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Where's my home? No idea but this world feels like a cool place to call home.
Unfocused postings on whatever catches my attention, makes me think or demands that I point and shoot.

 

Effort Based Design

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I was just thinking how I went from a 12th floor bedroom to seat 1C on a Virgin America flight heading back to SF without exerting myself at all. Not one minute of physical activity - opening the door of my room, pressing for the elevator, walking a few paces to a waiting car, exiting the car and heading to the flight. Nothing but a few walking steps. 

I then considered the challenge with world health - especially the fact that there are more obese people in the world than starving - and started to question, are we designing our world to the point where it's killing us?

When you look at the design of things, there appears to be two driving forces: make stuff that's aesthetically appealing and stuff that makes our life easier. I'm sure I'm over simplifying the principles of design here and Sam or Brian - you can put me straight here - but look around you. Escalators replace stairs, touch screens replace pressing keys, wheelie bags replace carrying the weight of your clothes and probably one of the coolest but most extreme in physical inactivity is the button press trunk closer - no more reaching up, which is a good stretch, and pulling the trunk door down with some force. Oh no, that's asking too much of us. Let's make it electric. 

I'm not suggesting that all this design is bad but maybe we should start a new design theory around forcing physical activity, so that through our actions in any given day, we achieve a good level of physical assertion and maybe even some calorie burning. 

So let's consider my trip from 1201 to 1C and see whether we can create physical activity in this journey. Of course it would be ridiculous to add inconvenience to this challenge, so the idea of forcing the elevator to go one floor below my desired destination to force me to take the steps up one floor can't count. There are some architects who are designing to this theory already, which is a good sign. Okay, so I'm ready to leave my room and there's a significant resistance on the door opener that forces me to assert a downward pressure to open the door. The elevator button has been replaced with a bell ringing type rope, which you pull down to call the elevator. The elevator floor isn't flat - it's at a 30 degree angle forcing you to stand with some pressure and balance control. I get out of the elevator and head to the reception desk, which is very low forcing me to perform a good bend as I sign my bill. I then head to the car and jump in after putting my bag in the back and pulling the trunk door down - old school. Trip to the airport is straight forward - no peddling required. I get to the airport and all cabs are forced to drop off at the arrivals level and escalators have been replaced with stairs to get you to departures...

I'm no designer as you can tell from my example but I bet good designers could create a workout approach to daily routines that would result in a healthier world. I'm not suggesting that design should focus on making our flow through life harder, I'm just saying that a design theory around physical assertion could be an interesting way to go.  

To conclude, you might argue that people wouldn't react well to this idea but in researching my theory, I found this interesting example of the power of simply telling people that taking stairs can help them get fit.   


In one experiment conducted by the NY Department of Health and the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation, simply posting a sign at a housing project in the South Bronx (“Burn Calories, Not Electricity – Take the Stairs”) led to a 42 percent increase in stair walking over nine months. 

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