For this week’s assignment, we did an observation at SeaTac International Airport for an hour, reflecting out topic of capstone project “airport experience”.

Takeaway:

1. For a sensitive public space like airport, it is really hard to directly approach to stakeholders (whether they are passengers or staff members) to talk to you, so ones who I have talked to were all staff members during their break time. Although still in context, I think I will have better insight if I can simply just follow them during the daily routine, which is nearly impossible. Also, since there are several security hierarchies in the airport, some of the area are not accessible to us.
2. I always keep an eye on what interviewees are doing during short interview with me, and I found that really helpful during this activity. One of them were waiting for his next shift, and he was basically anxious about the upcoming shift, assessed by his facial expression and finger movements. While asking his work of next shift, he actually brought out several interesting insights in how airport business works. Also, he was constantly checking his mobile phone and texting stuff from his work computer on his phone, which must be passenger or flight information.