Saturday 15 February 2020

No more comfort breaks

I was musing the other day about 'off the wall' inventions that might do good for the wrong reasons - or were designed to solve a problem that no-one knew existed.

My starting point was some old news (2019) that a UK firm had designed a toilet that was specifically designed to be uncomfortable - it has a 13 degree slope.  The point is to discourage people in certain environments (workplaces, restaurants, etc) from staying too long.

(The firm is already in talks with local councils and motorway service station operators.)

Can you think of other examples of such attempts to shape behaviour?

I thought of certain music played in bars and restaurants which has me running from the place - but that's because I am not their target customer - I don't believe in paying for overpriced drinks because the decor is 'trendy'.

Keep your eyes and ears open and look for other examples. It might help you with insights into what your firm could do to improve performance - after all real innovation often breaks existing rules and conventions.

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