It rained in Amsterdam last week. There was a 24-hour public transport strike. And something called LOTA stopped working in the elevators of the Mövenpick hotel.
Digital signage in elevators is all the rage nowadays. Where once there might have been peeling menus or faded posters extolling the virtues of long-closed bars, there are now displays trying to grab the attention of elevator passengers who want to get from one floor to another with minimal fuss.
We're not sure if LOTA decided to walk out in sympathy with the public transport workers. In fact, we're not one hundred percent sure what LOTA is, although AG Neovo is notable for its digital signage and video wall displays. "Future-proof, Reliable and Durable" are cited as reasons for using its wares, although we'd argue that a pop-up bleating about an app having a bad day means that at least one of those reasons is perhaps not the whole truth.
Still, using Android as the operating system seems a better choice than some of the examples of digital signage we've seen over the years. Compared to a Paris elevator running what would otherwise be a useful PC in order to sling ads at passengers, this Dutch hotel has opted for something lighter weight. Sure, Android has its own issues with bloat, but compared to Windows, it is positively featherweight.
The elevator didn't hang around long for us to find out what would happen if we jabbed the "Close app" link. At least, we think it was a link – the vagaries of modern interface design make it hard to tell these days (insert a picture here of an old man yelling at a cloud: "If it's a button, make it look like a button!") And, to be frank, we're not sure we'd want to go poking at a screen against which someone has doubtless laid a weary head.
It's bad enough seeing someone have a rummage in their nostrils before selecting a floor, or wondering exactly where that finger might have been before it was used to press a button.
Still, it is good to see an Android app reflecting the gloom of its surroundings. Cloud, rain, industrial action, and now even the software has given up and asked the user to end it all. ®