I recently flew with KLM to Asia on a Boeing 777-200/200ER and was overjoyed: KLM finally switched to personal inflight entertainment systems (previously KLM still had a couple of these big CRT screens hovering over the isle like this). However, the joy was not to last for long.

Tilt screens that don't tilt (enough)
As you might know the viewing angle of an LCD screen can be somewhat limited. As you also know people come in varying sizes, ranging from 1.6 to a good 2 meters long. To overcome the resulting variation in eye height, the LCD screens were mounted so they could be rotated up and down. Slightly. And there was the catch. As soon as the passenger in front of me tilted his chair backwards it turned out that my screen couldn't be tilted enough to compensate, and I couldn't see my movie anymore. And it wasn't just the passenger in front of me: people are bound to tilt their chair backwards on a 13 hour flight. The only way to finish my movie was to retract my head between my shoulders and slouch down in my chair. To ease my aching back a little, I could take a look around and see everyone who was watching a movie in a similar position.

Remote control stowing location (+no lock)
Then I decided to go to sleep and bumped into the next unpleasant surprise. Literally. The remote control of the entertainment system was stored in the armrest. However, while asleep you move around a little to find a comfortable position (which actually means you move around quite a lot if you are in economy class chairs). Unfortunately, there was no 'lock' on the remote control (or non that I could find). And as a consequence I accidentally activated the entertainment system with my hip time and time again, each time being woken up by the light from the LCD screen. Just to show you that it is possible to do it differently: here's a system where the remote is stowed in the backrest, just like the screen.

Puzzling UI and controller

And finally there was the puzzling controller and UI (photo: similar controller, different airline) which had the most peculiar mapping of controls and behaved differently in each part of the system (third party components maybe?). Here's how 'vandewal' describes it on Flickr:

The m&m's are the game pad with normal colorings if you turn it 90 degrees to the left. Having them as dual use, depending on what part of the entertainment system you are in is rather wonky. I got used to it after a bit. The menus did not keep to the same convention even in the same part of the system.

Why did nobody see this?
I was (and still am) wondering how it was possible that Boeing, KLM and their supplier could have missed out on such basic ergonomic issues. It's something that a first year Industrial Design Engineering student with an ergonomic handbook could have figured out. And then I ran into these pictures of a Thales demo setup of a new in-flight entertainment system for NWA staff and management. And yes, you're seeing that correctly: only the row in front of the 'participants' are actual airline chairs. The test participants are sitting on office chairs. I don't know who tested the system I ran into, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was done in a similar way.

Will it be fixed?
Wasn't there anything good about the system? Yes: a good selection of movies, you could switch to the flight data any time you wanted (I have a curious nature), and you could learn about the language and culture of your destination. Pretty decent. However, because of all the discomfort I was still disappointed enough to e-mail KLM customer service to bring the issue to their attention. I got a nice reply saying that they would mention the issue to the management responsible for in-flight entertainment. I'm not really expecting any short term changes (ergonomics usually is not very high on management's agenda, because you sound silly when you pronounce that word), but then again, they might complain to their suppliers. Because on its website Boeing says about the in-flight entertainment on the 777:

When properly integrated (hear, hear, ed.), in-flight systems can create strong passenger loyalty and revenue for you. [...] Our unparalleled industry knowledge as an OEM and willingness to listen to your needs will result in getting the maximum benefit from your systems.

One recommendation for KLM and Boeing management: travel economy class every once in a while...

Note: the picture of the screen at the beginning of the post is not the system that is discussed here.