggests otherwise.  .

The City Tour in Istanbul:  Istanbul has both traditional subway and light rail systems.  We found both systems to be incredibly easy to use.

Travelers buy tokens (called jetons) from a vendor near the station, then enter the station.  The system was reasonably bi-lingual; visitors who do not speak or read Turkish could easily navigate the system.

Although cities primarily build mass transit systems to ferry locals through the city, we figured out quickly that an above-ground system, like the Light Rail system in Istanbul, could also provide tourists a great tour of the city, too.  So we rode the line end-to-end, traveling from the downtown of the city to a suburb near the airport, and back to the historic section where we were staying.  We took the ride at sunset and traveled over the river--certainly adding to the charm of the experience.  

In general, we found travel by mass transit in all of the cities we visited to be exceptionally convenient and cost-effective when walking was either not practical or not reflective of our moods.  Admittedly, signage and directions posed challenges in some cities.  But in each case, we quickly overcame the challenges, adjusted to the systems, and became regular users. We purchased unlimited travel passes on the Paris and Berlin systems.  We did not need the passes in other cities but used the systems when walking or city tour buses could not take us where we wanted to go.  

Next post:  Wish lists of cultural resources for my home towns. 

The Traveler Experience of Trains and Train Stations

As a result of the frustrations that travelers experience or anticipate with air travel, when feasible, many are turning to trains.  For the most part, train travel offers an easier travel experience but some issues could make it an even smoother, more seamless user experience.

In this post, I explore some of the strengths of the rail travel experience and opportunities for improvement, both from the perspective of the station and the train itself.

The Traveler Experience with Central Train Stations
Train stations address many of the issues that arose in my critique of airports.

• Reasonably priced food and trinkets.  In Canada and Europe, prices for food at airports seems far more reasonable than it did at airports.  At Montreal’s train station, for example, many people working in nearby offices eat lunch at the train station’s food court.  (That a significant investment in the ambience of the food court was made probably persuades lunchers; it’s the nicest food court in the area (in my humble opinion)). 
• Reasonable distances from arrival to taxis and car rental stations.
• Clear directional signage.
• Excellent shopping in several train stations, offering practical items like groceries, office supplies, magazines and newspapers, and personal care and pharmacy items.  
• In Europe, transfers among trains are a snap.  Some only provide 2 to 3 minutes between trains, and the connections are so easy that passengers can make the transfers with time to spare.  (Not that I trusted these short changes, but they are surprisingly smooth.)

Where train stations fall short is in the link to certain ground transportation options.  Links to  buses seem to be inconvenient; it seems that, in many train stations, they’re located in the most distant corner of the station.  (That said, bus links with the central train station in Enschede, The Netherlands is seamless.)

More significantly, links to metro systems seem to be clunky. In Toronto, Paris, and Montreal, the link between corresponding subway stations and train stations do not seem to be designed for travelers with luggage.  All involve winding pathways, and walks up stairs (with no options for escalators or elevators).  Most of the turnstiles in subway stations are not designed for people traveling with even small suitcases, much less large ones.  The problem is especially serious in Paris, where the make shift solution doesn’t always work.  

The Traveler Experience on Trains
With stress free boarding procedures (even those trains requiring security checks seem to handle them more quickly than airports), wide seats—even in coach  class, leg room, electrical outlets at most seats (once again, even in coach), and spacious on-board wash rooms, trains are, as Canada’s VIA Rail advertises, a “civilized alternative.”

In first class, passengers even receive a meal—with complimentary wine.

And, as train stations offer a less stressful, more pleasant experience, so trains themselves offer a less stressful, more pleasant experience, for the most part.

But, as train stations have room for improvement, so do trains themselves, little things that affect the user experience.  Consider these.

Clarify the value proposition of a a Eurail pass. When I first traveled on a Eurail pass, in the 1980s, it provided unlimited travel within a period of time, few requirements to make reservations, and rarely a reservation fee.  In 2010, a Eurail pass basically seems like a discount voucher.  Reservations were required for all rides, all reservations involved additional fees (sometimes as high as 100 euros) and we were limited in the amount we could travel.  In the end, even with ground transportation fees, traveling on Air Berlin would have been a more cost- and time-effective solution.  (Admittedly, this is a Europe-only issue.)

