We are dealing with placebo button, sometimes called an idiot button, everyday without noticing it. Pressing the road crossing traffic light button, the elevator door closed button, adjusting the notorious thermostat control in the office - are part of the placebo effect. So what are they really? Placebo buttons are the buttons or other mechanical parts that are not functional and they are there just to give the psychological comforting to people. According to the report, most of the yellow walk button at the traffic light for pedestrian are not functional anymore. However, people still have the tendency to press on it to let the traffic light control system know that they want to cross the street.
Most of the new traffic light control system have sensor now and there is no use for the walk button anymore. But the buttons are still there to make people feel in control, comfortable and familiar. Another example is the thermostat control in the office. Lots of offices have it disconnected to the central air system because it's easier to control from the back room rather having it everywhere in the office. There was a story about this office that has 20 women who constantly fight over the temperature in the room. They can't find a common temperature that makes everyone comfortable. So they keep adjusting the thermostat and hence start the office "thermostat war". The facility manager decide to install 20 thermostats which purposely NOT connecting to the central air system, hence called PLACEBO THERMOSTATS. And let the women adjust them to their own liking. Since the women in the office have the control over the thermostat individually they have thought that they can control the room temperature and soon the fight is over and everyone is so happy about it.
The same story goes with the closed button in the elevator. According to some elevator manufacturers, these buttons have delay preset in their systems. Therefore, whether you are holding it, pressing it, pushing it to wait for your friends, it will not work within the allowed delay time. People don't know it. Sometimes, we are pressing the closed button and the door closes or opens and we thought we did it but actually the door acts upon the preset delay timing, regardless of our action. These are also PLACEBO BUTTONS.
I've been reading a few articles about placebo buttons and learning that this unique feature actually can help to shape user's illusion of control .
You can find lots of these buttons in real life but can you find it in website design and other software application user experiences? Viivue will start learning and finding out about this unique feature and see if we can include it into our web design process and experiences. If you find anything interesting, please don't forget to share it with us and our readers. Until there, don't forget to press the Placebo walk button before you decide to cross the road.
