Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

071 Five Tenets of Queuing

Five principles for improving the experience of waiting in lines.

Average Americans spend more than two years of their life waiting in lines. For those living in population-dense areas, the estimate jumps to as much as five years. It turns out that the experience of such waits has as much to do with the psychology of the design as the physical layout.1

The five tenets of queueing offer guidance for enhancing the experience of people waiting in lines.

1. Occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time — When the mind is occupied, it is distracted from the idleness of waiting. For example, mirrors installed near elevator doors have been used to reduce complaints about wait times. When people are primping in mirrors, ...