Eurail passes used to have a reputation as a good deal, but the reality seems at odds with the reputation.  That could catch up to the European national railways.

Provide room for luggage on European inter-city trains.  Although checking luggage isn’t an option on most European trains, they also do not provide room to store luggage.   The overhead bins aren’t good for much more than a handbag or computer case.

Canada’s VIA Rail might have older trains (and, in many cases, used ones from other countries), but they have plenty of room for luggage.

Watch the timetable:  On the one hand, Northern European trains run so closely to the time table that travelers can set their watch to them, and VIA Rail usually follows its schedule closely, even in bad weather, Amtrak in the U.S. is a different story.  Except on well-traveled routes (like the Boston-Washington corridor), schedules are merely a suggestion and actual arrival and departure times can occur hours after published schedules.

Additional thoughts: The review of train stations focused on central stations.  Suburban and rural stations offer a significantly different experience.  Because I rarely use them, I could not comment on them.

Compared with the number and scope of issues with the user experience that airlines and airports need to address, those the challenges facing airlines and airports, the traveler experience of trains and train stations is significantly smoother and more pleasant.  That may result, in part, from the differences in the number of passengers airlines and airports must process, as well as the significant difference in travel conditions and challenges.

In the scheme of things, these are minor issues.  But the value and luggage issues in Europe, and schedule issues in the US, still have the ability to annoy passengers.

Next post:  The Travel Experience on Subways.  

Experience and Usability--and--Airlines and Airports

The Usability of the Travel Experience

At the end of my last post of travel pet peeves, I made the observation that many of the snafus happen because different aspects of travel are coordinated by different organizations, and no one has responsibility for the “big picture,” that is, the end-to-end travel experience.

As a result, the interfaces among these experiences are often clunky—between air travel and ground transport, subway and train station.  Rummler and Brache noticed that, when organizations fall down, the cracks are the interfaces between different groups within the organization—the kitchen and the wait staff in a restaurant, manufacturing and distribution in a plant, sales and set-up in a marketing organization.

This type of problem seems especially true in the travel experience—air, train, and metro.  It’s as if the people who work in them are especially oblivious to the experiences of the travelling public.  Furthermore, no one seems to have responsibility for the end-to-end experiences in each of these modes of travel.  Traveling as much as I did during the sabbatical last year provided plenty of opportunity to reflect on these interface issues—and in the next several posts, I share some of the issues that arose:

• Experience, usability, airlines, and airports
• Usability of train stations and trains
• Usability of metro (subway) systems

Experience and Usability--and--Airlines and Airports
My dad used to say that half of the fun of travel was the experience of getting there.

He died in 1965, and never lived to see the state of travel to day.  Its primary role seems to be selling prescriptions for Xanex and other tranquilizers.

In theory, airports serve as centers of welcome and fond farewell for their communities and airplanes are the means of building up to these experiences.  But I wonder what words travellers would use if asked to describe the nature of the welcome and farewell they received.

More specifically, designers of the air travel experience seem to overlook the welcoming role played by planes and airports because they tend to overlook or, worse, callously ignore, key specific aspects of the travel experience.  In this post, I’ll look at some of the issues that seem most visible to me.  In the Comments section, you might add to the list.

The Airline Experience
The concerns with the end-to-end design of the air experience of airline travel begins with the process of making reservations.

More specifically, the issues start with ticket prices. Although a la carte pricing seems to have rankled most air travelers, since I compared an a la carte price on Air Canada that was loaded with extras (seat selection coming and going, pre-paid meal, and the admittedly rip-off “On Your Way” service) and still cheaper than the prices on Expedia and Travelocity, I have no issue with it.

My concerns, instead, focus on issues that clearly suggest that airlines are, at best, indifferent to the experiences of their customers.  Here are some specific issues, from the beginning to the end of the experience:

Grossly misleading advertised prices.  This is primarily a problem in Canada, where airport taxes are admittedly exceptionally high.  But it’s also a problem elsewhere.

