Monday, October 6, 2008

Task 4: Bad Design



Here is the control panel in the elevator of Old Main Building in UNSW. I often feel inconvenience when I use this elevator. Imagine that you are standing elevator and you push the button for the 2nd floor to go up to your classroom. Nothing happens. The button doesn’t show any response to user request.




I saw someone get on the elevator and push the button. The elevator doesn’t show any response. He tries pushing some of the other floor buttons. Still nothing happen. He begin to wonder whether the elevator is working or not, but a few seconds later he realised that it works and the elevator will stop every floor..... What a bad control panel!


Another problem is it’s hard to find the current floor number because the very tiny small size number shows the current floor level. Basically the display is not clear and distinguishable to communicate with users.


Design suggestion
The elevator does not communicate well with users and it makes confusion when people get on the elevator and push the button. To avoid this confusion, the control button should show some response to user request as illuminate a button or emit a soft ticking sound.

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