Please store your heavier items under the seat in front of you.
Every safety video on a plane starts with tell you how you should put your things in the overhead compartment or under the seat.
Here’s the thing: they don’t play this video while you’re getting on the plane. They don’t play it at the time when you are putting things in the overhead or under the seat. They play it when the aircraft is pushing back.
By the time the airplane starts to move, everyone’s bags are already stowed. Overhead compartments are closed and the airline staff have come through to tell everyone who hasn’t stowed their stuff properly that they need to stow their stuff properly.
I’ve never seen someone get up during the safety video and rearrange how their carry-on bags are stored because of the video; and I’m sure if someone did, an airline staff would politely tell them to sit their butt down.
So how did this happen?
The videos are made by the airlines. It’s not like they don’t know when they play the video. They are experts in their field and yet this glaring design flaw is repeated day in and day out for decades.
What part of the design process did this miss?
I would postulate that what it missed was, “What is this for?”
What is an airplane safety video for? Is it to inform the passenger? Or is it perhaps to satisfy a legal requirement? Regardless of which, could there be a way to actually serve the purpose?
Field experts are not always design experts. And yet, when design fails, the effects are not as benign as a safety video telling you (annoyingly) how to store luggage on a place that you’ve already put away.
Understanding that field expertise isn’t enough is part of the Critical Mass process.
Learn more at http://criticalmass.ninja
