environmental design

The Shelf

Anticipated Design

Even back when the world was open, I didn’t typically find myself in stadiums very often. I even less often purchase anything while I am there because I don’t typically want to spend $5.25 on a bottle of water. However, last year I went to the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit for a concert and forgot to bring an empty water bottle to fill. So, tail between my legs, I went up to purchase a new bottle of water. I begrudgingly handed over my card to purchase the bottle of liquid gold. As she placed the bottle on the counter I watched in surprise as she began to unscrew the cap from the top, throw it away and then hand me the exposed bottle. In my head I thought, “What the heck am I supposed to do with this? I gave you how much money and you can’t even give me my cap?”  But I just said “thank you” and went back to join my group. Of course, a group of six ladies is going to need to use the bathroom before heading to our seats and I started to realize my error of getting this drink before going to the bathroom. I began to strategize a plan of what to do with this exposed bottle in my hand. As I stood in line, I thought, Should I put it on the floor? Maybe on the back of the toilet or on top of the toilet paper rack? I was still debating what option was best as I walked into the first available stall.

I closed the door and started to look around for a safe spot to put my exposed bottle. I looked straight ahead and there above the toilet, embedded into the wall, was a little built-in shelf. It was too narrow to fit a purse or a bag and its tall frame seemed to have only one purpose. It was just right for a capless water bottle. Instantly, and with no hesitation, I quickly slid the open bottle into the little cubby that was so carefully designed and constructed, just waiting to snugly secure that for which it was made.

The Shelf

I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as we made our way to our seats to enjoy the show. Why did this design make me so relieved? My first response was, “that is good design”. The designer anticipated a need and created a space for that need. Every aspect of going to an arena is part of an overall experience. Providing solutions for even the smallest of needs is a part of making that experience successful, one that people will enjoy from the moment they enter the building to the moment they leave. My second reaction was more subtle and took longer to set in. “This design element adjusted my thoughts and taught me to accept a constraint”. I went into the bathroom frustrated because, as extreme as it sounds, something as little as not having the cap to my water bottle felt like a freedom was taken away from me. However, thanks to a carefully designed little shelf, I left the bathroom content with the compromise.

Of course, my few previous experiences at stadiums were not all tainted by someone taking away my bottle cap, but this particular experience reminded me of a unique benefit of design: designing for a purpose or need that the user may not even know of until they are presented with it. For whatever reason, bottle caps could not be given to the visitors, and the designer anticipated that void. Good design is designed with a purpose. If a design works well, it is typically because someone carefully thought out both the user and the use and knew the reason a design should exist in the first place. Because this experience was carefully curated for a very specific need, in some ways, it felt as though it was waiting there just for me. So, the next time I go to LCA and forget to bring my own bottle, I will go in knowing I don’t get to keep my cap, but at least they made me a shelf.

The One Where…We are Alone Together

After leaving work one afternoon, I passed another office building in the same complex and could not help but immediately stop the car to take a picture of what I saw through the tall storefront windows. It looked so lonely, almost eerie through that glass. There they were, two people, just feet apart from each other, separated by a floor and some walls, staring into the abyss of their computer screens. They were working together in the same building, yet they looked so very alone. The reality is that this view has become a standard of the typical office environment – a productivity space made up of walls, doors and borders. The glimpse through that window provided a different perspective of this common work space that so many of us are in together every day, yet can make us feel all alone both physically and mentally.

The more I thought about it, a particular episode of Friends came to mind. It was the episode in which Phoebe gets a job as a telemarketer to sell toner and the first number she dials turns out to be someone who hates his lonely life at work and wants to die. She rushes over to the company where this lonely man, Earl, works hoping to convince him to not kill himself. When she gets to him, she is able to talk to him and bring some perspective to his life outside of those cubicle walls in which no one even knows his name. Now while in true Hollywood style, this is perhaps a more exaggerated display of a bad office environment, but to a person in Earl’s shoes, that may not feel too far off.

A work environment can be a complicated space to design. There is so much to consider and each design can be a choice based on the priorities of the company. There are many benefits to a cubicle style office arrangement, such as improving productivity, helping to keep the mind focused and providing less distractions. With the priority of work efficiency, the cubicle has been considered a viable solution. Without taking into consideration the mental state of a person using that space, however, this environment could over time provide very different results. The idea of using a designed space to promote productivity shouldn’t outweigh the need for a sense of connection and belonging in a work environment. Lonely design can lead to lonely people. Someone could actually be contemplating taking their own life just three feet away from us and we may never know because of the impenetrable two inch plastic wall between us keeping us focused and productive in our own little worlds.

Passing by those office windows after a long day at work caused me to evaluate my own work environment and how I was connecting to not only my work, but the people around me. Life matters and how we design the spaces we are in every day should reassure that.