It's Broken 1 - A Usability Fail

I have a simple view about the user experience - organisations that care about how easy they make it for their customers to use their product or service care more about those customers in every other way. And organisations that care about their customers succeed.

One way to learn about good usability is to look at usability failures and to learn from them. I’m going to blog about failures that I see in everyday life, and this is the first in that series. I will also celebrate usability successes when I see them too.

This usability fail is a simple one. I was in the lift at the Metro Centre and struggled to press the right button for the floor I wanted. Now, I’m not uneducated and normally operating an elevator is not beyond me, but there was a moment of confusion. You might not be able to easily read what’s on the photo due to the reflection from the metal, so to help you it says:

1 CAR PARKING & SHOPS - LOWER LEVEL
2 CAR PARKING
3 CAR PARKING & SHOPS - UPPER LEVEL
4 CAR PARKING
5 CAR PARKING

So what’s wrong with that? Well, in the real world the first floor is normally at the bottom of the building, and the fifth floor is normally at the top. So the panel ought to read:

5 CAR PARKING
4 CAR PARKING
3 CAR PARKING & SHOPS - UPPER LEVEL
2 CAR PARKING
1 CAR PARKING & SHOPS - LOWER LEVEL

Very simple to get right. Someone, surely, must have spotted this by now. But no one cares enough to change it.