I just returned from a four-day holiday taking my goddaughters - 12 and nearly 10 - to Los Angeles for the primary purpose of watching the University of Washington Women's Basketball team play in the Pac-10 women's tournament. Given the Dawgs lackluster season, we did not expect to attend a game on Saturday, so we promised the girls a trip to Universal Studios.

The girls were a joy to spend time with; standing on line? Not so much. Until we got to The Simpson's ride.

Yes, the Simpsons have a ride. And the ride was awesome. But I want to talk about the way the ride designers handle the necessity of having hundreds of people stand on line for 20, 30, 40 minutes. All we UX designers can learn something from this.

From the minute you enter the queue maze, you have sight of a large, bright, flat panel television. On this television is playing a quintessential Simpson's carton; an irreverent, low-comedy that pokes fun at the entire theme park experience!

You are no longer at Universal Studios, you are in Krustyland in Springfield. Yes, Krusty the Clown is your host. You are standing with the Simpson family all through the wait. Krusty is trying to sell you stuff. In one section, you are next to the Lost & Found (run by the aunties) and the concession stand (run, of course, by the Indian grocer).

In another, Krusty is guiding the Simpsons past the nuclear plant ride (!) and Maggie slips away and crawls through the door. In silhouette, you see her become 25 feet tall!

In what seems like no time (25 minutes for us) you are seated in your vehicle with the Simpsons in the front seat. And you know that nothing goes right when the Simpsons are around!

I won't give you a play by play of the ride, except to say that 25-foot-tall Maggie saves the day when Sideshow Bob disguises himself and tries to capture the Simpsons and eke his revenge on Krusty for firing him. Along the way, she mistakes your vehicle for a pacifier, sticks it in her mouth, and then spits it out in disgust; that may not be spit hitting your arm, but you could have fooled the girls!

I have never had so much fun waiting online! Disney is good at keeping a line moving, but the queuing experience at a Disney park is not hilarious.

What do visitors to our sites see while they wait? Ads? A twirling hourglass? What if they saw a carton, instead? Or a 10 second visual joke? Think about it.

Labels: inspiring