Well actually Soquili won. Second place (from the two of you goes to John.

The idea behind this was to see what designers think of a plain design.
The site I referred this "challenge" deals with designing interfaces and commercials.
There was an article regarding this life panel.
When the director asked the designer's portfolio he recieved about 30 examples of various designs.
Most of which were more artistic than useful. Not because they didn't know how to do a simple panel but because they didn't think it was "fascinating" enought for a portfolio.

So in conclusion given there, design must be simple and effective. Spiral button design will get you lost in the floors