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Comment by gyf304 | Hacker News Reader

The crosswalk button my city uses has an LED that illuminates if the button was pressed before. It’s a great UX improvement over the ones without the LED.

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I never remember if the light means "button pressed" or "here is the button come press it" like on a taxi.

You don't just press the button and see what happens?

That's the point. Adding the LED does very little to help the user understand the state. In the end, you'll just push the button anyway to make sure.

In the UK, where this kind of behaviour is the default, we just learn it from a young age, possibly at school.

If the indicator light is on, the OP presses the button, and that same indicator light remains illuminated: What did we learn?

It could still be a, “hey, press the button” light. Or it could be a “button already pressed” light

That's true if you only ever press one light. You can still learn the pattern in a given area with experimentation (assuming most lights work the same). I know, for example, that lights in LA indicate that it's already pressed, but would have to experiment in a new city.

Ah, that's pretty important context that is missing from the article! These have been universal in the UK for as long as I can remember.

yes I've noticed them in my city getting much better, they light up and say "wait" when you press them... newer ones are even becoming contactless so you can wave your hand in front of them

Melbourne has this in at most crossings.

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