How would you design an interface for a 1,000 floor elevator?
This is a classic design problem that’s been posed in many-a-UX interview. I thought it’d be interesting to approach the problem as a community of UXers and see what we can come up with as a group.
A lot has been written about this problem, but I’d like our approach to be fresh and our own. Let’s see what we come up with!
###I will act as moderator-- please feel free to ask any clarifying questions.
##User Feedback
User feedback from @jdebari :
As someone who has been using these elevators a lot lately, I really don’t like them much.
There is a lack of control since there is no keypad inside the elevator I feel a bit trapped. All other UI seems to have been thrown out the window (i.e. which floor am I on as I am going up or down, or which floor am I going to again?).The speed and less crowding is a plus, maybe it will just take some time to get used to the new way of doing things
From @fieldingj:
I really liked the elevators at the Vancouver Hyatt Regency (IA Summit 2017) where you touched the floor number you needed it and it told you which elevator to get on.
##What We Know So Far
Note: This section contains answers to questions asked by the community as a whole.
- We’re designing for four elevators. One goes from floor 0 (ground floor) to floor 333. The next goes from 334 to 667. The third goes from 668 to 1000. The final has access to all floors. The building has several floors which are not accessible without special access-- floors 17, 222, 831, and 999-- and there is no floor 13 (as is tradition in many tall buildings.)
##Early Solutions