Nudging Us in Buildings

One of the nudges discussed in Nudge was something I've never thought about before - nudges in buildings. 

I'm sure this is "Good Building Design 101" for architects, but since I've never taken an architect class before, I found the idea quite interesting.  

So, I started paying attention, and asking "How are buildings designed to nudge us to do a certain things?"  

One of the first things I realized was bathroom locations.  Whenever I needed to use one, I always found myself needing to walk somewhere.  While walking, I'd run into a friend.  I'd remember to send that email to that professor as I walked by their door.  Overall, the need to walk to the nearest bathroom always seemed to provoke some level of interaction.  

Another came up while walking through Jabs, this time with eyes open and looking for the small nudges.  One thing I had noticed before but never thought about were the vending machines -- they are tucked away, almost hidden, by the emergency stairs, as far away from Sola Cafe as possible.  Had they been more accessible, how many sales would Sola loose to the cheaper vending machines?  It was a nudge to buy Sola.  

Then I did some quick Googling and came across this (an obvious nudge, but nonetheless):

How cool is that?  It's like a little nudge coach reminding you of why you should take the stairs!  Can't help but feel we need more of these types of nudges in our buildings.

If anything, I'll be keeping my eyes much more open over as I explore new and old areas. It certainly is interesting to think about how much thought is put into something as simple as where to put the bulletin board or where to put the bathrooms.  It never ceases to amaze me how much thought is put into the small things we often overlook - from building layouts to advertisements.  People are crazy. 

Don't know about you, but it makes me even more excited to build my own house someday ^_^