hinT
A table in public space that triggers the deepest desire, making it irresistible to place the object back where it belongs.
How might we make customers in the cafe to automatically put free things like milk and sugar back to where it belongs?
Problems: Having no clear instructions, the dressing table in the cafe would probably end up looking messy, however, having a sign for it to make a rule seems a bit abrupt and sometimes, people just don’t read it. How can we make the dressing table speaks a rule for itself, and turn putting things back into an intuitive behavior?
Solution: A table that has a special shape to trigger people’s intuition; further to nudge people’s behavior.
Scope: 10 Weeks
Categories: Product Design
Role: Solo project. Ideation, prototyping, user research, problem definition, and Industrial Design.
Tools: Alias, Cinema 4D, Illustrator, Photoshop
tracing back
When we see the dent on the chair, we know it is shaped by a butt. It's our human intuition to trace things back by matching similar shapes.
Observation
Spending weeks in a cafe, I noticed that people rarely put free things back where it belongs. This unavoidably caused a domino effect, in which case, the second person who used the free objects either randomly placed the items in a new place, or placed it back where the items were originally taken which was also the wrong place left by the first person.
So how might we make people put "free things" back in their proper place after use?
Hypotheses
People need a hint to remind them to put things back, and that hint needs to be so obvious that it shows exactly where those objects were supposed to be.
Research
According to the Internet, reasons of why people don’t put things away include: They don’t know where it goes, They don’t know if I want to keep it, and It’s a habit.
“Creating homes for items is one of the basic organizing skills. Sometimes you may need to create a home for things that are waiting for decisions. Then they can go in the “need to decide” file. If it’s too hard to put something away, especially something you use a lot, make it easier. Move it to a more convenient place or make a bit more room for it in the drawer. We all know that some things are just going to be hard to put away, so just make sure those are the things you don’t use very often, like the turkey platter. A common reason files don’t get put away is because the file cabinet is too full, or there is no folder for your category.“
An article titled: “ Develop The Discipline of Putting Things Away” also mentioned: “Why develop the discipline of putting things away? Each time we leave things out, we avoid making decisions. Narrowing options for our next task. Allowing ourselves to be distracted by something more fun than putting things away means we move on without recognizing a task is as complete as it can be at this time.”
(Resources are linked above)
User Journey
narrowing in on a problem
Insight & ideation
Keywords: HINT, DESTINATION, HOME, DISTRACTED, FUN, INSTINCT, PROMINENT
CREATE FOOTPRINTS
When one steps into the sand, it leaves footprints, footprints are not only a mark, but also a memory. It documents every moment we spend on the beach. As we look back, we know where we came from.
If objects have footprints, people will know where to put things back.
HUMAN INSTINCT
Tracing and sizing are our inborn intuitions, we equipped these skills while we were a child. How many times did you match something with other things that have a similar shape?
Ta-da!
Here’s the product
persona 01
STORYBOARD
persona 02
Storyboard
Prototype
