Making Staircases More Fun to Use | Volkswagen's Theory of Fun at Schema : more than ethnic

Making Staircases More Fun to Use | Volkswagen's Theory of Fun

Living in Hong Kong

I found this post from a blogger in Hong Kong. Elmer Cagape's blog Living in Hong Kong is all about what it's like to live in the hustle and bustle of a "city that never sleeps" and contains other intriguing tid bits that you can read up on by visiting his site. For now, I'd like to share this cute little blog about Volkswagen's initiative to "Step Your Way to Health," with the help of some musical inspiration.

Another shot at MTR stations and places where staircases are placed in parallel with each other. Have you noticed that even when escalators are a bit out of the way on MTR stations, people usually won't mind getting that extra step just to be able to use them? The obvious reason is that escalators require less effort for passengers to get to the upper floor.

The MTR has posted the "Step Your Way To Health" as an incentive to people who ditch escalators and take the stairs. Yet, people can take the escalator and walk and end up at the MTR turnstile or favorite Midlevels dining place faster.

So how do we get people to use the staircase instead of the escalator? Make the steps resemble as piano keys so that every step you make, a sound will be produced. With the rush hour crowd, and many people rush to use both escalators and staircases I bet the piano tune's gonna be like the Flight of the Bumblebee.

Here's how Volkswagen did it in Stockholm, Sweden.

"To encourage people to take the staircase instead of the escalator, Volkswagen converted a set of steps at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm into working piano keys. The effort is just one stunt that appears on the carmaker's Rolighetsteorin.se or "Theory of Fun" website, which showcases efforts to get people to change by simply making things more fun."—Posted on The Fire Wire

Sources:

Living in Hong Kong

Creativity Online