Can we get more people to choose the stairs by making it fun to do? That was a question recently asked when The Fun Theory Project was trying to figure out a way to encourage people to take the stairs instead of the escalator.
People are living increasingly sedentary lives, and one way to encourage more exercise is to use the stairs instead of escalators or elevators.
Vehicle maker Volkswagen took the initiative and decided to work with the public transportation system in Odenplan, Stockholm, which has a high traffic of people throughout the day. People exiting the metro station have two options. They can take the escalator or take the stairs.
Volkswagen got a group of people to transform the staircase with electric panels that looked like the keys on a piano.
Then they put up a camera to see what would happen. The curious looking “piano stairs” immediately drew people’s attention. And when they stepped on them and heard the notes? Well, people’s inner kid comes out.
By injecting a little bit of fun into scaling the stairs, the metro saw an increase of 66% more people than normal chose the stairs over the escalator.
The piano stairs was part of a “fun theory” challenge to come up with clever solutions to change people’s behavior for the better.
Now they just have to do something like this in every metro station!
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