Thoughtless Acts for Thoughtful Effects

An examination of how humans interact with their environments

“In daily life we make interpretations about the stuff around us all the time- how it might work and what we can do with it. We develop an exquisite awareness of the possibilities and sensory qualities of different materials, forms, and textures. This awareness is evident from our actions, even when we are not conscious of them- these are our “thoughtless acts”.

— Jane Fulton Suri in Thoughtless Acts? Observations on Intuitive Design (p. 164)

Human beings are constantly in pursuit of a perfect world. We are constantly looking for ways to make our lives easier, and this reflects on the way we interact with our surroundings and environment. When inconveniences occur, we as humans adapt our surroundings to lessen the effects of them. Whether it’s permanently changing our environment to fit our needs, or coming up with quick fixes to deal with circumstances out of our control, humans instinctually interact with our environment in a way to fit our needs.

Jane Fulton Suri describes the concept of “thoughtless acts” as the way people react to the conditions of their environment and says it reveals the behavior of humans in a world that’s not perfectly tailored to their needs. The observation of these “thoughtless acts” can provide insight from a designer’s perspective into the opportunities for design solutions.

When conducting my own investigation into the concept of “thoughtless acts” in my own environment, I was struck by the frequency of which these thoughtless acts existed in my everyday world. I had never really paid much attention to how humans reacted to their environmental conditions. I almost always went about my day caught up in my own mind, but it wasn’t until I sat down and forced myself to notice things. I saw things as simple as leaving wet boots outside of a room, to turning an almost empty bottle of honey upside down, to leaning a bike up against a lamp post. All of these instances were simply glossed over in the past, but now I was able to see the deeper intentions behind these seemingly thoughtless actions.

When observing instances of “thoughtless acts” in the world around me, I noticed how most of them could be divided into two categories. People tended to fulfill immediate needs by coming up with quick fixes and adapt their environment to fit their needs, or they arranged their environment in a way that provided them with increased access anticipating future needs. Within these categories, I noticed that it was important to note the amount of control people had over the environment, whether they could change it to their liking in a private domain, or come up with temporary solutions in a public domain. Furthermore, I noted the imminence of the issues people reacted to, whether it was coming up with something on the spot to solve a current inconvenience, or anticipating one in the future and arranging the environment in a way to address it head on.

Adapting to Fit Current Needs

I noticed while conducting my visual research that humans are quick to come up with creative solutions with whatever is in their immediate surroundings to correct inconveniences. This category demonstrated temporary fixes, quick solutions to inconveniences that are of extenuating circumstances. When humans cannot control their environment in a way to permanently solve a problem immediately, they come up with quick solutions instinctually to mitigate their struggles.

Showertime These three pictures depict a typical shower routine in my sorority house. The shower doors in the house were placed backwards, so anyone outside the shower can completely see into the activities going on inside. To adapt to this, we typically throw a towel over it and secure it with hair clips. The second picture depicts a broken shower storage contraption, being held together with an elastic hair tie. The third picture demonstrates what we do in the showers that don’t have storage, shower caddies hung around the handle. All of these cases portrays the way we have to adapt our environment to fit our needs temporarily, due to our inability to permanently solve the solution. In this shower scenario, the users have no control over the fixing the state of the shower door and lack of storage, they have to make do to address their inconveniences by temporarily adapting their environment.

Adapting the environment through temporary fixes is often because humans don’t have complete control of their environment in a public domain. An immediate solution is necessary in order to complete a task, and something is hindering it that humans cannot control.

Making It Work In the example in the left, a wobbly table in a coffee shop is adapted by a folded piece of notebook paper to even it out. In the example on the right, a corded outlet is attached to the ceiling of a classroom, but is placed on the bar on the ceiling to move it out of the way of the projector. In both these scenarios, quick fixes are necessary because the humans don’t have the ability to buy a new not wobbly table, or move the entire outlet contraption. Because of this lack of control, people adapted the environment to mitigate their inconveniences for the time being.

Quick Solutions In the picture on the left, the person placed their water bottle on their mask to keep it from flying away. In the picture on the right, the person used strips of fabric they had on hand to keep a power strip in place after command strips failed. These scenarios both describe the way human beings react to inconveniences requiring an immediate solution: to keep a mask from flying away and a power strip to be held in a certain place for easy access.

Life often creates circumstances that humans have no control over, we can only do our best to handle it with the resources that we have on hand. Whether it’s placing a bottle to keep a mask from flying away on a windy day, or placing a sign over a coffee machine to keep people from drinking during a boil water notice, we can’t always dictate what happens and instead are left to deal with the effects.

These Boots are Made for Walking The leftmost example depicts a pair of rainboots on a rainy day placed in the hallway to keep from dampening the carpet inside the room, but placed in a way that is out of the way for people to continue using the hallway. The example on the right showcases a heeled foot that does not fit properly, so string is tied around the ankle to keep the strap from slipping off the foot. Neither of these user’s had control over the weather or the fit of a borrowed shoe, but adapted it in a way that allowed them to keep from inconveniencing themselves too much.

