People baffled over 'stupid' order of buttons in new apartment elevator

31 January 2024 , 10:50

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Can you decipher these elevator numbers? (Image: mildlyinfuriating/Reddit)

The world is a crowded place and for many their home is somewhere inside an apartment block, which means they most likely use an elevator on a daily basis. This concept seems simple enough - press the floor number your residence is on and up you go.

But one person was left completely befuddled after a new elevator was installed inside their building. Using a Reddit post to share their confusion, they simply stated: "In my building’s brand new elevator." Underneath was a photo of the lift's complex network of floor buttons.

For starters, there are huge amount of buttons arranged in seven rows of six columns, indicating that this is a big building with lots of potentially frustrated residents using the elevator. The confusion begins straight away due the floor numbers reading from right to left - in a Western culture that instinctively reads from left to right.

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More head-scratching is saved for the top floor when the number order suddenly reverses back the other way around. Although this is the way every row of numbers should have been listed in the first place, the inconsistency of the overall layout is prone to induce confusion.

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The post attracted hundreds of responses in only two days with many amazed at the lack of thought that went into the elevator. One wrote: "Not a good idea, at least not without reprogramming the elevator at the same time. Imagine pressing floor 16 and then arriving at 38. Would be stuck there for ages."

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Another pleaded: "Oh my lord, if it’s going to be backwards at least make it all backwards," while one user suggested that it could even cause a safety issue: "Someone screwed up the top row of buttons and didn't take the time to fix it. If you look around, there should be a number for the elevator company and possibly for the elevator inspector. You could make an anonymous call questioning the safety of an obviously miswired elevator."

Questions on whether or not the elevator was really in an Asian country - where they read right to left - were asked but the original poster replied and confirmed it was a building in the US. While a few people seemed to in fact enjoy the unusual numbering, as one wrote: "I have to say I quite like it," and another said: "I love this. Makes a dreary, everyday thing interesting. But one person summed up the overall feeling and ranted: "I’d take the stairs because that is b*****t."

Steven White