[NLC Elevator - GR1]
Group Members
Connor Kirschbaum, Stephanie Greene, Joanna Kao
TA: Katrina Panovich, kp@mit.edu
Problem Statement
The goal of this project is to create a more efficient elevator system for 20+ story buildings. The user would like to quickly arrive at their target floor. Obstacles include: the elevator arrival times, people who press buttons of floors they do not intend to go to, elevator capacity, and the number of people who get to ride the elevator first by virtue of the length of their wait or their pushiness, etc.
User Observation and Analysis
We interviewed the following people:
1. Course 12 junior who has many classes on the upper floor of the Green Building
2. Course 8 sophomore who is afraid of elevators
3. Course 4 junior architecture major who is interested in the issues surrounding tall building design
4. Middle aged male who works in a building with 50+ stories.
We also observed people in the following locations:
1. Student Center – two un-synced elevators across from each other serving 5 stories
2. The Green Building – three synced elevators side by side serving 20 stories
3. Building 36 – three synced elevators side by side serving 8 stories
4. McCormick East Tower – one elevator serving 9 stories.
The following are our findings:
- People get annoyed or scared at the loss of time when they have to stop on many floors before they arrive at their destination.
In the Green Building, many course 12 students need to ride the elevator to very high floors. Because the vertical distance between the ground and the first floor (containing 54-100) is so large many students take the elevator to the first floor, not to mention the all the other students and faculty that need to access other floors. The high traffic can make students late to class. People who are claustrophobic/afraid of elevators are especially concerned by this. The more people who enter or exit on earlier floors, the more time such a person has to spend in the elevator. - People are annoyed with the lag time caused by people holding the elevator for others on their floor.
In McCormick, the elevator makes a distinctive clicking sound when it changes floors. Students were observed electing to walk downstairs, sometimes from floors as high as the 7th when the lack of clicking indicated the elevator had not moved for some time. - The constant need to tap an employee ID to enter or exit the elevator was an inconvenience.
This slowed everyone down since users had to tap their ID in order to open the elevator doors to prove they had the appropriate permissions to be on the floor. In crowded elevators, it was sometimes difficult to coordinate. - In buildings with higher security, employees may only be authorized to visit a certain subset of floors.
One person we spoke to had a friend on the 22nd floor. Unfortunately he did not have access to this floor, so every time he wanted to drop by he had to travel all the way down to the first floor to obtain security clearance to travel back up to the 22nd floor. - In elevators that service only higher floors, the high velocity ride makes some nauseous.
In very high buildings, elevators may be set up to service only a specific subset of floors in an attempt to reduce wait times. Since an elevator won’t need to stop until it reaches the first floor of its set, it can move very quickly at first. This can be a problem for those who are easily nauseated. We interviewed one person who was afraid of elevators, and this was the primary reason for his phobia. He was most afraid of the idea that the elevator was going up, but he couldn’t tell precisely where he was at any given time. - The lack of cell service in many elevators was an inconvenience.
In McCormick, people were frequently observed to experience dropped calls if they needed to travel more than two floors. Unfortunately, most elevator users need to travel more than this. One person we spoke to works in a very tall building. He often needs to visit other floors and sometimes he needs to continue an important call at the same time. Unfortunately, he cannot do both. - Buildings, especially tall buildings, are designed around elevators.
In skyscrapers, making elevators even slightly faster or more efficient can have a significant positive effect on the circulation of people in the building.
User Classes
Class 1: Workers (for corporate buildings)
Age: at least 15
Frequency of Use: Daily
Motivation/Attitude: Workers would like to arrive at their floor rapidly. Workers who have to use the system on a daily basis are much more likely to be irritated if the system does not work quickly and as prescribed.
Class 2: Residents (for apartment buildings)
Age: at least 7 to operate alone, any age to use
Frequency of Use: Daily
Motivation/Attitude: While residents would like their elevator to operate efficiently, they are less likely to be in a hurry or to get irritated if the system is slow.
Class 3: Visitors
Age: at least 10 to operate alone, any age to use
Frequency of Use: Rarely
Motivation/Attitude: Visitors would also like to arrive at their floor quickly, but they are far less likely to be bothered if the system works more slowly. Since they do not use the system on a regular basis, they are more likely to be confused if the system operates differently or has a different interface than standard elevators.
The demographics for all user classes are very similar. Users can be either gender, belong to any culture, speak any language, have any level of education, experience any type of physical limitation, and have any level of computer experience.
