Pamela's posterous
Human-To-Human Experiment, Take 2
Based on the issues we encountered during our first attempt, we decided to redesign our project. For our new concept, we simplified our original idea and also considering contextual factors such as the amount of people in the Lang courtyard, as well as the behavior of students walking through the courtyard (generally in a hurry and without paying much attention to our surroundings). We printed out new signs, which read "This door is locked." We then did some preliminary research by documenting people as they walked through the doorway, both into and out of the courtyard, and noting which of the two doors people tended to choose. We determined that people walking in either direction generally used the door on their right side.
For the first phase of our experiment, we hung one sign on the right-side door leading out of the courtyard, and one sign on the right-side door leading into the courtyard. We wanted to see whether the signs would influence people to select the door that did not have the sign. In many cases people did read the signs and switch to using the left-side doors. One woman even walked up to the doors and read the signs, looked around in bewilderment and then started to walk away, thinking that both doors were locked.
We then changed around the positioning of the signs, with similar results. Our results were most consistent when the courtyard was quiet because then people generally approached the doorway individually, allowing them to choose which door to use rather than simply using whichever door was already partially open or was not being used by a person walking through the doorway in the other direction. This project was much more effective than our first attempt, which could probably be attributed to the simplicity of our new signs and also the fact that our new project was far more tailored to the environment in which it was executed.
OUR INITIAL HUMAN-TO-HUMAN INTERACTION EXPERIMENT
The first experiment consists of two signs, in which one states, “Use this door if you are in favor of the healthcare reform” and the other states, “Use this door if you are against healthcare.” Currently, the healthcare reform has been the top topic within media and politics and due to the fact that it affects everyone living in the United States, we figured this would be a topic that would catch our audience’s attention. Acknowledging that Lang students are known to be extreme liberalists, the expectation was that students would be responsive to the experiment by choosing what they believed.
We were situated in the Lang Courtyard on 11th and 12th street between 5th and 6th avenue. This is where students and faculty pass on their way to class, or to have a cigarette break. Since this area is busy, we assumed it would be a perfect place to set up our experiment.
We placed two signs on two doors (on posted on the left, and the other on the right door), which is the entrance from the courtyard into the 11th street building. These doors also led to the cafeteria, therefore many would encounter the two signs and would have to respond to the pressure of others watching.
Originally, we started with 8x10 signs however students overlooked the signs; therefore we made the signs larger. And it actually made a difference, we had one student about to pull open the left handle bar then immediately switch handles. However, majority of the students weren’t as responsive.
Unfortunately, students aren’t exactly interested within the healthcare reform, since this is usually a worry of someone who is independent or a parent. Therefore demographically and also because of how busy the location is, this isn’t the right topic for this setting.
