Elevators

My upcoming trip to the JetBrains Amsterdam office reminded about the elevators there. They are using the destination dispatch system. It features a kiosk on each floor where you choose your destination floor and it assigns a car for your ride, optimizing the wait times for everyone. Unsurprisingly, the research shows the effectiveness of the algorithm. Well, at least when there are enough elevators. But the user experience is somewhat mixed. Yes, sometimes it leads to a faster ride, but more than often I need to fight with the touchscreen device to select a correct floor, and then frantically look around to find the assigned car. Sometimes, I’m okay to wait a little bit longer to just tap a button.