Being a new building, it smells all clean and fresh. High ceiling, open space, bright lights, cold marbled walls, minimalistic and clinical-look concierge and seating area. This is how new commercial buildings look like.
Security is tight.
You have to exchange your personal identification card or passport for a pass which will allows you entry through the turnstile. Not only that, the pass only allows you to go to the specific level of the company you are visiting.
As I was there for an event, the passes were already prepared in advance.
There was a name list and a stack of passes. The concierge checked my name and wrote the pass number next to it before handing it over to me.
A lift just opened as I tapped the pass on the turnstile to enter the lift lobby.
For a high building with many levels, different lifts are programmed to serve different floors instead of stopping at every floor so it's much faster and efficient.
I did a quick glance to make sure the lift I'm taking stops at the level I'm going to and quickly ran and entered the lift after a lady.
After I entered, I realized there's no lift button panel in the lift.
I asked the lady if this lift goes to level 16 and she replied yes.
The lift opened at 9th floor and she walked out.
I continued my journey to level 16 without giving much thought to what just happened.
After the event, while waiting for the lift with another lady, I realized there's something different about the lift.
There is a lift button panel on the outside of the lift.
There is a rectangular screen with the word "Flash Card" lighted up followed number buttons from 0 to 9 like what you see in mobile phone minus the * and # signs below. Right at the bottom is another rectangular screen with a picture of a hand holding a card and a small lighted bulb.
Due to line of sight and brightness from the words, I saw the upper screen and totally blinded to the lower screen.
So I did what the lady did by placing my pass on the screen.
Nothing happened.
That's when I saw the lower screen and realized how stupid I was.
I flashed the card and thought I just needed to wait for the lift.
The upper screen flashed "Invalid Floor."
I flashed my card again and still the same error message appeared.
Two man from another company came out and saw what happened.
One of them said, "You need to press 1."
That's when I began to remember that there's no lift button panel inside the lift.
To use the lift, you need to flash your pass on the lower screen and press the level that you want to go to.
If you want to go to level 15, you press the button 1 and 5. If you want to go level 26, you press button 2 and 6.
This means that they do not need to customize the lift button panel for different lifts that goes to different levels. So you won't find double digits lift buttons on the lift button panels.
And it turned out that the lift system is smart enough that to be able to assign a particular lift to you when you tap on the turnstile to enter the lift lobby. The number actually appears on the screen when you tap your pass on the turnstile. They call it load management.
I might have seen it but couldn't understand what the number means or I might have missed it totally.
Now that I know how the lift works, I wouldn't be making the same mistakes I made.
Perhaps the concierge could help by asking "Is this your first time here?" and provide some helpful information.
But I may be the only stupid one who do not know how it works.