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Comment by visakanv | Hacker News Reader

Ha! That is amazing. I would love to read a book or blog just full of examples like these.

Another couple I can think of: (more common examples)-

* reducing baggage waiting time by increasing the walking time to the baggage carousels.

* Reducing "the phone rings too many times before customer support answers" complaints by lengthening the time per ring.

* Using mirrors next to elevators so people distract themselves and feel less bothered by the wait.

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Animating progress bars to decrease perceived wait times.

http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/progressbars2/Progress...

Oh yes! the next android progress bars [1] are a perfect example of this. I actually kinda like watching them.

— [1] http://www.google.com/design/spec/components/progress-activi...

StreetPong - play a game of pong with the person across the street, while waiting for the Green Man. I think this floated by on HN a few years ago.

From Urban-Invention (came out of a german university I think).

http://vimeo.com/113918378

http://urban-invention.com/

I can't find it again but I've read an article listing these things. One other (obvious) instance is the shelve full of tiny cheap products (gum, batteries, ...) put just before the checkout, also to distract people waiting in line.

Oh! I've always thought about those things as "impulse buys", but I never quite realized that they were also functional distractions! I look at magazines when I'm waiting in line at my local supermarket. Sneaky sneaky.

> * Using mirrors next to elevators so people distract themselves and feel less bothered by the wait.

Pretty much exactly like a pet bird.

Nat Geo has a series, crowd control: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/crowd-control/

> * reducing baggage waiting time by increasing the walking time to the baggage carousels.

That seems to be the approach that Heathrow uses.

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