But airlines don’t make the problem any better by advertising one-way ticket prices sans taxes.  They know that most travellers make round-trips, and that want to make these decisions based on total price, not the pre-tax price on a one-way fare.  (And the fine print always says that the fare is only applicable to a round trip anyway.)

Airlines in Canada claim that consumers want to know how much they’re paying in taxes.

Perhaps—but only after they know what the entire ticket price is.  And when a trip whose teaser price is $79 actually balloons to something like $369 (I’m not exaggerating), these practices seem all the more deceitful.

Furthermore, there’s evidence that consumers don’t really read this type of information so carefully so they’re not likely to process the details anyway.

If airlines really want to raise consumer awareness of taxes, more effective—and less deceitful—practices exist.  They could print them on receipts (as they already do) as well as boarding passes and other check-in documentation.

Furthermore, the documentation of taxes could be visual—a pie chart (taking a lead from gas stations, which already do this).

Consumer groups have raised awareness of the problem, but the Canadian government seems listless in addressing the problem.  They said they’re working on it, but that’s a euphemism for hoping the issue is going to go away.

But on a more practical level, if the initial conversation with consumers is based on misleading information, how can the trust that builds true consumer loyalty ever develop?

Charges for making reservations by telephone.  On the one hand, I recognize that, when customers make their reservations online, they save staff and airlines want to pass the savings along to customers.  On the other hand, there are times when this seems to be a self-defeating proposition.  Some people have exceptional difficulty making reservations online—like those who don’t have, or are uncomfortable using, computers.  Two of the groups  can ill afford unnecessary additional charges.  Elderly people—many of whom are good airline customers—are one group.  Low-income flyers, some of whom do not have home internet service or computers, are another.

A third group is people who have tried to make reservations online but, for reasons that usually have to do with glitches in the airline’s own computer system, can’t.  In such instances, airlines should pay customers for their diligence rather than penalizing them.

Dis-loyalty programs: While airlines have ratcheted up opportunities to earn frequent flyer points through credit cards, dining partners, shopping on their website, they’ve decreased opportunities to earn them the traditional way—by flying.  For example, Air Canada only awards full credit for flying when paying full fare.  Otherwise, customers receive about half the points.  To be honest, the points aren’t worth the differential in price.  But at least, Air Canada is up-front about its reduced mileage.

In contrast, Delta hides some of its new practices.  A tradition among “partner” airlines like Delta’s SkyTeam is that miles flown on one airline earn mileage in a partner’s frequent flyer program, even if the original airline issued the ticket.  Apparently, no more.  I bought a ticket on Air France through Expedia and tried to receive credit on Delta.  They wouldn’t offer it, identifying the flight as “free.”  (At $1,000 a ticket, it most definitely was not free.)  When I inquired, they the fare wasn’t eligible for the transfer.

Naturally, Expedia did not inform me of this either.

Grumpy service.  Years ago, I heard an executive from Southwest Airlines explain their personnel philosophy:  “Treat your employees like you want them to treat your customers.”

A lightbulb went off; I understood why Northwest was so horrible to its customers.  During that particular year, the pilots had gone on strike, the machinists were taking work actions, and the flight attendants were threatening to strike.

Unhappiness is more contagious than the Avian flu.

Admittedly, remaining enthusiastic in the flying environment isn’t easy.  But that’s the service that airlines are paid to provide all the same; their management has a responsibility to inspire their workers, not only to ensure safety but to ensure a pleasant flying experience.

Mis-communication about flight status:  Although airlines resisted it, frequent flyers  applauded U.S. government intervention when airlines showed continued indifference to excessive wait times on tarmacs when flights were delayed. Even in the face of exceptionally poor publicity that bordered on communicating incompetence, airlines refused to improve their practices.

But those are merely extreme situations.  Mis-communication and unrealistic expectations about flight operations seem endemic to airline operations.  When airlines delay flights, they are almost never forthcoming with information.  At the least, if they know nothing, airlines could communicate that to waiting passengers and tell them they’ll give an update in 30 minutes.  If they still know nothing, they can communicate that.  Instead, gate staff rarely communicate anything, and the not knowing only enrages passengers—and unnecessarily so.

