The Elevator Door Button

OM Times is a leading voice of the Conscious Community with articles covering the full spectrum of Conscious Living. Click here to see all we share.
The Elevator Door Button

by William Bezanson

Don’t you just hate those two buttons on an elevator control panel – the ones used for opening and closing the door? They are typically marked with some obscure graphical symbols somehow suggesting an opening door and a closing door. You have to think for a moment to determine which means Open and which means Close. In addition, they are typically down at about knee-level, so you must crouch down, peer into the dark, and make your guess for Open or Close.

And, you are typically in a rush to find the Open button, not the Close one. Someone calls out to you, “Hold that elevator!” from down the hall, as he or she rushes to catch the car. You bend down and frantically try to determine which button is the correct one, and you often hit the wrong button, causing the door to close, and you shout out “Sorry!” through the closing crack in the door, with some embarrassment and frustration.

Moan! Things should not be so hard to use! This article suggests that the first two design goals of any mechanism should be ease of use and correct user performance first time. Clearly, just about all elevator user consoles were not designed with those two goals in mind.

So, what does that have to do with spirituality, OM living, or metaphysics? Why is it here in this e-magazine? When you think about it, ease of use of anything and correct user performance first time, both contribute to a calmer life. For elevators, you bypass any frustration of having to second-guess the console designer. You efficiently help a frantic hall runner trying to catch that specific elevator car, and you feel an attunement with the machine, other people, your inner self and life. All those things contribute a sense of harmony to that real part of you, your Spirit and your spirituality.

If you look at how people use elevator door buttons, they always want to close the door if it is currently open or opening, and to open the door if it is currently closed or closing. In other words, they always want the door to do the opposite of what it is currently doing. That does not need two buttons. One button will suffice. Nobody would design a light switch mechanism with two switches – one to turn the light bulb on and another to turn it off. The switch simply toggles the light’s current state, i.e., it changes it into the opposite state. Similarly for an elevator door – one button marked DOOR would suffice. Pressing the DOOR button would cause the door to switch to its opposite state: opening if it is currently closed or closing, and closing if it is currently open or opening. Pressing and holding the button would keep the door in its current state.

OM Times is a leading voice of the Conscious Community with articles covering the full spectrum of Conscious Living. Click here to see all we share.