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a call button does not give the system adequate information to take the necessary action; If you press it and you get a lift that's heading down and you want to

a call button does not give the system adequate information to take the necessary action; If you press it and you get a lift that's heading down and you want to go up, you just wasted time. One possible answer would be to simply not give an indication of where the elevator is, this would prevent instances of the user thinking that they are telling the elevator where to go from it's current position rather than telling then system where they want to go, but this seems like an annoyance to the other 99.9% of users that actually know how a traditional elevator UI works. But hey, a lot of modern UI design held up as an example of mastery has that exact same drawback, but pandering to the ignorant is somehow more important than not screwing over the adept. I'm looking at you, OS X.

electromagnetic 16y ago
> a call button does not give the system adequate information to take the necessary action; If you press it and you get a lift that's heading down and you want to go up, you just wasted time. In my building there's only one passenger elevator and the service elevator, you're not wasting time by getting on the elevator regardless of the direction it's presently travelling. This only becomes a problem when the call button calls multiple elevators to stop. However, this could be resolved simply by having one elevator travel from floor the lobby to the top floor and then perform an express to the ground floor. The other elevator does the exact opposite. You then mark the elevator doors UP and DOWN. If you accidentally get in to the UP elevator instead of the DOWN, you'll still eventually hit the floor you want, it'll just take longer and you'll figure it out sooner or later. The problem arises from the fact that the elevators are acting erratically, they're jumping from floor to floor on no predetermined pattern. You have to pay attention to the elevator, which is a foolish form of pedestrian transport. I don't have to pay attention to the stairs, I just walk down them. I don't have to pay attention to where the bus is running, I just go to my stop and climb aboard and get off when I want. It's kind of pitiful that multi-call elevator systems are more complex than even the poorest public transit systems.

electromagnetic 16y ago

> a call button does not give the system adequate information to take the necessary action; If you press it and you get a lift that's heading down and you want to go up, you just wasted time. In my building there's only one passenger elevator and the service elevator, you're not wasting time by getting on the elevator regardless of the direction it's presently travelling. This only becomes a problem when the call button calls multiple elevators to stop. However, this could be resolved simply by having one elevator travel from floor the lobby to the top floor and then perform an express to the ground floor. The other elevator does the exact opposite. You then mark the elevator doors UP and DOWN. If you accidentally get in to the UP elevator instead of the DOWN, you'll still eventually hit the floor you want, it'll just take longer and you'll figure it out sooner or later. The problem arises from the fact that the elevators are acting erratically, they're jumping from floor to floor on no predetermined pattern. You have to pay attention to the elevator, which is a foolish form of pedestrian transport. I don't have to pay attention to the stairs, I just walk down them. I don't have to pay attention to where the bus is running, I just go to my stop and climb aboard and get off when I want. It's kind of pitiful that multi-call elevator systems are more complex than even the poorest public transit systems.