This flies in the face of crisis communications strategy.

But airlines must be willing to endure this for a reason: if the flight delay is caused by the airline, they’re responsible for assisting passengers, including giving them a hotel room if needed.  If passengers don’t know what’s going on, they can’t ask for the services that consumer laws provide.

Or perhaps airlines are simply so deaf that they can’t hear how foolish they sound.  Something I overheard in Baltimore’s airport sheds light on this.  Two Northwest flights at adjacent gates were both delayed: one for weather, one for mechanical reasons.  A Northwest gate agent made an announcement, telling passengers on the flight delayed by mechanical failure that they would be given some sort of meal voucher and those on the weather-delayed flight that they would receive nothing.

Mis-handling their own ground operations.  Although this level of mis-communication would be embarrassing to any other type of organization, mis-communication seems to be de rigeaur for most airlines.  Consider the situation when a flight from Hong Kong to Chicago arrives early, and the plane waits at the gate for 15 minutes because there’s no one to open the gangplank.

Seriously, how can the arrival of a 747 that’s been flying for 15 hours and in constant communication with air traffic control be such a surprise that no one is ready for its arrival?

And given that these planes fly the highest profit routes, wouldn’t they be of such a high priority that the company would redirect resources their way? Although it’s against the rules, one can easily understand how passengers who have been cooped up on the plane are anxious to depart and might even work on it.

These are just four examples of mis-communication in the airline experience that creates mis-trust, anxiety, and frustration. This persistent, institutionalized, and systemic mis-communication elevates these activities from a simple communication problem to a user experience issue, and affects the ways that passengers feel about—and respond to—the wait for flights.

But have no fear; most airlines are matched by their closest partners, the airports, for creating an unnecessarily frustrating customer experience.

The Airport Experience
As I mentioned, the airport is supposed to be the welcome and departure point for visitors.  But many offer something short of a warm welcome or a heartfelt farewell.  Here are some specific areas where the experience can be improved.

In Winter, Provide Heat at Charles de Gaulle Airport:  We had a 3-hour layover at the airport in February. Even with hot coffees in our systems, we had to wear our coats in the terminal to try to stay warm, and that really didn’t do the best job.  I’ve been told that the temperatures in August are sweltering.

Stop the Price Gouging at European Airports:   $5.00 for a can of coke?  That’s the price at Charles de Gaulle.  Coke wasn’t much cheaper at Schipol airport.  Although some of the more durable merchandise was sold at prices competitive with those in local stores, food at European airports (and train stations) seemed a bit on the high side—as if the operators know that they have a captive audience and want to take advantage of it.

These airports could learn from Pittsburgh and Minneapolis, which have had “best price guarantees” to prevent airport businesses from over-charging.

Better link airports with subways.  In some instances, link between an airport and a subway or intra-city train is nearly seamless, like the links the airport and subways in Atlanta, Schipol and Reagan National airports.  Atlanta’s subway and the entire railroad system of the Netherlands literally come into their respective airports, and Reagan’s comes up right along side the airport, with central access to it.

But linking to subways and trains at other airports is a separate journey of its own, with the link itself often eating up an extra 15 to 30 minutes of travel time between the baggage claim and the train.  Boston’s airport stop actually is about a mile away from the airport, requiring a special shuttle bus.  The Amtrak station at Newark’s airport is even further away.  Technically, there’s an O’Hare stop on the Chicago subway system, but it’s quite a hike from any of the terminals—and directions to the and from the terminals aren’t particularly well marked along the way.  It suffers, like the similar odyssey from the baggage claim to the Light Rail station at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport—from the creation of a transportation hub (which will be discussed later).  And the Amtrak link from downtown Ft. Worth and Dallas to the DFW airport runs so rarely and is far enough from the terminal that,  as a ground transportation option, it has little practical value.  (It’s not even on the intra-airport train system; reaching it requires a special shuttle that does not leave from every terminal.)

A number of reasons exist for the poor links between subways and airports, but they often come down to a core issue:  different groups need to work together in the best interests of the passengers and, in the end, the passengers’ experience rates lower than other considerations—sometimes within the control of all parties, sometimes not.

