Why would anyone screw a handle onto a stone when every stone fulfils the function of a paperweight, doorstop, emergency hammer etc. anyway?
To lift the stone, 99% of all test subjects reach for the screwed-on handle; questions about temperature or surface quality can usually only be answered with the help of the second hand. The price for simplifying the action is a shortening of perception.
The reliability of the stone with handle experiment is astonishing: no matter how absurd the handle seems, test persons are inclined to use it for gripping wherever it appears. The question of why this is so can easily be answered with comfort, habit, etc.
In the context of behaviour-centred sustainability, the stone with handle triggers interesting questions regarding the effect of automatisms (in more complex product contexts):
What is the price of simplifications?
How often are people subject to (unnoticed) automatisms of behaviour?
How does the shortening of our perception influence our consciousness?
What effect do automatisms have on our behaviour?
Do casual everyday interactions also have an influence on mental transformation?
What is the relationship between quantity and quality of influence?
Where can we as product designers help to train mindfulness?
Mowing the lawn by hand brings satisfaction (especially in light of the knowledge of CO2 problems), cranking the coffee by hand does the same (even if it takes more time), the advantages of cycling over driving a car (not only in terms of CO2) are now considered state of the art on many levels. Contemplative breaks in everyday life are increasingly rare; they act as a catalyst for discovering the added value of deceleration, de-automation and de-machinisation.
If you don't keep sheep, have no experience of using a scythe, don't yet own a robotic lawnmower and don't like using cylinder lawnmowers, it's not uncommon to opt for an electric lawnmower. If this decision doesn't seem very ecological in many respects, we recommend using a green lawnmower cable so that you train your attention with every use of the electric lawnmower.
While Lucius Burckardt already pointed out the questionable nature of frictionlessness 30 years ago, we all know today, in the context of the well-known triptych of sustainability–wholeness–mindfulness, that our awareness of ecological behaviour benefits from mindfulness: Mindfulness is a competence that should be trained in the interest of ecological behaviour.
As modern people are trained to be careless in many situations - often without realising it - the product designer is interested in the question of where the boundary between safety and danger lies in order to meaningfully explore the scope of mindfulness training available on a daily basis. The design of ecological products includes mindfulness training. The added value of incidental mindfulness training through environmental design always raises the question of the areas/niches to which everyday training can be meaningfully extended.
Products can make this awareness tangible and usable in modern everyday life. Design can provide a starting point, can help overcome entry barriers, can counteract setbacks, and supports the development of a sufficient awareness.
Example 1
After several decades of shoe history, which followed yesterday's credo that shoes must protect and support in order to be useful at all, many shoe manufacturers and buyers are now using barefoot shoes based on the knowledge – familiar to every orthopaedist – that walking barefoot is the healthiest way to develop the feet and maintain orthopaedic health. This step from shoes as orthoses to barefoot shoes is a paradigm shift that began very hesitantly and is now almost taken for granted.
Example 2
In 1980, it was still customary to protect smokers from non-smokers. On the school bus, at work, in the pub, it was customary for smokers to have the freedom to smoke, and all other people who felt impaired by this had to submit. The idea that smokers should restrict themselves was considered completely absurd. It was not until 30 years later that non-smokers were protected from smokers, a situation that was neither desirable nor conceivable at the time - if only out of consideration for the tobacco industry.
Comparable imbalances between beneficiaries/polluters on the one hand and environmental costs on the other can be observed today in the context of sustainability. Economic interests, so-called customary rights and privileges hinder a reorganisation of the social and cultural framework. The world is changing and the immutability of existing orders is outdated.
Who hasn't seen the Deutsche Bahn sign that says »Please leave this room as you would like to find it«? Who has the time, materials and inclination, in return for using the toilet on public transport, to prepare it as you would have liked to find it ... in the best case scenario, you agree without comment on the lowest common denominator of removing all traces of use. What has happened? Why does the naturalness of leaving the toilet clean seem to have been lost? Even the request to name the toilet seems ineffective.
We are able to serve five nationalities linguistically and seem to be forced to deal with the consequences of automation on a case-by-case basis. Motion detectors, infrared switches etc. have established a degree of automation in everyday life that the well-intentioned suggestion (illustration: toilet in the new building of the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar) to install manual taps is damaged by the unwillingness/carefulness to close the tap manually after use. We may smile at the loss of the self-evident in this context, we may point to the availability of automated solutions, but the question still arises as to how we want to counter the inflation of traditional self-evident behaviour.
Competences need to be trained. If we practise understanding, practising and learning in small everyday tasks, then growth can take place. If you want something big, you should start small in order to get bigger/better in the process - that's how simple human beings work. Environments that cut off the little things prevent the starting shot, consecutive expansion and transfer. Who should be surprised if a lack of responsibility and consideration in larger social contexts leaves something to be desired?
What could a productised solution beyond automatic systems and signs look like?