I’ve been thinking about user experience a lot lately, mostly as UX, the way it is referred to in the technology sphere, because the project I’m pondering uses technology to help people. UX also applies to effective outreach and engagement, another topic of interest. Things like flyering, using social media, engaging trusted messengers, tabling, collaborating with other organizations, the list goes on.
By happenstance, today’s Captain Steeeve watch, Two Aircraft Shared the SAME Callsign Mid-Air | Captain Steeeve Reacts, was a wham from the universe. Captain Steeeve, as is his wont, tells several stories and the last one is about UX and how it can have negative effects. The link and embed above both start at the important-for-my-purposes story, transcript below.
Years ago, Captain Steeeve was flying with American Airlines between Vail, CO and NYC to get skiers to and from the slopes. He explains his experience:
And I and I want to say every call sign going in there was like 17-something 1743, 1782, 1717, 1721 you know and they all because at dispatch down at the company they wanted to keep track of where all the airplanes the call signs of all the airplanes going into a particular airport. So they’d give them the same two letters numbers at the beginning to identify for their ease of paperwork basically.
But when you got stacked up and holding, a lot of times the weather was bad going into Vail. You’d get stacked. There’d be six or seven airplanes all with a 17-something call sign. Very confusing about who was supposed to descend, who was supposed to turn in, who was supposed to depart. Uh again, it was very confusing and but that’s the way they do it sometimes at the companies. (emphasis added; punctuation added to make reading easier)
So what does the use of 17-something call signs have to do with user experience? From a pilot’s perspective, as you heard, a lot and I bet passengers would agree. I wonder if the company considered the needs of pilots; they clearly considered those of dispatch―“Uh again, it was very confusing and but that’s the way they do it sometimes at the companies.” Two groups inside the company had seemingly competing needs and dispatch was prioritized over the pilots. The UX needs of dispatch were met.
This is all for user experience, UX. For now, at least.