Taxonomy of Interactions and the Design of the Airport Passenger Screening Process

This paper presents a case study analysing the interactions of nine security officers during the mandatory passenger screening process at an Australian international Airport. Eye-tracking glasses were used to observe the visual, physical and verbal interactions of security officers while they performed the x-ray task. Stationary video recording devices were used to record physical and verbal interactions performed by security officers during the load, search and metal detector tasks. Six taxonomic groups were developed that define the different types of interactions performed by security officers during each task. Each taxonomic group is comprised of several discrete interactions specific to each of the tasks observed. Through analysing the composition of interactions and the relationships between interactions in different tasks, this paper highlights the prominence of interactions that security officers perform with passengers and their belongings. These interactions play an important role in the first and last stages of the passenger screening process, as well as influence the functioning of the overall passenger screening process. Due to this, they have substantial effect on passenger experience, throughput efficiency and security efficacy. In response to these findings, we draw from emerging security technologies and persuasive design principles to present potential design solutions for optimising the passenger screening process. These are presented in the context of a preliminary framework with which to inform the design of current and future passenger screening processes.