Although the stated goals of linking airports and high-speed rail is to encourage travelers to take public transit, the “link” must be easy to traverse for people to actually use it.

As long as  I’m complaining: If you need to transfer lines when taking the subway to the airport, many travelers quickly find that the transfer is a challenge in its own right. Subway systems built before the 1970s typically do not have escalators at exchange lines, and almost always require going up a staircase—which not only builds weight lifting muscles, but also slows the passenger down and, at times, infuriates other travelers behind them who are also slowed down in their climb up the stairs, as no escalators or elevators are available.
This issue is admittedly not an airport issue, but it’s just one other minor frustration in travel.   Except where court-mandated to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities, the costly renovations to these stations to simplify the interchange is unlikely to occur.

The next time they remodel, many airports should seriously explore ways to shorten distances.  Admittedly, larger airports need to accommodate an ever-larger number of gates and have limited space to grow or, even just remodel.  Moreover, some of these airports are working with designs that little flexibility to grow.  For example, Montreal’s airport is space constrained as are Chicago, Newark, Minneapolis-St-Paul’s, and Los Angeles’ (just to name a few).

When they do expand, many of these airports simply extend their jetties further out—and further away from terminal services, like immigration, baggage claim, and ground transportation.  That’s great for those interested in a workout, but most arriving passengers aren’t really interested in that.  Lugging suitcases, laptops, handbags—often with diminished energy from an overnight or overseas flight—an extra-long walk isn’t what they’re interested in.  The walks in some airports is especially lengthy, such as those in Minneapolis St-Paul’s Terminals A and B, and Newark’s Terminal C.

Some airports have installed walkways, but these walkways are often outside of arrivals areas.

Others have installed trains to ferry passengers from the gates to baggage claim, but unless those trains were part of the original design, the distance between the gate and the train is so far, that the train nearly loses its value.  Some particularly questionable intra-airport trains are the  ones at the Newark, Dallas-Fort-Worth, and San Francisco airports.

The intra-airport train in San Francisco is especially bothersome for arriving passengers.  It is not well-connected to the terminals (and its stops are particularly inconvenient for some airlines that do not have hubs at the airport). And, in some instances, requires that travelers walk up stairs—sometimes with hefty loads of luggage—to get to the train.

In contrast, to these retrofits, the Atlanta airport was designed to handle large volumes of passengers, and to grow easily as volumes increased.  Denver adopted the same design as is Dulles airport (though it’s the longest renovation I’ve ever seen).

Provide a Ground Transportation Solution to Reaching Ground Transportation Hubs: Designed and implemented to free up some airport space for other purposes and accommodate growth in demand for ground transportation, ground transportation hubs have created new inconveniences for arriving passengers.

On paper, the hubs at the Chicago O’Hare and Minneapolis-St-Paul airports both probably looked good.  Ground transportation hubs would be located in a central facility that’s accessible to all of the terminals in the airport.  In reality, both resulted in hikes guaranteed to help arriving passengers lose 5 pounds (OK, I might exaggerate but…)  In the case of O’Hare, the pathway to the hub to the terminals isn’t particularly well marked.  The hub is well marked in Minneapolis-St.Paul, it’s just plain far and adds unnecessary steps.  For example, to get a rental car, arriving passengers must hike to the transportation hub, then pick up an intra-airport shuttle, then take an elevator up to the rental car area.

Atlanta and Baltimore-Washington have tried to eliminate those unnecessary steps—but do so by literally shipping  passengers miles way to not just off-site, but way-off-site car rental facilities.  Atlanta’s is connected by a high-speed train, Baltimore-Washington’s by a shuttle bus.  Although the spacious facilities are touted as a benefit to customers, getting to and from these car rental facilities adds 15 to 30 minutes to a trip that weren’t there before.  

One Last Problem that Needs Addressing:  When arriving in Los Angeles on certain airlines, passengers need to literally leave the airport terminal to catch a stair or escalator downstairs to the baggage claim.  That seems like poorly thought-out traffic design.

