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Comment by zeteo | Hacker News Reader

Looking at the paper, it seems the passengers were the same and boarded five times in a row, with the last two methods proving the fastest. The major experimental flaw seems to be that the passengers themselves might learn to become more efficient after concentrating on a normally rare task, and repeating it several times in a row. Also, since some of them were paid extras, they might just be getting impatient by the end, and rushing through at what would normally be an uncomfortable pace. The population sampling is also probably not representative.

I would have found the experiment more convincing if it had been used to validate the basic assumptions of the theoretical model instead (e.g. the statistical distribution of the baggage loading and seating times).

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I participated in an FAA cert airline evacuation test once. Only participants who'd never gone down the slide before were allowed, and only one take was allowed.

(yeah, we passed!)

There are other practical considerations too. I can't even imagine trying to organize the passengers in the airport such that they board in the alternating row, outside-in configuration.

And there's the pretty much insolvable problem of when they start boarding the plane, many people just get on and couldn't care less that their row/section hasn't been called yet.

The first part is easy, color code the ticket (e.g. first red, then blue, etc). The second issue is trickier, but it happens now anyway. I would say that they already know how to handle it.

Colour coding the ticket is not trivial - current monochrome printing is easy with thermals. Ever run a colour printer in an office? It's a nightmare to manage just in an of itself. Then there's a lot of investement in creating a system that works across all models of planes. It's doable, but it's not trivial.

Then on top of that is the issue that despite all this, a lot of people ignore what's on the tickets anyway and board when they feel like - the boarding crew are not going to tell someone to go back against the surging crowd and wait their turn. I've been on four international flights before and I followed the "people in this block, board now" - and when I entered, pretty much every time I passed by an uncalled block, it was at least a quarter full. People aren't disinterested particles.

Given also that planes are sitting around doing things both before and frequently after passengers have boarded (or waiting for the late passenger...), I don't think a straight-out claim that 10 minutes shaved off boarding times is a direct 10 minutes shaved off turnaround times (not that the article claims this, just being wary of it)

The video shows an "aisle management" technique, but it isn't a "boarding" technique, as the latter task is much more than wandering down the aisle.

I'm not sure which airline you flew, but Southwest will actually turn people away (mainly because it's first-come-first-serve seating).

So it happens. Start being strict and people will learn.

You don't have to print the colors, you can have pre-printed tickets in two colors and have two printers at the checkin counter (likely much cheaper in ink, too, and much better-looking).

Erm, odd rows and even rows?

Also, Ryanair have a 'priority boarding' ticket and do this all the time, so it's not a big deal.

The airlines I've flown with actually do enforce it. At least for the first and business, and small children. If your group isn't called they'll ask you to stand aside so that group can go. Some people really push it and the crew would rather not get in a confrontation and let them pass.

> Colour coding the ticket is not trivial

Letter code them. "Group A", "Group B", ...

Doesn’t even need color coding, just call it “Group A” etc, as they do now.

Haha I was thinking this my entire read down this thread.

Also, what percentage of the populations color blind? You'd have people boarding for red when green was called, etc. Letters give us 26 possible boarding stages. Even without keeping accessibility is mind, you'd only be able to reliably use, what, %w{red blue green yellow orange}? Purple is out -- too ambiguous.

So yeah, no color codes. Have I beaten it to death enough?

But you only need two colors, and it's not impossible to select two colors that are recognizable by everybody including the color-blind.

Regarding color blindness, you can also print the name of the color on the ticket. Or increase contrast:

"What can be done to avoid confusion? Most sources on usability and interface design suggest avoid relying on color coding exclusively. Always provide an additional cue; don't rely on color alone. For example, the standard default web browser of a link is underlined blue lettering. Interestingly, this particular color coding would stand up quite well, even without the additional cue of the underline, since blue is the universally recognizable color.

A second way to counteract color deficiency confusions is to make sure that colors have a high degree of contrast with each other."

http://www.stcsig.org/usability/newsletter/9910-color-blindn...

There are a lot of guidelines and protocols for managing user color blindness in interfaces... it's generally not a sufficient reason to completely avoid the use of color in all cases.

I can't even imagine trying to organize the passengers in the airport such that they board in the alternating row, outside-in configuration.

I remember doing something similar with my high school marching band (back-to-front instead of window-to-aisle), but that's a pretty tenuous proof of concept.

Southwest seems to have solved it.

There is a crazy-like-a-fox madness to Southwest's boarding. It's more than just the use of A-B-C sections.

If you pay for a business class ticket that gets you up into the front of the A line. Those people are usually frequent travelers who don't mess around in the aisle. The roomy exit rows are highly coveted for long flights, so experienced flyers are going halfway down the plane which again prevents people from bottlenecking in the first few rows.

Infrequent flyers are likely to pass on the $10 fee for auto-checkin and end up at the end in the C boarding, so they aren't holding up anyone in the aisle. By that time the rest of the plane is settled, so the flight attendants can assist them in getting them into a seat with their luggage stowed.

These are good points (and there are other confounding factors, such as the fact that anybody taking part in the test would naturally be more familiar with block boarding). Nonetheless it seems like it might be worth trying out, as they do have some theoretical basis for the improvements.

Agreed. In my experience, big chunks of time are spent waiting for one person struggling with their gear, backing the line up clear out the door. The experiment subjects probably didn't role-play that scenario.

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