Lines at The Exchange

While I do agree now that this resolves the issue of waiting in a (physical) line, there still is the problem then of where all of these people are going to wait while their food is being prepared, especially if they order a sandwich, which takes longer to prepare than boxing up hot food. In that case, I've found that people waiting in groups tend to take up more space by loitering in different areas. How would this affect traffic into the academic building and the new people coming in to place orders where now people waiting might be blocking them? In my experience, I think people are more willing to wait closer to what their waiting for, but this might block up the table areas in the Exchange. Maybe if there was a designated waiting area with differently colored floor tiles to keep people out of the way of Tepper traffic?

I like the idea of using a virtual queue, but I agree with Amanda about managing space; perhaps you can section off an area for waiting so they don't take up eating space? I'd also like to point out the potential problem of a customer missing when their number is called, or if a customer decides to leave after taking a ticket. This could be alleviated by a short countdown, but maybe look into adding a queue of passed numbers as well off to the side (so skipped customers can return without having to go back to the end of the line).

You clearly illustrated the problems that you were trying to solve here. Creating a "fake" line and explaining how others actually lined up behind you shows how dependent people are on others in this situation, and how changing their dependency on other to dependency on a ticketing system would save everyone a lot of time.

This reminds me of going to a restaurant- if there is a twenty minute wait, you can put your name down and take a walk before coming back when you think that it is time to be seated. It might be useful to have the expected time that it will take to reach their number, so people can make use of the time (for example, print something out, make a phone call outside, etc.) instead of clogging up the area if they are afraid to miss their turn.

The idea of using a virtual queue is certainly helpful. The thoroughness of your observations helped you to confirm existence of, and resolve, several current problems. However, while changing the TVs from news stations to menus would be helpful, people would probably have a tendency to gather near the TVs and ticket dispensers, even after they have decided on what they want to order. There isn't much space in the restaurant to sit and wait for orders, or to place tangible guides to show that there are separate lines.

To alleviate this potential issue, this design could incorporate some type of system for herding people into different places as they wait so that the space isn't used as inefficiently. Perhaps there could be a separate displays upstairs in the lobby of the building where there is significantly more space than downstairs near the entrance to The Exchange. That way, people could wait in a more comfortable space and still be able to see when their ticket number is being called.

Overall, the original idea is very sound. However, because the root of the problem is something that isn't easily fixed without serious remodeling-- the amount of space in the restaurant-- the design may be more efficient if it somehow found a way around this issue.

The Exchange do get really crowded during lunch time and it is hard for people to see the menu. I really like the idea of swiping card to get a number and wait to be called, since it gives us a better idea how long we need to wait to get the food, so that we can decide whether we have enough time to eat there or not. However, I agree with Amanda and Eric that space will be a problem, since the people waiting may block the people who are getting food. I think there should be a designated place for waiting. Also, I think it might be better to have the menu on the ticket dispensing machine rather than on the TV, since TV showing news is a good way for people to kill the waiting time.

This is a truly thorough observation of the problem, well done.

@Amanda Marano Your observation regarding the blocking and waiting seems to be the most cited detraction, so it's clear to us that that's something we need to think about and address! There aren't that many places in Tepper, unfortunately, but I think Kristen's idea of moving people into another lobby at the top of the stairs would help alleviate some. I don't have any idea at the moment, but thank you for bringing this to our attention!

@Amanda Marano @Dan Cheng @Ivan Wang @Kristen Smith
Thank you guys for taking time to analyze our solution!
You guys all had a common concern of congestion of areas outside of the exchange. This is definitely a problem that we failed to address in our solution, and it is also true that it may be hard to change without an infrastructure change to the Tepper building. As of right now I don't have a solid solution, but it will definitely need to be addressed in order for this solution to be successful.