A Button and its Feedback

Manual Elevator Control Panel (2009-09-27 – Central Square – 097 (by meltedplastic))

Let me start where I did. After doing away with the permanent position of the lift operator in favour of an electronic, and in more modern times computer, driven system, the interface to select the floor you wish to proceed to has shifted to a button.

Adding the buttons – not every decision is correct (Bad elevator UI (by kurafire))

In general, the way a user uses them is to press the button and, after a short delay, the lift will take the occupant to floors in the building in the direction it is to head. If you’re below the floor, and the lift is continuing down, you will have to await its turn-around point to head back to the floor you’re after – thus the encouragement on each floor for the call-button to be split into two – one for up and one for down.

Up or down? (Elevator Interaction (by lopolis))

So now we have buttons, however what we also need to do is give feedback to the elevator user about their interaction with the buttons.

Common Interaction Techniques

The most common interaction with a lift button is to simply light them up – for example, illuminating the button with a backlight. This should occur as confirmation that the system has received the button press and placed it in its state machine so as to ensure the user verification that their request has been processed.

An additional cue that can be made is an audible cue, ranging from a simple beep to a more complex computerised voice confirmation.

The case at work is that both are being used – the buttons themselves are illuminated and an audible beep is also sounded confirming to the user that their floor selection has been processed and the lift will soon stop at that floor.

&elipse; that we failed

The unfortunate aspect of the control panel as implemented is that the state change is not the trigger for either the button illumination nor audible beep. These occur not only separate to the elevators control system, but also separately to themselves.

The design of the system appears to be such that it is reliant on the physical construction of the button and its contact points to first cause the state to change in the control system and then provide the cues back to the user that their selection is now in the system. Where this breaks down is if the control panel’s construction has not been up to scratch of if the connectivity with the control system breaks down. Where this occurs the illumination of the button does not continue, though the audible beep is still heard.

A minimum of half the refurbished lifts have this problem, which I can only guess will get worse with age until the next refurbishment.

Why is this relevant?

AJAX is a technique that has gained a lot of attention in the web world – even more so in the enterprise. Unfortunately its implementation often makes poor assumptions on the state machine that it relates to.

When data posts or requests are made without page refreshes, designers need to be exceedingly careful about any any assumptions that they make in their state machines.

Case in point was an application that I am overseeing at work. New functionality includes the ability to favourite an asset, with the request fired using AJAX where this is available. The state on the page, however, changed before any response was received from the server – assuming continuous connectivity between the page and the server to exist. Tests, including server outage or removal of network access, revealed this quite quickly, however the base assumption of connectivity is one that should not have been made in the first place.

One should always place the request first, change state on response from remote system second.

A Further Note: Numbering Floors

The other area of failure that occurred is the numbering sequence that is used on the two panels.

Elevator Refurbishment » Panel 1

The first panel is the same as traditional elevators in the West. Numbers start at the bottom for low floors proceeding up as you rise through the floors. Direction on each “layer” is, as per Western conventions, left to right.

Elevator Refurbishment » Panel 2

The second panel, is a lower one installed predominantly for access by those in wheelchairs. Some bright spark decided that the order should be reversed on the lower panel. Thankfully the paradigm of bottom-to-top for floors was maintained, however, the left-to-right paradigm was ditched.

Why, I’ve got no idea. I’ve watched countless people go to push buttons based on where they think they should be through years of unconscious training of how the buttons are arranged in the lifts and find themselves hitting floors that they don’t want. Not only that, due to the difference between the two, there is no longer a common arrangement used on the panels.

These are all small things, but it’s the small things that count when you’re talking about the difference between an easy and enjoyable experience and one that frustrates. On all counts, these new lifts are definitely failing at time of commissioning to meet the experience that they set out for their users to experience. One can only hope they do not deteriorate further over time.

Two patents filed about twelve months back by Apple is a revealing piece as to where the Jobs et al see the home heading in the future.

The first patent covers the communications over the electricity wiring in the home (US Patent 20100007473 – Intelligent Power-Enabled Communications Port) while the second (US Patent 20100010857 – Intelligent Power Monitoring) covers power monitoring in the house of remote devices over said wiring.

With the recent launch of the iPad, in addition to a post by Ethan Kaplan (Vice President of Technology at Warner Bros Music) giving some perspective to the cost and capabilities of the iPad and somewhat similar devices in the home (Logitech Harmony, Phillips Pronto TSU9800, Phillips TSU9400), I began thinking about how Apple is position itself to be the platform for the house in a way that its nearest competitor Microsoft hasn’t got to yet.

Smart Home Infrastructure

I followed Ethan Kaplan’s adventure in home automation a few years back (artifacts are still visible on flickr) and found it to be very much a hack-together approach, regardless of the technology that was being used.

Apple’s guiding philosphy is (whether or not you agree with it): it just works. I believe that they see an opening in the market in the future for building on their platform to provide increased capabilities when it comes to first understanding, and then controlling, devices in the home.

HomePlug, a core part of their patent filings, is a technology that uses the existing wiring in your home as the network infrastructure allowing connectivity between devices without being dependent on a wireless technology. There are a number of reasons why HomePlug represents a significant benefit when moving towards the “internet of things”:

1. The wireless space, regardless of spectrum, is heading towards saturation
2. The connection to the network already exists (assuming of course you have fixed power to the device, or a network hub device)

The Missing API

Apple has already proven itself adept at pushing inovation in the web space, taking an opinion on the future of Adobe’s Flash product (with no Flash available on the iPhone OS). I believe that it has the best on the general population when it comes to providing easy interfaces to work with – there is no better example of this than the iPhone’s success over the past nearly three years.

