Queues & Waiting
What changes when a queue can be seen by the people in it
Publishing the length of a wait alters who joins, when they arrive and how they behave, which makes…
· 3 min read
Queues & Waiting
How waiting is designed, measured and occasionally manipulated.
20 articles · page 2 of 2
Queues & Waiting
The express lane exists because service times are wildly uneven
Sorting people by how long their transaction takes protects the short ones from the long ones, and the…
· 3 min read
Queues & Waiting
How order is kept where there is no line to stand in
Counters without a physical queue rely on a shared memory of arrival order, and that memory works…
· 3 min read
Queues & Waiting
What being sent away with a time actually does to your place
Deferral converts a position in a line into an appointment, and the two are held by completely different…
· 3 min read
Queues & Waiting
Why being called is rarely the end of the waiting
Most services are several stages long, each with its own queue, and the number displayed on the screen…
· 3 min read
Queues & Waiting
The queue you cannot see is rarely first come, first served
Work waiting inside an organisation is ordered by rules that have nothing to do with arrival time, and the…
· 3 min read
Queues & Waiting
How a shared room or facility gets booked, and why the rules look strict
A booking system for a communal resource is solving hoarding, no-shows and peak collision at once, and…
· 3 min read
Queues & Waiting
Why a booking calendar is empty until a date and then suddenly full
Appointment capacity is released in blocks rather than existing continuously, and the release schedule…
· 3 min read