Some Additional Thoughts: Individually, expanding airport capacity, linking airports and cities by subway or intra-city train, providing transportation hubs, and similar measures were meant to accommodate increasing numbers of passengers and demands for services.  But rather than adding convenience, these measures have made some airports more complicated and time consuming to traverse, and added to an already frustrating experience.

Experience designers—airports offer plenty of opportunity.  

But more opportunity exists.

Next post:  The Traveler Experience of Trains and Train Stations.

Travel Pet Peeves

Although I learned a lot from my travels, a lot of things bothered me while I was on the road.   


In this posting, I describe some of the little everyday things that irritated me. In the next several posts, I explore some of the systemic issues—specifically, the usability of airports, train stations, and metro systems.  

• Musicians on the Metro (as opposed to those in the Metro station, who usually have to go through an audition process).  Just as I would get into a meaningful conversation with my partner, or go into a deep thought, a not so quiet-nor-comforting concert (I’d hardly call it a serenade) would start.  Something upbeat, with an accordion or something similarly loud.   
• Panhandlers on the Metro.  They walk from car to car, cup in hand, yelling at people or parading disabled relatives, in a bid for passengers’ money.  Perhaps my irritation is cultural; in Atlanta—where I lived for a decade—the city has posted signs throughout the city advising people not to support panhandlers.  In contrast, the Parisians seem quite supportive of their panhandlers.  I felt bad for those on the train from the airport to the center of the city; most were stingy tourists like me. 
• Panhandlers in McDonald’s and Starbucks.  Same as on the Metro, but in a more stationary location.  One tried to hit us up just as we were sitting down to eat at McDonald’s.   
• Street signage—or lack thereof.  The older the city, the more invisible the signage, and the more challenging the task of finding a destination.  
• Mis-directions from locals.  Although well-intentioned, they’re often inaccurate.  For example, someone told me, “The metro station is just 5 minutes from here.”  I’m sure it was 5 minutes from here, but a different “here” than where we were.  In another place, someone said, “It’s just one block to the Metro.”  Then how do they explain the other two blocks?   
• Internet access fees in European hotels.  They’re over twice as expensive as in the few North American hotels that still charge for Internet access.  But at least the better hotels explain their fees.  One hotel failed to mention it, then tried to stick me with a 65 euro bill when we checked out.  
• Texting everywhere.  What’s annoying is that it slows people down when they walk, and they block the walkway.  
• People who have to yammer on their cell phones in a plane up until the minute the flight attendant announces that they must be turned off.  One time, I had to listen to some guy talking to his kid in graphic detail about her stomach ache.  
• People who have to yammer on their cell phones on a plane the second the flight attendant says that they can be used again.  It’s especially bizarre on cross-country, red eye flights that arrive on the east coast at 5:30 or 6 am.  Who’s awake to take the call?  
• People who yammer on their hand-held cell phones when they drive.  Even if they weren’t putting the safety of others at risk, on highways, they usually drive about 15 to 25 km slower than all of the other traffic, and selfishly cause traffic to back up.  
• People who text and drive.  One can look at the road or look at the screen of their phone, but it’s hard to do both at once.
• The lack of public information campaigns about talking on hand-helds, texting, and driving in states and provinces that have supposedly outlawed them.  As drivers need to be reminded about the speed limit, they also benefit from occasional reminders about the local mobile phone laws.  

My biggest pet peeve?  The way that traveling makes all of us irritable people who become so focused on our pet peeves, we forget the amazing opportunities that we’ve been given to see new places, meet new people, experience other cultures and, most significantly, stay in touch with people who would have otherwise left our lives.  


It's a situation in which the user experience is overlooked by everyone except the user, because the problems occur--as Rummler and Brache observe--in the "white space" between organizations.  Or more specifically, the black hole that's "not my fault" but isn't anyone else's either.  The next several posts explore three specific travel experiences that are ridden with black holes: airports, trains, and subways.  

Next post:  The Usability of Airports and Planes.  

How Travel Has Changed Since1973 (When I First Started Traveling)

This post begins a series of posts that explore the general experience of traveling.  The first few posts provide some general insights, then I offer hotel recommendations, and then present several posts that explore the usability of air, rail, and Metro (subway) travel experiences.


