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Task 5:
In task 4, most users elected to use the emergency exit button. If they chose this option, the elevator would be temporarily out of service. They had to figure out how to get back to their original target floor.
Observations
Button order:
The low-to-high button order on the outside panel, which is implemented in virtually all existing elevators, confused some of our users. 2/6 of our users asked us why the buttons started at the top of the panel instead of the bottom, and it took them several seconds to locate their button.
ETA:
The screen inside the elevator which displayed an estimated time to arrival wasn’t clear enough for some users; they weren’t able to identify what the screen displayed, despite the “ETA” label. A clearer label might help.
Emergency stop button:
When one of our users had to deal with a medical emergency, she wasn’t sure whether to press the emergency exit button, or to try and contact the police immediately. She also noted that it would be best in some emergency situations to travel express to the first floor, rather than to exit at the closest floor.
Confusing lack of inside buttons:
When one of our users got into the elevator, she looked for buttons on the wall, and didn’t know what to do when she didn’t find them. This was even after she had pressed the button for her floor in the lobby.
Claustrophobic:
One user felt uncomfortable not knowing what floor she was currently on, said she felt “trapped.”
Emergency exit details:
Most users were able to get the elevator to stop in a medical emergency, but were confused at what to do next. When does the elevator start again? Will it remember the floors it had previously been headed to?
Map confusion:
The function of the map was unclear to two of our users. They didn’t understand what the points on the map represented.
Prototype Iteration
Express Option: One of our users was uncertain whether to press the emergency exit button to deal with a medical emergency because she didn’t think it would be a good idea to exit the elevator. She wanted to return to the lobby as quickly as possible. We hadn’t previously mentioned to the users that we would continue to include the callbox in our elevators. We also chose to include a system in the lobby for building officials to override the floor delegation algorithm to force one elevator to become an express to a particular floor.
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