There's an increasing number of lifts around Canberra that require you to swipe a proximity card before the lift permits you to press the buttons. It's been a long established de-facto standard that if you press a button in a lift and the button lights up, your command has been accepted.
A large number of the lifts requiring prox-card access are made by the Otis Elevator Company. Otis' lift firmware has a few usability issues. Two particular issues come to mind:
- When you press a button you're not allowed to, the button lights up for two seconds, then goes off
- If you press a button immediately after swiping your card, the previous effect occurs. You need to wait around one to two seconds before you can press the button.
The first problem is a particularly annoying one for lifts where you only need to swipe before and after a certain time period (e.g. before 8AM). You hop in, press you button, and stare blankly out the window, wondering why the elevator's not moving.
It disturbs me that a company such as Otis, who have been around for over one hundred and fifty years can't get usability right. Something as simple as breaking common-sense usability standards doesn't seem that hard to avoid.
If Otis can't get it right, what chance do most tech companies have?