Interface design thought for the day

[mithriltabby]

Elevators normally have a light that comes on when they arrive at a given floor and are about to have the door open. (This is particularly useful when there’s a bank of elevators, so you know which one you’ll be taking.)

A useful design would be to have the elevator communicate with the light on the floor where it’s stopping. If a stop was requested on that floor from within the elevator, the light should turn yellow, indicating to people outside that they should stand clear of the door; if not, it should turn green.

Comments

[tronpublic.livejournal.com]

If I'm remembering correctly, in Tokyo where banks of elevators are the norm, most of the elevators would do something similar. When you press the call button, one of the elevator lights would begin blinking immediately - indicating that everyone waiting should crowd around that elevator and block anyone in the approaching elevator from getting off. (Now that I think of it, that's kind of like how turn signals work on the freeway.) Once the elevator would arrive, the light would stop blinking and go to a steady "on" state and a variation of rugby would begin.

[mithriltabby]

So this would make it possible for people to notice the light blinking yellow and line up in front of the door while leaving room for people to get out... and if people don’t show such politeness, they can be given dirty looks or whatever social signal is appropriate to indicate to a Japanese person that they’re being discourteous...