Elevator Design, the famous story

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"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought." - Albert Einstein

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Elevator Design, the famous story

There is a famous story about elevator design that illustrates the 'knowing your customer' theme I seem to be on these days. I do not know the source of this story, or its authenticity, but it seems credible. This story was related to me by an ex manager, he heard it at a seminar. I have read this in a number of design books as well.

The owner of a large building was getting complaints from the tenants that the buildings elevator service was too slow. The owner solicited proposals from a number of companies to speed up the service. One proposal though won, was a fraction of the cost of the rest, and proved to be an ideal solution. The proposal: put mirrors next to each elevator door. People like to look at themselves. Even that short distraction is enough to make the wait less noticeable or irritating.

With that in mind, I won't be putting any mirrors up on this web site. There may be some delay though in posts as I have a number of code upgrades I want to implement.

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