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Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

johndcook.com

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Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#51

Post by spogbiper »

deathanatos wrote: post #45
layer8 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two cases where deselecting a floor would complicate the logic: 1. When the currently targeted floor is deselected and the remaining selected floors are all in the other direction: Then the elevator would have to either reverse course without stopping — a situation which otherwise doesn’t occur and would be unexpected and possibly dangerous for the passengers — or stop on a non-selected floor before changin…

I didn't think elevators permitted scenario 1 to occur at all; I thought they refused to allow selecting floors not in the direction of travel. (I don't usually board elevators traveling in the wrong direction, ofc., so, I'm not that sure.)

The one in my building will allow you to select any floor at any time. it always goes to the last stop in the current direction before reversing as far as i have noticed

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#52

Post by jaywalk »

baxtr wrote: post #23
jaywalk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not worth complicating the UX to address such a minor issue.

Minor to you... Introducing a great experience is the job of good UX. Not simply limiting options and saying 'done'. I am sure there are better options to handle this. Seems like no-one has put the effort into it (yet).

Unnecessarily stopping at a floor for a few seconds is minor to literally everyone riding in a public elevator.

But yeah, I'm sure that at all of the various elevator companies, over all of the years that elevators have had electronic controls, nobody has bothered to put any thought into this.

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#53

Post by layer8 »

xmodem wrote: post #35
layer8 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two cases where deselecting a floor would complicate the logic: 1. When the currently targeted floor is deselected and the remaining selected floors are all in the other direction: Then the elevator would have to either reverse course without stopping — a situation which otherwise doesn’t occur and would be unexpected and possibly dangerous for the passengers — or stop on a non-selected floor before changin…

Rather than testing these scenarios, couldn't one simply just(tm) not allow deselection in these scenarios?

Then you’d have to test that. And it would still be confusing to users that deselecting only sometimes works.

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#54

Post by dejj »

baxtr wrote: post #10
rootusrootus wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine that's by design. Otherwise you could unselect other people's choices.

Yes of course it’s by design. I just wonder why.

In Marc-Uwe Kling's "Qualityland", reversing elevators, turning around subway cars, and flicking traffic lights is a level-skill obtained by accumulating social credit points.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Qualityland-Visit-Tomorrow-Marc-Uwe-K...

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#55

Post by chis »

Is there any intuitive explanation for why the mean minimizes the squared error? I know it IS true - this property is used for linear regressions etc - but I couldn’t actually explain it.

It seems like whatever minimizes a squared error should itself have some squares in it.

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#56

Post by Swenrekcah »

alephxyz wrote: post #25
pflenker wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because in a busy environment (where consistently more than one person uses the elevator) the scenario of making a wrong decision and having the wish to correct it occurs far less than the scenario where someone does not pay attention to which floors have been selected already and deselects your destination. At the worst case this means that you both miss your stop because you both did not notice.

Might also get confusing if the LED indicating the button's been pressed stops working

This comment right here is an example of thinking like a good designer. No amount of sleek surfaces and cool lighting can beat this.

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#57

Post by thefifthsetpin »

baxtr wrote: post #8

Might be a bit off-topic… But: The one big question I have with elevator UX is this: why isn’t it possible to deselect a choice? So pressed 10th floor but wanted 11th. There is no way to press button 10 and then button 11 to correct that mistake. Will I ever solve this mystery?

Some elevators are clever enough to detect kids messing with them. If you select enough floors, they'll just deselect everything soon, including your errant selection.

Admittedly, that's not very helpful unless you somehow knew that the elevator you were in had been configured in such a way.

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#58

Post by shikoba »

chis wrote: post #55

Is there any intuitive explanation for why the mean minimizes the squared error? I know it IS true - this property is used for linear regressions etc - but I couldn’t actually explain it. It seems like whatever minimizes a squared error should itself have some squares in it.

If you know about inertia, the grabiy center is where inertia is minimized. But it's just a way to rephrase it.

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#59

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

baxtr wrote: post #8

Might be a bit off-topic… But: The one big question I have with elevator UX is this: why isn’t it possible to deselect a choice? So pressed 10th floor but wanted 11th. There is no way to press button 10 and then button 11 to correct that mistake. Will I ever solve this mystery?

Elevators in Japan often support this; usually either a double-tap or press-and-hold the button to deselect.

Re: Where to wait for an elevator (2010)

#60

Post by bobthepanda »

layer8 wrote: post #53
xmodem wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than testing these scenarios, couldn't one simply just(tm) not allow deselection in these scenarios?

Then you’d have to test that . And it would still be confusing to users that deselecting only sometimes works.

Right.

HN is not representative of the average person, or even a standard cross section of society. A elevator has to be legible to an 8 year old child, an 80 year old retiree, someone who is blind, a person who is deaf, etc.

When designing for such a broad audience, KISS (keep it simple, stupid)

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