Waiting and mirrors
Read in The Psychology of Waiting Lines by David Maister (1985):
“the example of ‘the well-known hotel group that received complaints from guests about excessive waiting times for elevators. After an analysis of how elevator service might be improved, it was suggested that mirrors be installed near where guests waited for elevators. The natural tendency of people to check their personal appearance substantially reduced complaints, although the actual wait for the elevators was unchanged.“
(An example pointed by Sasser, W.E., J. Olsen, and D.D. Wyckoff (1979), Management of Service Operations: Text, Cases and Readings. New York: Allyn and Bacon)
Why do I blog this? made me wondering about the affordances of space, the design of a particular place and how it can accommodate people’s behavior.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
reminds me of the flaring up of discussions at the workplace about about work flows, hierarchies, job descriptions etc. when workload is down. Usually best resolved with seminars, Klausurtagungen with arguments different form the aforementioned.