Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Elevators
Raised as a usability problem by 18 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 11 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 16 complaints
- Can't confirm the button press registered or know which elevator to wait for2026-08-01
- Pressable buttons that do nothing confuse people about how the elevator works2026-08-01
- Quick taps don't register, and repeated taps cancel the floor request2023-09-18
- Button lights up when lightly pressed, then unlights, so the call may not register2023-09-07
- Cannot cancel a wrong floor selection, so a mistaken press can't be corrected2022-07-06
- Cannot cancel a wrongly pressed floor button, so a mistake can't be corrected2022-07-06
- Service is utterly unusable and fails to do basic advertised things2017-07-06
- Doors close and reopen on the same floor, a confusing experience2016-01-12
- Lobby button in an unexpected place causes confusion and hunting for it2012-03-07
- Can't tell which triangle button is hold open versus close now, so never uses them2012-03-07
- Long unpredictable waits for elevators at peak times make getting in and out of the building painful2011-12-14
- No up/down button, so people can't find how to call an elevator and get confused2011-12-14
- Unfamiliar users have no idea how to operate the elevator panel2011-12-14
- Elevator behavior seems random, so pressing buttons feels pointless2010-06-22
- Users must understand the elevator algorithm; buttons don't clearly show which car will arrive2010-06-22
- Pressing the wrong floor button cannot be undone, forcing stops at unwanted floors2010-06-22