How often do people travel between non-ground floors though? In my own experience, whether it's a residential or an office building, 99% of elevator usage is a) someone going down to the ground floor, and b) someone going up from the ground floor. There are some exceptions like hotels that have amenities on different floors though.
The first elevator "algorithm", if you can even call it that, that I've ever encountered and that seems intuitive to me, is what Soviet relay logic elevators did. If it's not in use and someone calls it, it goes there. If it's in use, it will collect the calls on its way down (and ignore them on the way up, these had no up/down call buttons). It's surprisingly effective for apartment buildings.
Not sure how common it is but Bern train station has 3 elevators, usually 2 are set to normal and one to "express" which means all middle floors (mainly parking) are locked and you can only go ground to top (outside so a lot of people going to/from the station on foot)
It's super efficient for people who understand the system at the detriment of people who don't, as they get in and mash the middle buttons and get confused that they don't activate
Having visible, pressable buttons that do nothing is terrible UI. Why not just screw a metal plate over these do-nothing buttons, or at least tape a piece of cardboard?
grishka · · focus · HN ↗
The first elevator "algorithm", if you can even call it that, that I've ever encountered and that seems intuitive to me, is what Soviet relay logic elevators did. If it's not in use and someone calls it, it goes there. If it's in use, it will collect the calls on its way down (and ignore them on the way up, these had no up/down call buttons). It's surprisingly effective for apartment buildings.
sixhobbits · · focus · HN ↗
It's super efficient for people who understand the system at the detriment of people who don't, as they get in and mash the middle buttons and get confused that they don't activate
akoboldfrying · · focus · HN ↗
sixhobbits · · focus · HN ↗