Encouraging Stair Use : How to Motivate People to Choose Stairs Over the Elevator?

Physical inactivity is a growing concern, especially at universities, where students and employees tend to spend the majority of their day sitting. It can have negative effects on health, from increasing the risk of chronic diseases to deterioration of mental well-being. A simple and accessible way of tackling this issue is to encourage stair use, as taking the stairs is a significantly healthier option than using the elevator. Unlike standing still in an elevator, stair-climbing requires physical activity, which is beneficial for health. This research aimed to design an interactive installation that motivates people to take the stairs. It examined the different types of motivation that make people act, techniques of influencing behaviour with design, and existing interventions. Ultimately, it focused on fostering intrinsic motivation, which was found to be the most promising way of encouraging stair use. The chosen concept, Digital Garden, was an installation which visually responded to people taking the stairs. It reacted to the user’s location, spawning sprouts in a virtual garden when the users began climbing the stairs and transforming the sprouts into full plants when the users reached the top. The garden visualization was displayed on two screens placed next to the staircase. This concept aimed to foster intrinsic motivation by making the stair-climbing experience more interesting and enjoyable. The installation was evaluated through usability testing and a controlled experiment, which involved twenty participants who climbed the stairs under two conditions, once with and once without the installation. A questionnaire, behavioural measure, and interviews were used to collect data and asses the product’s impact on the stair-climbing experience and intrinsic motivation. The findings showed a significant increase in interest and enjoyment of climbing the stairs with the installation, as well as a higher likelihood of participants choosing to take the stairs again. The results also indicated the installation’s success in targeting intrinsic motivation. Despite these promising findings, further research is needed to assess the installation’s true impact on users in a real-world environment. Longitudinal studies should also be conducted to evaluate its long-term effects. Nevertheless, the results indicated that the Digital Garden has great potential to encourage stair use, making it a promising approach for universities wanting to increase the well-being of their students and employees.