Elevator management panels

2023-01-06 03:35:10

by John J. BARTHOLDI III

Designers of person interfaces: The elevator trade wants you! Behold the proof.

Panel format

As an untrained person of elevators, it appears to me that you really want three staple items from an elevator management panel:

Inform me what my decisions are.
Permit me to sign my selection.
Affirm my selection by some suggestions so I can’t fret.

Is that so onerous?

Here’s what I’ve realized:

Sure, apparently that’s too onerous.
Hospitals are a wealthy supply of unhealthy design.
There’s a world of opinions about how flooring under floor must be labeled
Most customers simply wish to choose a ground, however it’s common to litter the panel with varied particular function and little-used buttons.
Nobody can acknowledge the usual open-door icon shortly sufficient to forestall the door from shutting within the face of a would-be passenger. And the button might not be connected anyway!
The very best panels are easy and apparent. It’s even higher when the format of the buttons reveals the format of the constructing.

A notice on terminology: The fundamental component of favor right here appears to be a “button”. Some buttons are switches and a few are simply tags; however for our functions they’re all “buttons”.

Click on on any picture to enlarge it.

Worst panel on the planet?

Location

South parking deck of Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta, GA (USA)

Common feedback

A masterpiece of unhealthy design. Most remarkably, every ground is related to no fewer than 4 separate buttons, every of which gives simply one of many important capabilities. From left to proper:

The label, painted in a shade to be related to the ground and giving the title of the colour in each English and Braille
An inactive button coloured to match the ground – however with the colour lacking for the brown, white, tan, and (probably) black buttons
These first two buttons do nothing however determine the alternatives of ground. Moreover, it seems that the worded labels have been added later, maybe after it was realized that individuals won’t be capable of distinguish
some colours or keep in mind them or give correct instructions to others (was that tan or mocha or ecru?)
A white button that truly transmits your option to the elevator mechanism;
A small strip of sunshine that confirms your selection (you’ll be able to see this glowing above the white button for the orange ground).

The column of white buttons on the far proper are inactive. Among the many lively buttons, the ground ranges enhance diagonally upward, alternating to the suitable and left.

Door open/shut

On the very backside are the open door, alarm bell, and shut door buttons recognized by icons. Above the alarm bell is a button labelled “maintain door open” — is that this completely different from the “open” door button?

Flooring under floor

This design provides no clue as to the surface world.

Easy and clear

Location: Elevator to parking decks of the Temasek Tower, Singapore.
Common feedback: A properly designed panel. It’s easy and apparent. The format of the buttons recommend the connection of the flooring to one another. The open/close-door buttons are separated from the choose-floor buttons so they’re simple to seek out. The rarely-used
buttons for elevator administration have been hidden.
Door open/shut: The open/close-door buttons enhance on the usual icon by exhibiting TWO vertical traces to signify two doorways. Moreover, these icons present further visible distinctions in that the gap between the vertical traces is completely different in
the 2 and they’re in numerous colours.
Flooring under floor: B1 is the primary under floor. Presumably deeper flooring can be B2, B3, and so forth.

Left-to-right, then up

Location: Close to the central library on the Nationwide College of Singapore
Common feedback: These buttons enhance first to the suitable after which up (examine with Fraser Suites). The format is primarily horizontal though all journey is vertical.
Door open/shut: Normal icons however the placement, with Door Open on the suitable, is reversed from customary.
Flooring under floor: Not relevant

Proper-to-left, then up

Location: Vacation Inn, Monterrey, Mexico
Common feedback: It’s uncommon to seek out ground numbers rising from proper to left. Least-used buttons are on the high.
Door open/shut: Door-close is positioned extra conveniently than the extra pressing door-open button.
Flooring under floor: Not relevant

Up, then left-to-right

Location: Fraser Suites, Singapore
Common feedback: The ground ranges enhance first up after which to the suitable. I used to be continuously fooled by the truth that the button for ground 16 is on the very backside, effectively under that for ground 5.
Door open/shut: Normal icons however distinguished by shade to assist cue the person
Flooring under floor: Not relevant

Solely left-to-right

Location: Upscale resort in Reykjavik, Iceland>
Common feedback: Good buttons, however they enhance in a single row from left to proper, suggesting horizontal journey.
Door open/shut: Maybe the 2 buttons on the higher left?
Flooring under floor: Undecided: What does “Okay” signify?

Reflecting the surface world

Location: Nice World Metropolis, a shopping center in Singapore
Common feedback: There are six buttons however truly solely 4 ranges: B1 is similar as ground 2; and B2 is similar as ground 1. The association of buttons displays the surface world: They present that the the parking storage stands beside the mall however the flooring don’t match precisely.
Door open/shut: Fascinating variations on the usual icons. The triangles listed here are totally depicted as arrows exhibiting path of motion. Discover the standing particular person within the door-open icon.
Flooring under floor: Lowering numerically with prefix “B”.

