My group’s design intervention addresses separation and privacy in the courthouse. Landlords, tenants, lawyers and other visitors spend many hours anxiously waiting for their case to be called. They sit in waiting rooms, on benches and in the hallways alongside other visitors, and sometimes alongside their opposing party. This may add tension and awkwardness to an already stressful day.
Our intervention aims to address this issue by implementing dividers in the clerk’s waiting room and along the benches in the hallways. The divider in the waiting room will divide the chairs into two groups, allowing visitors to choose which side of the divider to sit on. The dividers on the benches will create small pockets along the benches that create a sense of privacy. People can choose to sit alone, can avoid sitting near their opposing party and may even chose to spark up conversations with other visitors.
While our intentions are good, it is also essential to to think about the implications of our design. The physical design must be something that is welcoming for people to use, aesthetically pleasing and sturdy. We started to think about what parts of the design may be operable for the user – possibly the curtain that proves separation on the benches. But is a curtain enough to look like a sophisticated design with enough noise privacy? This is something we have to consider. We also thought about the experience of using and touching something in a courthouse. Visitors are nervous enough as it is and they will be hesitant to move and touch the physical design. We want to make sure it is welcoming to use, but also sturdy enough to be used. We wouldn’t want someone breaking it and becoming more nervous and frantic because they broke something in a government building.
There are many other detail specific implications that our design intervention may have and we hope to consider and address them all - from color to material to the scale of the psychical design. We want a pop of color, but is red too harsh? What about blue? Blue is calming right? Curtains are cozy and welcoming but are they too light? Will they blow around? We want to make sure the dividers are above eye level, but we don’t want them to be overwhelmingly tall. What height is eye level at? How tall should the dividers be? These are all thoughts and questions that we have come across - not to mention many more. I am excited to test our final product!