Quick Problem-Solving In these set of photos, people make do with what’s in their environment to solve an issue. In the first picture, to see if the ventilation is working properly, people attached strips of toilet paper to see whether or not the air conditioning is blowing. The second picture showcases a bunch of t-shirts stuffed into a pillowcase that has the wrong sized insert to fit properly. The third demonstrates a solution for dry erase markers that have magnets that aren’t working, they are placed on the molding to keep it out of the way but also easy to use. All of these situations took what was in the environment around them to come up with a solution.

Essentially, the category of adapting encompasses a range of “thoughtless acts” that are simply reducing the effects of inconveniences people face. All of the instances examined in this category described situations where people had little to no control over the environment, and needed to come up with a bandaid to put over the problem. The examples also portrayed situations in need of immediate solutions. With more time, it is possible to create or purchase something that is substantial enough to solve the problem in the long run.

Increasing Access for Future Needs

When humans do have control over their environment in a private domain, they arrange it in a way that provides them with ease for inconveniences they may anticipate experiencing in the future. When we are in control of our own space, we place things in a way that will help us in the future and potentially avoid even experiencing any inconveniences. I noticed this trend quite a bit when observing people’s thoughtless acts and habits: people focus on ensuring they have easy access to things to make their tasks easier to complete.

Grab ‘n Go The picture on the left showcases a hand towel stuck in a drawer handle. The picture on the right shows two hats stored on hooks on a wall. Both of these pictures demonstrate people arranging their environment in a way that allows them easier access. The hand towel is placed in the drawer handle so it can be quickly grabbed and used when in need, and the hats are placed on the wall to avoid being misplaced. Both of these situations anticipate and address a need in the future.

Easy Access In the picture on the left, a trash can designated for menstrual products is placed in between two stalls due to one of them not having an area to dispose menstrual products. The picture on the right portrays a water bottle being placed right next to the sink in order to serve as a visual reminder not to use the water during a boil water notice. Both of these situations anticipate a need in the future and allowed people the opportunity to arrange the surroundings in a way that increases access.

Increasing access in the surroundings demonstrates a certain level of control that a person has over the environment due to it being a more private domain. People anticipate an issue in the future and address it by changing the environment right now.

Handy In the first picture, someone looped their keys to a bracelet that is on their wrist to avoid losing them and providing them with easy access in case their hands are full when they get home. The second picture showcases a system of easy access to packages, when a package is received it is placed on a coffee table in the foyer so people can grab their’s and it doesn’t get lost. Both of these situations anticipate difficulty in carrying out a task, and react to the possibility of that by coming up with a solution beforehand.

Inconveniences are very common in everyday life, but when humans have more control over their surroundings and environment, it often lessens the frequency of said inconveniences. People anticipate issues occurring and therefore set up their environment in a way that makes it easier to avoid them.

In the situation on the left, people anticipated an obstruction of the walkway and therefore discarded the scooters off to the side of the sidewalk. In the middle, people anticipated the loss of the towel on the dry erase board and stuck a magnet onto it to keep it in place while using. On the right, people kept their spices and seasonings on a ledge underneath their cabinets so they could easily access it while cooking, rather than rooting around in the cabinets and burning their food. In both of these situations, inconveniences that hadn’t occurred yet were expected and solved in environments where humans had the control to do so.

Access Granted All of these scenarios provide an opportunity for easier access to the things needed to complete a task. On the left, the person hung their keys on a jewelry organizer on their desk so as to avoid losing them. In the middle, the person loops their hair tie on the prongs of the clip so as to have one in case they need to put their hair up in the future. The right depicts a chair covered in clothes that the person wishes to wear again in the future placed there for easier access and to avoid it getting mixed up with completely clean clothes.

Essentially, when people have more control over their environments, they are able to arrange it in a way that allows for lessened inconveniences. The inconveniences are expected and anticipated, not immediately occurring, therefore allowing an examination of “thoughtless acts” that aren’t simply reacting to the environment, but rather planning for it. The examples mentioned in this category explore the tendency of humans to interact with their environment to increase access to things needed to complete a task in a private domain, while also portraying anticipation of inconveniences in the future.

So, what does this all mean?

While “thoughtless acts” are referred to as “thoughtless”, they are not completely so. All of the actions exemplified in this essay were based on instinct, the person didn’t really have to think about what they were doing, but that doesn’t mean that the impact of these actions was thoughtless.

It is human nature to modify an environment to fit our needs. The natural tendency is to avoid inconveniences depending on the imminence of them and amount of control we have over them. When we lack total control over an environment and a problem needs a solution immediately, we tend to create quick solutions with whatever resources we have access to to lessen the effects of the inconvenience. When we have more control over an environment, we are able to arrange it in a way that fits our needs to avoid inconveniences in the future.

This boils down to two main realms of “thoughtless acts”: adaptability, which is coming up with quick fixes for an imminent problem, and accessibility, which is increasing access to things in our environment and arranging them in the way we need so as to avoid future problems.

Essentially, things used in unintended ways which is all of these “thoughtless acts” indicates a need for a solution. It presents an opportunity for designers to create substantial solutions through observing the way people interact with their environments. At the end of the day, design solutions are all about the people. It’s about how people deal with life and the world around them. In order to make the world a better place, we have to observe humans to identify inconveniences, observe behavior, and design solutions to mitigate problems.