Wait for it.. or should you?
Service design could potentially help us to get rid of boring waiting rooms and endless waiting lines.
What if we could design the waiting experience and turn it into something gratifying? Instead of getting rid of waiting, we could use it to our advantage: as a tool that improves the overall experience of a service.
I should get something out of the way first: I’m not the most patient person when it comes to having to wait on my turn. I anxiously try to avoid any line. On airports I spend my time waiting in one of the chairs next to the gate until the whole waiting line disappears and there is nobody else left to board. The dynamics of plane boarding actually have one aspect to them that finely illustrates why waiting matters so much to most people: the priority lines. Apparently the privilege of being able to board before anyone else is worth paying extra money for your flight, even though you end up sitting and waiting nonetheless: this time inside the airplane until everyone else has finished boarding.
The waiting impact
Whether or not we want it, waiting is an essential part of almost any service or product we use. And it actually has a pretty big impact on how we experience the stuff we use or see around us every day.
To illustrate that, let’s take a look at something we do every day: instant messaging. Time spent waiting has a real value there, as the time it takes for a message to be received and read can be interpreted as being a part of its content. It becomes a message of its own, which could be given meaning by meeting or not meeting our expectations. For example, when we see that a text message we sent has been received by the recipient, but it takes longer to receive an answer back than the time that person normally takes, we start wondering about possible reasons for the delay. You could say that in this case the time spent waiting for an answer forms a part of the answer of that person.
Another interesting example are the companies that introduce artificial waiting patterns into their interfaces. Facebook introduced automated security scans of people’s profiles in 2016. While these checks typically take almost no time to execute behind the scenes (technically they give seemingly instantaneous results) Facebook decided to slow down its interface to make people feel safer. Walking people through the safety check at a slower speed not only made people less skeptical but also allowed Facebook to provide a better explanation of the process. In a similar fashion, Wells Fargo had to slow down their eye scan technology in order to let customers keep up.
Designed to wait
So, the mere act of waiting seems to have a large impact on how we experience certain services. At the same time we know that there are a lot of services where it is very difficult to completely cut away any waiting time. Being aware of these two things should lead us to conclude that there is an opportunity here: instead of focusing on getting rid of the waiting in the first place, we should consider designing a waiting experience that is as comfortable as possible for the user of the service.
The big question of course is, if we manage to make the waiting experience one that is actually pleasurable or comforting, are people actually still consciously aware that they are waiting? Where does the waiting start and end if there is not even a literal line to stand in? And maybe that is exactly where the key lies: becoming unaware of waiting makes us easily forget all the negative associations we (un)consciously have with it. Think of it like sitting on a plane or a train, you are not just waiting to arrive on your final destination; you are traveling, moving, in transition. Something is happening, and you can see or feel the final destination drawing closer by the minute.
Now, in order to start designing better waiting experiences, it would be helpful to get some guidance in the form of several design principles that are aimed to make people feel better while waiting.
The waiting design principles
- Knowing where it ends
If the end of the waiting is visible and predictable, it becomes easier for the user to align their expectations with reality. Better yet, we can actually try to play with this principle by designing to beat the expected duration of waiting. An example of this are the circle visualizations that track app-download progress. It is known that designers sometime front-load those so that it moves slower at the start and speeds up towards the ending; seemingly beating the expected duration and thereby pleasing the downloader.
- Equality
Another aspect that influences how we feel when waiting is all about perceiving equality. A study found that people feel better about standing waiting in line at Wendy’s than at McDonald’s or Burger King, because of that chain using a single-file line. In comparison, in the other chains the people can line up in front of different cash registers, which could uncomfortably make one line feel faster than the other. The feeling of equality in service takes away the preoccupation of being unsure that you made the right choice: am I sure I chose the fastest line? - Artifacts
Making objects or designed artifacts available to use or consume for users of the service during the time they are waiting, can positively impact or change the way they experience it. Think of enjoying a cup of coffee and reading a magazine while you are in the waiting room: you feel that you are making the most of the circumstances. It could also help to break up a long waiting experience in a multitude of shorter pieces. An example of this would be the experience of serving meals during a long flight, it tends to break up the trip in two parts: before and after the food is served.
- Inform
Not understanding the reasons for waiting could cause annoyance or uncertainty, whereas feeling informed about the reason for the wait makes it more bearable in comparison. Trying to keep users informed during the wait will also help to adjust their expectations, keeping them more aligned with the eventual outcome. Percentage progress bars or completeness meters are design examples from computer interfaces. These bars keep the users informed during the installation of an application so that they understand what status the process is in at any given moment, know the reason for waiting (the computer has to undertake several tasks in the background in order to make the application install correctly) and are being kept informed of how much time is left to finish.
With these principles, service designers can start to make a difference to how people feel about the many (boring) services we have to deal with day by day. A lot of the examples mentioned in this article come from computation and interface design. Nonetheless, the same design principles should be valid and aplicable for any service; whether it takes place on a screen or far away from it. Also, if it is too much to ask to forever eliminate the experience of waiting, at least with a little effort we could make people forget that they are waiting.
For further reading on the subject I recommend:
- Fidget Spinners — How buffer icons have shaped our sense of time http://reallifemag.com/fidget-spinners/
- 12 Impatient Facts About Waiting in Line
http://mentalfloss.com/article/82257/12-impatient-facts-about-waiting-line
