Assignment 0 (2nd Bad Design)

A Unique Seat

• Users’ Reaction
  
  • User’s Feelings:
  
  
   This happens in when I was waiting for the MRT train a few months back. A gentleman’s gestures caught my attention. He was sitting on a seat, “slipping” or “sliding” off from the seat once a while, and getting back to his seat again. I was quite surprised by his movement & continued observing his actions. (He-he, it’s my nature to find out the reason behind anything that fancies me.)
   Not long after, a middle-age lady sat down on the seat, from the gestures that she had made, I realized that she also has difficulty to “stay put” on the seat.
  
  • Lesson Learnt:
  
   After a few tries of “sliding” off and getting back to the seat, finally, both passengers gave up on it.
  
  • Impression on the brand:
  
   I assume that he does not have the “full sensation” from using this product. I think that they would rather stand on feet rather than to “challenge” this seat. I made this comment because they would rather remain standing even though the next train will only be arriving in 4-5 minutes.
  

My Reflections

Out of curiosity, I approached the seat to have a clearer look at the seat. To my astonishment, I found out that the seat’s surface is slanting downwards and the surface of the seat is very “smooth & slippery”. I begin to “challenge” the seat.

Wow! Although my feet are able to touch the ground when I was on the seat, I was still counterattacked by the seat – “Slipping & sliding”. It is then that I understand those passengers’ difficulties. After a few minutes of observations, I realized that no one is sitting on this type of seat. I presumed that all of them have faced the same problem too. A look down the platform, one is able to see that all the seats, of the same type, are left empty. Passengers can be seen waiting for the train without taking a seat. This is quite an unusual sight. Thus, I feel that this type of seats does not serve its purpose even though it looks special in the design.



I did approach my friends & relatives to ask if they have found the same difficulty when taking the train. Most of them gave the answer that I have expected while there are others whom commented that this type of seat is not for seating, but for people to lean on it. But to me, the height of this “seat” is quite high for anyone to lean on it, if not, for me, I would not think for leaning on it where sitting on it is more comfortable.

The suggestion that I thought of is to replace the surface of the seat to a flat one, rather than a slanted position. This will prevent anyone from “sliding” off from the seat.

Actually, I have difficulty finding this seat recently as most of them have been replaced. I think the reason is that the staff of the company has also realized that this type of seat is not feasible. But I am still determined to find them as I feel that this really affects everyone, and also that, this is a very, very special design to me. He-he! Finally, I am able to find it in one of the stations just yesterday. Maybe, next time when anyone takes the train, one can keep a look-out for this type of seat, if one can still finds it, and have a try on it. It’s really “fun”. He-he!