Ergonomics of round donut corridors

[wildstar]

I'm watching a special about the BBC Television Centre in London (been to London twice but never got around to checking out the building), and it's a round, just like the decks of the Enterprise.
http://www.webbaviation.co.uk/gallery/d/42392-1/BBCTVCentre-ea14092.jpg

Interestingly, they talk a lot about how easily they got lost, even though it was simply a round corridor! Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAPMHVjgNJE

I noticed while "walking" around the Minecraft deck layouts that I think they're right. It's very easy to not know exactly where you are because everything ends up looking the same. (Another reason why something as big as Galaxy or Sovereign would be a nightmare).

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I got turned around several times while exploring the USS Midway on my own. It's not just the roundness, it's the cramped quarters that make things difficult to navigate, as well as the sameness of the corridors. The old terminal of Charles de Gaulle airport is one big bagel of identical sections, and it's very confusing too.

Mark

 

[Lyon_Wonder]

Apple's proposed "mothership" headquarters is saucer-like too.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/13/visualized-the-apple-mothership/

http://www.cultofmac.com/108782/app...pus-gets-new-renders-and-more-details-report/

 

[DEWLine]

I noticed while "walking" around the Minecraft deck layouts that I think they're right. It's very easy to not know exactly where you are because everything ends up looking the same. (Another reason why something as big as Galaxy or Sovereign would be a nightmare).

Or even something as "small" as the Constitutions!

 

[Christopher]

It's very easy to not know exactly where you are because everything ends up looking the same.

Well, of course it looks the same -- it's just the same corridor set reused over and over!

(Another reason why something as big as Galaxy or Sovereign would be a nightmare).

Which is why, in "Encounter at Farpoint," they established that the computer panels on the walls could give you directions -- although that was never referenced again, as far as I can recall.

 

[Timo]

I guess you could blame that on our heroes having a learning curve.

The TMP idea supposedly was that the corridors would be color-coded. Repainting anything or, say, physically switching a color-coded panel or stripe would be prohibitively laborious, but one could have used colored lighting of the sets; there was already that blue dusk there to depress everybody in the Engineering Hull...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TIN_MAN]

^^ I've occasionally wondered whether the TOS ship could have used a similar scheme? Maybe the only reason we always saw the red ceiling panels is because they were using just the one set? But maybe on the “real” ship different levels could have different ceiling paint jobs? Some could be blue, some green, etc. etc. Maybe the “red” level just happens to be the “main deck” where most of the main facilities were (which would, naturally, include all of the main sets we saw onscreen)?

 

[Maurice]

Simple enough to fix with some signage and color-coding. Basic UI design.

 

[Maurice]

The TMP idea supposedly was that the corridors would be color-coded. Repainting anything or, say, physically switching a color-coded panel or stripe would be prohibitively laborious, but one could have used colored lighting of the sets; there was already that blue dusk there to depress everybody in the Engineering Hull...

I liked the TMP solution, and it could have been carried out on other shows. The Engineering deck colors were simply using gels on the lighting. In officer's country it appears they had cloth panels cut that they could wrap around the metallic wall panels, and it really did give that area a different feel. On a TV show where setup time is limited I can see where it's easier to forego such things, though.

 

[Patrickivan]

I also figured there'd be silly little things like numbers in corridors to indicate where you were. Eg. D6-S1 (deck 6 section 1). Plus signage on doors... Serving every day on a ship, you learn quick where you are and need to be. It's only confusing to the casual visitor...

 

[JustAFriend]

I've heard it mentioned over the years that the Pentagon was deliberately designed like that with mirrored corridors so that anyone breaking in would have a difficult time finding anything....

 

[scotpens]

I've heard it mentioned over the years that the Pentagon was deliberately designed like that with mirrored corridors so that anyone breaking in would have a difficult time finding anything....

That sounds like BS to me. My mother was a civilian worker at the Pentagon many years ago, and she told me that it was actually pretty easy to find your way around. Every room and suite is coded by floor number, ring number and section number, so you always know where you are.

 

[Albertese]

The original intent was for the Pentagon to be sold after WWII ended and the country demilitarized (as they had after every previous war) and it would be a civilian office building. But then, they never really stood down after that war so it stayed the American Military HQ instead.

--Alex

 

[-SS-]

With adequate signage I see no reason why circular corridors would be any more confusing than straight ones.

 

[sojourner]

I've heard it mentioned over the years that the Pentagon was deliberately designed like that with mirrored corridors so that anyone breaking in would have a difficult time finding anything....

That sounds like BS to me. My mother was a civilian worker at the Pentagon many years ago, and she told me that it was actually pretty easy to find your way around. Every room and suite is coded by floor number, ring number and section number, so you always know where you are.

The cruise ships I worked on were similar. Port side even numbered rooms, starboard odd. Numbers ran from lowest in front to highest in back. so, for example cabin 1242 would be on port side aft on deck twelve while cabin 903 would be starboard forward on deck 9. The ship was further divided into "fire zones" with fire zone 1 being the bow section all the way back to fire zone 7 being the aft section of the ship. All ships used the same system so the learning curve was very quick.

 

[SonicRanger]

Well, the TMP ship had those overhead light indicators:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tmp2/tmphd0538.jpg

The E-D had them too:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x01/farpoint_hd_389.jpg

 

[Christopher]

Well, the TMP ship had those overhead light indicators:

Which weren't intended as position indicators, apparently. As Rick Sternbach, their designer, explained it to me once, they were meant to be annunciator displays, with the colors and patterns of the blinking lights indicating different conditions and alerting the appropriate personnel or departments to respond as needed. He said they never worked out the details, but I suppose the signals might mean things like "Yellow alert" or "Damage control team to deck 7" or "Beta shift starts in five minutes."

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

The "Mr. Scott's Guide" suggested that they were indicators of how crowded the corridor was further down, so people would be ready to avoid people or equipment as they inevitably ran down the corridors during alert situations. I'm not quite satisfied by that idea, since the lights were only ever shown as blinking in random patterns even when people weren't there.

Mark

 

[Timo]

"Random blinking" is a fairly common mode of relaying information in Starfleet, second only to "strings of random numbers". It appears almost inevitable that our heroes are extremely adept at reading information in those formats; this need not be because of extensive training, but rather because information in the 23rd and 24th centuries is often relayed in that form even in civilian life. Essentially, our heroes grew up reading that sort of info.

That in mind, the indicators could be just about anything. Aids for quickly getting one's bearings, probably not, though. It would take precious seconds to watch through a complete pattern of blinks, when a huge "7" painted on the wall would tell you a lot in a microsecond (both "this is Deck 7" and "this is the part of Deck 7 where a number 7 is to be found", perhaps also "this is the only part of Deck 7 where the number 7 is to be found next to a turbolift"). And we do know such huge painted signs are part of the 23rd century system, from "Flashback" at least...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[blssdwlf]

"Random blinking" is a fairly common mode of relaying information in Starfleet, second only to "strings of random numbers". It appears almost inevitable that our heroes are extremely adept at reading information in those formats; this need not be because of extensive training, but rather because information in the 23rd and 24th centuries is often relayed in that form even in civilian life. Essentially, our heroes grew up reading that sort of info.

Having seen how people interact with SAP in "real life", the idea of Starfleet personnel automatically knowing what a random string of numbers or blinks mean isn't that far-fetched