But this first post waxes nostalgic: how travel has changed since I first started traveling.


I’ll start by dating myself: I took my first major trip in 1973; a bus tour across the USA on a bus with 46 fourteen- to seventeen-year-olds, and 4 chaperones. We traveled the Interstate system and stayed in hotels for most of the 50 nights of the trip. That trip launched an odyssey that continues to this day and has taken me to all but one state in the US, 7 Canadian provinces, all continents except Antarctica, and 25 countries.


The travel experience has significantly changed in the ensuing decades.  Off the top of my head, here are some of the major ones:


McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Dunkin Donuts have replaced Stuckeys as the roadside stop. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Stuckey’s is a chain of roadside convenience stores with gas stations and limited counter service. Their advertised specialty was pralines, but I liked their sesame chips.  When I took that first road trip in 1973, it seemed like we could find a Stuckey’s at every exit.  I hardly every see them; I ran across one on the Florida panhandle a couple of years ago.


Starbucks, Nathans, and Roy Rogers have replaced Howard Johnsons as the rest stop restaurant.  On the east coast, Howard Johnson’s was the leading family restaurant, and the restaurant at nearly every rest stop on every state turnpike.  They had clean wash rooms, acceptable food, and great salt water taffy. By the mid-1980s, Roy Rogers replaced many of the Howard Johnson’s at rest stops.  More recently, Starbucks and a resurgent Nathan’s have taken up shop at these rest stops.    


Fewer toll booths exist and the ones that do have gone electronic.  For example, the Connecticut Turnpike seemed to have toll booths nearly every 20 or 30 miles—complete with the wreckage of a car to warn drivers to be careful, and most bridges and tunnels required both coming and going drivers to pay tolls.  Connecticut dismantled its toll booths (I don’t know why; I’ve heard that they were road hazards but also heard that they found other sources of revenue) and most bridges and tunnels have converted to requiring tolls in just one direction.  And in the past ten years, most states have offered drivers the opportunity to buy an electronic transponder, which electronically charges the toll to the car.  More than that, many adjacent states with toll roads have collaborated so that they share a transponder system.


Heck, there's even one toll road near Toronto that has no humans working at the toll booths.  Instead, they they take a photo of the license plate and send a bill later--along with a processing fee.


People don’t dress as formally when they fly.  As late as the early 1990s, people looked like they carefully planned what they would wear on the plane.  But since planes became flying buses, the dress code has relaxed.


Loyalty programs have arisen and taken on lives of their own.  Frequent flyer programs seem as much a part of travel today as the ride, but they came into prominence in the early 1980s.  Hotels and car rental companies followed suit.  At first, travelers had to earn miles the old fashioned way—by actually flying them.  With time, though, members of loyalty programs could earn miles through credit cards, flying with partner airlines, eating at partner restaurants, making online purchases through the airline’s website, and even through inconvenience (a slight delay is sometimes worth 500 miles).  As the myriad ways of earning points rose, the number of points awarded for flying diminished.  For example, Air Canada now only awards full mileage credit for passengers paying full fare.  So much for loyalty.


Airports have been converted to shopping malls.  Need a shirt?  Try Brooks Bros.  Did your computer case break?  Check out Wilson’s Leather.  Need a museum momento as a gift (even if you didn’t visit the museum)?  Check out the Museum Store.  The Hong Kong, Pittsburgh, and Amsterdam airports have trend setting shopping opportunities, but don’t write off other airports.  Heck, I once purposely booked a flight through Detroit because I wanted to buy a watch at its Pangborn design store.  


Low-end hotels often have more desirable amenities than high end ones, like free Internet and breakfast.  Marriott and Renaissance both charge about $10 a night for Internet, but their sister hotels—Courtyard and Fairfield—both offer it for free.  Fairfield also serves breakfast—at first it was defrosted Sara Lee-like items but now it features hot foods.  Even the Motel 6 is offering 400-count  cotton sheets.  But watch out.  As these hotels upscale the services, they also upscale the prices.  Hampton Inns and Courtyard by Marriott used to be moderately priced hotels, but their prices often compete with those of their higher end siblings, Hilton and Marriott.  


