iPhones and Elevators: Why Simple Is Not Always Better
9:14 A.M: Me and my colleague is already 14 minutes late for a client meeting. Writing as fast and as legible as we can, we rushed to sign in the visitors’ form in the building’s reception. After that, we went straight to the elevator lobby where we saw this:
“What?! Where’s the button?”
Baffled, confused, and panicking, the two of us wander around the lobby. I actually waited for someone to assist us because of no apparent visual of the controls. After a few precious minutes, we tried to push something:
We realized that the elevators only go up since it only has one button.
Did we find it cool? Meh.
Was it intuitive? Not at all.
Was it convenient for first time building visitors like us specially when we’re panicking since we’re already late for a meeting? Absolutely NOT!
Simplicity is like a holy grail for designers. In a world where everyone’s tendency is to add features in order to solve problems, it’s really enlightening and profoundly satisfying if we can find features that we can subtract or steps that we can omit to provide a better customer experience. That’s the ideal scenario but how come it didn’t work in the case of the single-button elevator?
Answer: It lacks familiarity.
One famous example of simplicity is Apple’s single home button of iThings. You might argue that Apple introduced a single home button for phones, how come they made it work? First, let’s discard the fact that, unlike elevators, they hold these annual grand product launches where they explain new products in details.
The truth is, they made it simple yet familiar. Let’s look at one of Apple’s earlier success in the hand held technology market: the iPod.
One way to build familiarity is by using symbols that are consistently present in the same kind of products.
You can see a recurring symbol that’s present in almost all of the previous iPods since it was introduced in 2001. All of them have a circular pattern for the controls. This paved the way for a seamless transition to just a singular home button when they introduced the first iPhone in 2007. The home button also holds majority of the functions of the iPhone.
In the case of the single-button elevator, they didn’t use any recurring symbol to maintain familiarity. Think about it, when you’re in the elevator lobby, or looking for directions in general, what’s the symbol that you immediately look for?
Arrows.
“A true thing poorly expressed is a lie.” — Christopher Hitchens