Odd choice

Location: Foyer of the Temasek Tower, Singapore
Common feedback: This panel is noteworthy for the weird choice of flooring it presents: B2, 1, 31, and 42-50.
Door open/shut: Way more informative than customary icons. Simply distinguishable however the placement of the capabilities, with Door Open on the suitable, is reversed from customary.
Flooring under floor: B2. The place is B1?

Puzzling ground indicators

Location

Delta Airways terminal of Los Angeles Worldwide Airport

Common feedback

An opaque set of decisions. I requested a Delta Airways worker to interpret these for me. She stated that everybody discovered it complicated and so she tapes interpretations to the panel, however the airport personnel take away them.

“M” for Mezzanine
“P” for Planes
“O” for Operations
“C” for Chunnel, which is definitely a tunnel. Nobody may clarify the title.

Door open/shut

Normal icons

Flooring under floor

It’s inconceivable to narrate this panel to the surface world.

Extra puzzling ground indicators

Location: North parking deck of Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta, GA
Common feedback: These buttons assume you perceive the general format of the hospital complicated and the historical past of its building: This parking deck was the primary one constructed North of the unique deck, therefore the prefix N. This labeling is inconsistent with the south parking deck, the place flooring are distinguished by shade and usually are not prefixed with S.
Door open/shut: Normal icons
Flooring under floor: NB, for North Basement maybe?

Door open or door shut?

Location: Close to the central library of the Nationwide College of Singapore
Common feedback: A clear format, however the button labels are scarcely legible (they’re 1, 2, 3).
Door open/shut: DO and DC: These made sense to me solely after I studied each of them, which, since they’re separated, requires greater than a look. Moreover, the C in DC seems very very like the O in DO. Lastly the position of the capabilities reverse the standard placement through which Door Open is on the left and Door Shut on the suitable. There may be little likelihood you could possibly determine this out in time to forestall the doorways from shutting on a would-be passenger.
Flooring under floor: Not relevant

Hospital incomprehensibility

Location: Constructing 105 of the Piedmont Hospital complicated in Atlanta, GA (USA)
Common feedback: Despite the fact that buttons are in rectangular array, subarrays assist enhance the readability.
Door open/shut: Normal icon
Flooring under floor: C and B appear to rely as much as the bottom ground; or do they stand for one thing, corresponding to Catacombs and Basement? Ought to there be an A? The bottom ground is starred, which is useful. On this case the bottom ground is known as 1, following the US conference.

Extra hospital parking incomprehensibility

Location: Parking storage of the Crawford Lengthy Hospital complicated in Atlanta, GA (USA)
Common feedback: The place is A? What are the coloured buttons to the suitable and left?
Door open/shut: Normal icon
Flooring under floor: It’s inconceivable to narrate this to the surface world. Hospitals and parking don’t do effectively collectively.

Destructive numbers!

Location: Workplaces of the Company for Science, Know-how, and Analysis (A*STAR), Singapore (Due to Paul Goldsman for locating this.)
Common feedback: A clear, useful format
Door open/shut: Much like the usual icons besides that the vertical traces, which signify the sides of the doorways, have been omitted.
Flooring under floor: As befitting a company of scientists and engineers, the ground under 1 is -1. However the place is 0?

Exhausting to learn

Location: Concorde Lodge, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Common feedback: Forcing buttons into one massive, uniformly-spaced rectangular array makes this difficult to learn, particularly since little-used management buttons are given equal weight as ground buttons.
Door open/shut: Normal icons
Flooring under floor: Follows the European conference of labeling floor ground G; and numbering flooring above; however adopts a distinct conference for flooring under: LL, which is presumably Decrease Foyer.

What do I press?

Location: Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore
Common feedback: This panel presents 13 button components however the museum has solely two flooring! You might be on one in all them; push the OTHER button if you’ll find it.
Door open/shut: The buttons are labeled “Door open” and “Door shut”. Moreover they’re positioned subsequent to the Alarm and Cease buttons, which might be simple to press by mistake.
Flooring under floor: Not relevant

Huh?

Location: Monterey Plaza Lodge, Monterey, California
Common feedback: Incomprehensible. Three completely different numbering schemes, one rising, one other reducing, and the third doing each (or neither).
Door open/shut: Normal
Flooring under floor: I have no idea. What does “F” signify?

Catering to the superstitious

Location: Workplace Tower of the Emory Crawford Lengthy Hospital complicated in Atlanta, GA (USA)
Common feedback: Bowing to ignorant superstition, the hospital — a college hospital! — pretends there isn’t any thirteenth ground.
Door open/shut: Normal icon
Flooring under floor: It’s onerous to inform: The flooring are labeled G, L, 2, and so forth. Is G the Floor ground? Or is it L, which is starred?

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