While European hotels have dropped their free breakfasts, American hotels have added them. One of the things that I remember the most about my first trip to Europe in 1980 was the free breakfasts at all of the hotels.  More than free, they were good: freshly made cappuccinos and straight-from-the-oven croissant.  What made these free breakfasts seem all the more special was that few American hotels offered anything like it.  So flash forward 30 years, when my Hampton Inn and Fairfield stays culminated in free breakfasts, while my European hotels wanted to charge as much as $26 for the meal.


Airlines have eliminated leg room. I’m a short person. So when I complain about a lack of legroom, that means a problem exists.  


Most rental cars now come with unlimited mileage.  When I first rented a car in 1981, I paid extra for the privilege of having unlimited mileage. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time that was a concern.  All rental cars seem to come with unlimited mileage these days.  


Rental car companies now let you gamble with gas prices.  One of the most frightening parts of any car rental experience was returning the car without going to the gas station first, and watching what they would charge to refill the tank.  Now, car rental companies let you avoid that by pre-paying for a refill.  But you have to figure out, first, whether you will drive the car enough to warrant pre-paying for that refill.  And that, in turn, has become the modern gamble.


Hotels provided, then stopped, free newspaper delivery.  As a courtesy to guests, most hotels provided free delivery of newspapers to all guest rooms.  In the past few years, I’ve noticed that’s declined.  At first, they only delivered the newspapers to the rooms of people who achieved status with a frequent guest plan.  Then many hotels stopped delivering the papers altogether, instead leaving a pile of them at the front desk. On the one hand, I rarely read that paper and they usually just piled until I left, when I threw them away.  On the other hand, I liked the service they represented.


Check out has become an increasingly unnecessary stop on the way out of the hotel, thanks to the bill mysteriously appearing under the door the night before you check out.  All you need to do is call the front desk and say thank you.  In some cases, the call goes to voice mail.  When it goes to a human, I often get the feeling it doesn’t matter whether I call or not, as long as I leave the room.


Humans rarely give wake up calls any more.  With the invention of voice response units, machines do it.  That’s not so bad, but many hotels don’t record even a rudimentary message.  I often wake up wondering whether I received a wake up or suspicious phone call.


People who work in gas stations can’t give directions.  When gas station attendants pumped gas instead of making coffee and sandwiches, a lost traveler could ask the attendant for directions and receive reasonably good ones.  Increasingly, however, gas station attendants answer the question, “Where is…” with “I dunno.”


Pay phones are an endangered species.  As cell phone usage rises, finding a pay phone becomes an increasing challenge. Many airports, hotels, and malls seem to have dropped them altogether.  They’re even hard to find at highway rest stops.  I prefer pay phones; at $2 per minute in the US, my Canadian cell phone is almost too expensive for emergencies.


Drivers increasingly focus on everything but the highway.  Although the occasional slow driver is elderly, these days, most slow drivers are texting or on their cell phones, even in states and provinces where they’re required to use hands-free equipment for voice calls and ignore text ones.  But in some cases, drivers have more important tasks that speaking on the phone, like the woman driving through Delaware on Interstate 95, with a Biggie Coffee in one hand and her Dunkin Donuts bagel and cream cheese in the other.  And yes, she was in the driver’s seat and better yet, driving at 75 miles an hour.  


No one checks luggage anymore.  On trains, the service doesn’t seem to exist.  (In fact, one of the surprising characteristics of intercity trains in Europe is that they don’t have room for luggage in the rail cars.) But no one wants to use the service on planes.  If slow unloading and delivery of luggage to the baggage claim area and the high likelihood of lost luggage weren’t enough of a deterrent, the checked baggage fees have sealed the deal.  One problem: Most planes are flying full and don’t have enough room for all of the carry on luggage.  Oh—and another problem.  At least 10 percent of those with carry-on luggage have luggage that’s too overstuffed to fit in the overhead bins.


One more thing: the number of travel writers advising us of these changes and how to deal with them has significantly increased in the past 4 decades.

Next post:  Hotel Recommendations in Europe.