Comments on: I tried telling you gently …

By: If gently doesn’t succeed, try loudly « How to Make Social Media Work

If gently doesn’t succeed, try loudly « How to Make Social Media Work — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:42:57 +0000

[...] 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment Inspired by Nathaneal Boehm I’ve been thinking about about implementing an alerting system that gradually gets louder. [...]

By: SlideShare_Dan

SlideShare_Dan — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:08:44 +0000

I like this idea, it’s hard to set an alerting system at the right “loudness” especially if that setting has to work for everyone.

By increasing incrementally you can sort of segment people a little while annoying the fewest possible.

By: Nathanael Boehm

Nathanael Boehm — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:30:24 +0000

I think it’s to make the elevator feel bigger so people don’t feel claustrophobic. But as with so many design decisions, it’s not that simple; adding mirrors has introduced other issues – such as the social awkwardness of not being able to avoid eye contact due to all the mirrors.

By: Steve Weller

Steve Weller — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:16:51 +0000

Another interesting observation about elevators is the use of mirrors. Why so many? They give people something to do while they are waiting and so reduce the appearance of the delay and any agitation caused thereof.

By: Tom Voirol

Tom Voirol — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:22:30 +0000

Great observations, Nat, and I think one that can guide us in the development of alerting systems into the apps we design.

I’ve done something similar in a manual fashion by fine-tuning my Growl notifications. The ones I only need to be aware of peripherally use a subtle display style and have sticky turned off while the ones likely to require my attention are the opposite.

On an unrelated note: can we please call a lift a lift and not americanise (or americanize, as it were) our language further?

By: Ivy Clark

Ivy Clark — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:12:32 +0000

Thankfully, elevators are more forgiving than people and don’t hold grudges! Do that to someone and they’ll slam the doors close before you get there next time. Lol.

By: Mo Kargas

Mo Kargas — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:02:50 +0000

The lesson I took home from this is the elevator, like people, have a decreasing level of tolerance to prodding and/or an attention span that diminishes rapidly by the second :)