Task Analysis
1. Which Elevator?
Task: The system will need to convey to the riders which elevator he or she should get in. There will be situations where an elevator is going in the direction that the user wants to go, and maybe even passing their floor, but he or she should not be getting in the elevator.
Need to Know: The user will need to know how the system works and that he or she should be looking for a specific elevator to enter. They need to know that they can’t just walk into any open elevator — they need to look for the elevator assigned to their floor.
Where: All displays (i.e. floor selection and current floor panels) will indicate which elevators are going to which floors. A user need only look at whichever display is closest to them to find which elevator they need to get in.
Environment: The area will probably pretty crowded depending on the time of day.
Frequency: Users will need to find out which elevator to use each time they want to use the elevator. This can vary from a few times a day in the case of workers or residents of the building to once in a lifetime for visitors.
Time/Resource Constraints: Users will need to find out which elevator is assigned to their desired floor and make it to the elevator before the elevator leaves.
Learnability: This will be a learning problem. We need to train people to only enter elevators that will be stopping on their floor. Users will be learning how to use the system either by staring at the display or watching others use the system. Much of this will be by word of mouth.
Potential Problems: This could be a security problem: how do we prevent someone from getting on an elevator that is headed to the top floor, and just stopping it when they get to their floor (inconveniencing their fellow passengers in the process)?
2. Display Use
Task: Users need to know how to use the display to get to his/her desired floor. Most people are very familiar with the existing two-button elevator requesting system and may be confused when they encounter an elevator that doesn’t work that way.
Need to Know: Users will need to know their target floor. They will also need to know that they are required to indicate their desired floor before getting into an elevator.
Where: This will happen at any of the displays near the group of elevators in the building.
Environment: The area may be crowded depending on the time of day.
Frequency: Users will need to indicate which floor they want to go to each time they want to use the elevator. This can vary from a few times a day in the case of workers or residents of the building to once in a lifetime for visitors.
Time/Resource Constraints: This task is less time/resource constrained, but improving efficiency will be beneficial to elevator riders both old and new.
Learnability: Users should be able to learn the system by watching others, staring at the displays, and learning by doing. There may be simple directions near the displays.
Potential Problems: It is possible that in a rush, people unfamiliar with the system will just rush into any available open elevator instead of indicating their floor. In our system, if they don’t indicate a floor before stepping into the elevator, it is unlikely the elevator will stop on their desired floor.
3. Getting to the desired elevator
Task: One of the big differences between the traditional elevator system and our new system is that users may potentially need to walk further to get to their proper elevator. Therefore, we need to find a way to minimize the number of people rushing through each other to get to their desired elevator and/or maximize the amount of time they have to get to the elevator they need to get in.
Need to Know: Users will need to know how the system works (that they may have to walk to the elevator that they are assigned) and also where he or she needs to go
Where: This will occur in the area surrounding the group of elevators
Environment: The environment can be very busy when everyone is going to or leaving work. It can also be almost unused in some times and locations.
Frequency: Users will need to locate their elevator every time they use the system. This can vary from a few times a day in the case of workers or residents of the building to once in a lifetime for visitors. So maximizing the time users receive to locate their elevators without greatly increasing the time the elevator takes to arrive at the target floor is a task that will need to be performed every time anyone uses the system.
Time/Resource Constraints: Users will need to make it to their elevator in as little time as possible so they can catch their elevator and not slow down the entire process.
Learnability: This task can be learned either by studying the display or by watching how other people react after they find out what elevator they must use.
Potential Problems: The safety aspect will be interesting — both from a physical standpoint as well as a design standpoint — since we want to make sure people can start walking to their elevators before it arrives so that they have enough time to make it there and/or walk to another elevator if they get confused (recover from errors).
Other: This system must be very learnable since many of the people using the system will be first-time users.
TA Feedback.
As we discussed, this is the beginning of a very cool project. There are some issues that need to be addressed before going forward, however.
The first thing is that instead of stating a problem, you share your solution, though you provide a bit of motivation for it. Think of it first as a problem to be solved. Please also make sure that you scope the problem to something reasonable for the class - you're communicating elevator information, not rerouting elevators for this class.
I like that you addressed emotions and that you observed people for this step, but it doesn't seem like that had very much to do with your tasks.
You don't seem to really get a good feel for what the tasks your users use to solve your problems, and instead you describe actions that your app will let users take. Don't forget that the next step is to make three separate designs - you shouldn't already have picked one. Think of task analysis as the analysis of tasks that need to be done to solve the problems.
Please also break your wiki up into separate pages going forward. I'd appreciate it if you made these changes, since we'll be working off this document for the whole rest of the project.