When I was a kid, public benches were wooden.
Stick with me on this... Ornate Victorian benches pompously placed adjacent to Brutalist planks fashioned into benches.
Now benches are metal.
More durable, yes.
But totally useless.
In this heat (written in the middle of the UK's 37th consecutive heatwave, when two-thirds of the country is in drought), you can't get some much-needed respite after a standard walk to anywhere, as the benches are too hot to sit on.
Global warming means this winter may also be very wet.
So, waiting for a bus or a train or taking a pitstop to wring out your socks will be impossible as the water collects on top of the bench, meaning sitting on it will make you even more wet in very uncomfortable places.
And what if we get more than a light dusting of snow? The benches will be cold enough to give you piles.
If I were to take a hammer to a metal bench, the whole thing would need replacing, meaning that if the optimum conditions for sitting on a metal bench were happened during the period of molding new seating, there would be no bench at all.
Wooden benches absorb moisture and temperature.
Also, should they be vandalised or give way to nature, only those particular slats need replacing. And while they were being sawn, you could still sit - albeit uncomfortably - on the bench.
The benches no longer function as benches.
What's worse, we can't call them public furniture; furniture has a use.
Nor can we call them public ornaments, as they have zero aesthetic value.
They weren't designed for function or delight. They were designed to save money.
In 1982, social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling came up with the Broken Windows Theory
This is largely to do with criminology and the idea that areas of neglect and disrepair encourage anti-social behaviour.
But I would like to add to that with Useless Bench Theory.
We live in a society that's had enshittification forced on us by a drive to maximise profit at the expense of a product people need to function.
As a result, everything is now a bit Nigel Farage, ugly and useless.
Trains and the stations used to be pleasant places to frequent, all hanging baskets, ornate clocks and comfortable seating.
Now they're replaced with clinical coloured walls, chaotic concourses and metal benches - they're not pleasant places to be, even if they ran on time and were reasonably priced.
Every website is like wading through treacle to get anything done - meaningless articles, cumbersome logins, hidden phone numbers, scripted chatbots, misleading CTAs.
The enshittification is a problem in itself.
But I'm more concerned with the society it's breeding.
If all our buildings, from homes to lamposts are very low-grade basic design and don't even function very well, what does that tell us about how much we're valued; as consumers and as citizens.
If the council are happy to sign off a shopping centre that does just enough to be called a shopping centre but doesn't have the right facilities or infrastructure to give shoppers a joyful retail experience, then why should I care about my local area or the council?!
If the government is happy to introduce Gateway IDs, One Logins and web journeys that are frustrating and/or broken, why should I care about the government?!
If the government take my money when I buy a house, sell a house, live in a house, furnish a house, maintain a house and die in a house but my road is like Swiss Cheese, I can't get a doctor's appointment, kids can't add up and police are an entire greengrocer full of "bad apples", why should I care about being productive, innovative and a good citizen?!
Bad design isn't just about getting a pat on the back because you produced something quicker and at lower cost, it's about the culture it encourages.
Bad design is selling something that has no value, like metal benches.
Hands up if you've noticed an uptick in entitled behaviour since the Covid pandemic?
It's because since then, everything has got noticably shit.
And it's starting to feel hopeless.
We're trapped in an endless cycle of TFA and AI, no one asked for.
In leadership, I found creating lovely environments for people to work in, putting in supportive systems and encouraging ownership/accountability, it makes people more productive and innovative - the best work I've seen from people is when they're working in an ecosystem that benefits, inspires and delights them.
There's none of this "taking the piss" or being negative. They genuinely want to do good work to keep getting that positive reinforcement from me (or any leader) and their peers.
We need to move away from designing for profit to designing to delight.
Everything we produce should make people think, feel and/or do something. But fundementally, it needs to make people:
- Feel good
- Do something
- Think nothing
You hit those three markers, you're totally differentiating from everything else out there and you'll be loved for it.
