Creatures of Habits

During class last Wednesday while listening to the presenters and their bathroom designs, Dr. Fawson asked the question, "Why do you think your design ideas have not been already implemented?" It was a question I had never really thought about before. I thought of all the great ideas that we as a group had come up with as well as each of the presenters in class that day and wondered why it is that bathrooms haven't already become as good as we thought they could be. This is my answer:

According to psychologists, humans are "creatures of habits." Surprisingly, habits help us survive. In the words of Ian Newby-Clark, "When we are doing something that is habitual, we are not engaged in the task in the same way as when we are doing something that is not habitual." He says that the things we do out of habit are actually easier because our brains are programmed to do them effectively with less concentration. Everything we do, "out of habit" is literally "easier" to perform because it takes less brain activity. This is good for all the little habits that we need for our survival like eating and personal hygiene. It is not good, however, when we fall into habits just because we are lazy. Some things require our full attention in order to be performed well, and design is definitely one of those tasks. I believe one of the main reasons our ideas for bathroom designs are not implemented in public buildings is because the designers tend to fall into habits of how a "normal" building is designed and they find it hard to break that habit and try something more unique. They have found something that they feel is functional and cost efficient and have formed a habit of designing each bathroom in a similar fashion.

I believe design thinking is contingent upon our ability to break the habits of doing those things perceived as "normal" and putting forth the effort to turn what some may consider "eccentric ideas" into realities. Our quality of design depends upon our ability to break habits and vary from the norm in order to create things that have never been seen before, but which are functional an interesting to its users.

Cason Wortley