As a result I believe that Apple is not interested too much in ownership over the devices that could work with it, but rather seeing the development and adoption of a standardised data transfer format in addition to control mechanisms. This is where the adoption of the HAN will be a critical first step – allowing both HomePlug and ZigBee to work together. Following this an API needs to be formed for allowing a higher degree of interdevice operations. When this finally arrives, the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and other devices in this space from Apple will definitely take on a bigger part of our life.

For the smart home of tomorrow, Apple has already deployed their “trojan horse” into the world.

The Competitors

While there exist some start ups in this space, and there exists legacy expensive niche products, there are two main groups that have real potential to compete with Apple on a scale that would worry them.

Microsoft

Apple’s closest competitor in this space would be Microsoft. Redmond does see a future in smart home management technologies with much of their focus to date focussed on building the XBOX as the centre of the home. Unfortunately no one factored in the arrival of the Nintendo Wii onto the seen, obliterating much of the sales and killing a core market that would be needed for wider success of this strategy.

In the area of “providing information on energy consumption” Microsoft has had their Hohm product in the marketplace for some time now, giving consumers in parts of the United States a level of feedback and visibility over their electricity usage that has not previously existed. At this stage it is not exactly in the Smart House space of the future, however it is a first step in getting people thinking about where a smart home could head.

Google

Google’s PowerMeter is much like Microsoft Hohm – an easy to use dashboard giving people feedback on their electricity consumption. To date I have not seen any plans to expand into a broader Smart Home space, however, as with Google, their Andriod operating system is a direct competitor to the iPhone OS and as such should not be underestimated as an alternative management tool in a future smart home.

I was up in rural NSW (~3.5hrs from Sydney) to scout locations for Nadine and Andrew’s wedding – a couple of friends living in Orange. I also spent the time helping a them get used to being in front of the lens.

The ceremony was held in Milthorpe, with photos taken around Orange’s parks, vineyards and orchards.

Further photo after the break, or check out the full set online at flickr.

A Ferrari run was evidently on this weekend, stopping in at nearby Milthorpe. Couldn’t resist this old school Dino.

Andrew and Nadine with their pups Mahler and Bartok.

Following on from the “babies” post (Courtney Christmas @ Nowra, NSW) earlier today, I introduce the next in the flickr requirement of “babies, and kittens, and sunsets” – kittens!

I had just picked up a brand new lens – the lens I coveted for years, used twice (at a wedding and in New Orleans thanks to Richard) and it was now mine! What better subject to test it on than a couple of restless kittens (of course) for John and Fiona. So here’s Ziggy and Juno.

Further photo after the break, or check out the full set online at flickr.

For some reason I have some of the cutest youngin’s around me courtesy of my cousins. My Dad’s side of the family is notoriously difficult to get together

I’ve also officially been designated as the “Picture Taking Man” by Ella – a moniker I’ve definitely adopted around the next generation of the family.

Further photo after the break, or check out the full set online at flickr.

Ella’s little brother Nash.

Susan’s son Declan.

A session with Stephanie Bendixsen. Just a bit of fun really and was originally aimed at providing some portfolio shots for a job interview with ABC3.

Guess it must have worked – Steph is now the cohost of Good Games on ABC.

Since picking up the gig, the four shots I posted (plus her extended collection on her flickr stream) seem to have become exceedingly popular.

Further photo after the break, or check out the full set online at flickr.

Headed down the road to my fave little live music venue in Sydney – The Annandale Hotel – for a return of The Vasco Era.

These guys are absolutely phenomenal live. Unbelievably energetic and so very blues-infused rock. Love to shoot them (I think this shot of Sid O’Neil is the fave from the three times I’ve had the opportunity to shoot them)

Further photos after the break, or check out the full set online at flickr.

Support: The Smoke Band

Support: Bright Yellow

Shot for fasterlouder.com.au/people/jufemaiz.

Check it out bg on black!

I was asked if I I could shoot a friend-of-a-friend’s newly formed theatre group on a cold Friday night in July. Hell yeah I wanted to have a crack at it. It did however take a while for me to realise that one of the members I’ve known for years – being one of my sister Hannah’s friends, Joanne Erskine.

Lighting, stylist, hair + makeup provided. Just be there to shoot with a few ideas based on some inspiration the group had taken from a variety of photography sources. The venue was deep in the dark caverns of NIDA.

To work with I had two small continuous lighting sources (erm, not sure what they were, I was a little distracted setting up, tearing down etc). One was used as a lightbox ~2m overhead and slight to the left, the second had barn doors attached to provide a small focused light source from behind.

This has been done more than a few times, however check the site, it works in quite well with some of their design work to date, so should be easily used on flyers and so forth.

Further photos after the break, or check out the full set online at flickr.

All bloodied up!

Shot for Cry Havoc.

Further photos after the break, or check out the full set online at flickr.

Support: Liberation Front

A massive night at Sydney’s The Metro – all in support of FBi Radio, ensuring the continuation of Sydney’s independent music scene.

Lighting was fantastic and the music even better. What a great night!

Further photos after the break, or check out the full set online at flickr.

Support: Holly Throsby

Support: Sherlock’s Daughter

Support: Middle East

TripleJ’s Unearthed winner for 2009 – Middle East.

Support: New Buffalo (now known as Sally Seltmann)

Support: Jack Ladder performing with band.

Support: Leader Cheetah

Support: Firekites

Shot for T H E S Y D N E Y S O C I A L