flight strip to-dos · 2009-02-22 00:06

If you’ve studied HCI or usability, you’ll have come across the flight progress strip – the old manual method of information and task handling used by Air Traffic Control centres. However, even if they’re considered one of the ur-usable designed systems in existence, few people have actually seen the strips, let alone played with them.

In fact, physical flight strips are disappearing, as control towers go digital: whilst there’s a lot of research about getting rid of flight strips completely, many commercial atc systems are replicating flight strips electronically (Delair, Frequentis).

What’s really interesting to me is that there’s both a lot of rigour and bend in the system: a mix of federal mandates and local organisation. As well as the data on the strips, there’s a lot of metadata:

The color of the strip holder itself often has a meaning. The strip board has vertical rails that constrain the strips in several stacks (‘bays’).

Other special strips can be used to indicate special airspace statuses, or to represent the presence of physical obstructions or vehicles on the ground. They may even be used to provide a quick reminder to the controller of other pertinent information, e.g. the time when night begins or ends.

In addition a strip may be “cocked out” of alignment to highlight potential issues. This can be used either as a personal reminder or as a form of communication between controllers.

For flights whose flight plans are previously known, strips are initially printed from a computer and often contain more information than this. Further information is then added by controllers and assistants in various coloured pens to show the role of person making the annotation.

Anyway, I wanted to see what flight progress strips were like. In my mind, they’re the ultimate to-do (or to-worry) list. So – why not make a to-do list out of flight strips? My life is very often like Heathrow arrivals.

Luckily the ATC simulator market (e.g. PC, web) means that there is a supplier of the old-style flight strips to the public. I’ve bought a couple of colours, to start simply, and strips that are divided into areas, even if I’m not using them yet.

This is the first prototype, made very quickly with inept craft skills (m’colleague Henry Holland is going to make a better version with, well, right angles, and straight lines).

Through luck or judgement, there’s room for 7 tasks, which feels about right. Tasks can easily be reordered, strips kinked, and there’s plenty of room for more information or organisation. You can fit two strips in each holder, if you want a more GTD/next action approach. I also like the idea of writing out a stack of strips in a meeting, and even passing strips off to other people if they’re now responsible.

There’s even room to hold empty strips and holders.

comments

<< previously home furthermore >>

© Chris Heathcote, 2002-2010. I write for me, not for them.
CSS styling from plasticbag.org