Visual elements play an important role in my research. To get people to behave in a certain way in a (semi-)public environment you’ll need to add visual cues/directions.
These cues can subtly steer passers-by in a direction, for example by drawing attention to a certain object. For example, a passer-by can be subtly encouraged to display certain (desired) behaviour. This is also referred to as “nudging”.
An example of this is a project by Hivos, in which lines are taped on the floor that encourage people to take the stairs instead of the lift.
Currenlty (during the Corona / COVID-19 crisis / pandemic) we see these ‘nudges’ being used to help people keep enough distance from each other.
(In the Netherlands it is suggested that we keep a distance of one and a half metres)
In my research I normally mainly deal with interactive environments in which an important component is social interaction. That is of course not the intention under the current circumstances. As a result, some research activities have been temporarily paused.
This gives me the opportunity to collect examples and hopefully derive “best practices” from them if there is sufficient input. In addition, it provides input for my research in order to learn more about the use of visual cues for controlling behavior in a public context.
I’ve set up 1meter50.nl as a platform to collect and share distancing-nudges.
