10/60: Make Gravity Visible : A social movement to challenge our society to move more.

• Main Author: Bui, Lynn
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen Designhögskolan 2013
• Subjects: interaction design; work environment design; motivation; behavior design; service design; mobile solutions
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-74463

Gravity plays a vital role in our everyday lives. It provides the development of our muscle mass which fuels our brain’s advancement and our ability to complete daily tasks. Yet we often take for granted the things we do not see. From hunting and gathering, chasing after prey, migrating from one place to the next, to growing and harvesting crops to long hours laboring away, we have felt gravity through millions of years in time.  Along with the rise of technology, we are witnessing the fall of our physical selves. Our lives have become busier, more stressful and our days behind a screen much longer. Within the past 30 years, gravity has been intercepted by the chair and the ratio of moving to sitting has been reversed. Instead of feeling this force within our legs and lower limbs, it has now been deferred to our fingers, buttocks and backs.  We spend the bulk of our days in a seated position, often behind a screen. Sitting has become such a norm that daily exercise at the gym is no longer enough to offset all the negative things done to our bodies in a sedentary posture.  We were programmed to move, but we’ve hacked our brains to think otherwise. Prolonged sitting is a serious issue that should not be overlooked. The challenge is to change a habit that we’ve acquired from an early age.  The numbers are staggering, over 1.5 billion people worldwide are obese.(WHO. int, 2013) 5.3 million die each year from heart related diseases and diabetes as indirect result of the chair, .3 million more than smoking. (Thelancet.com, 2012)  It is time to break the norm, adjust our perceptions, expectations and stop living in extremes and move towards moderation. It’s time to stand up and make gravity visible.  10/60: Make Gravity Visible is a social movement to challenge our society to move more, reminding people to be up and moving 10 minutes for every 60 minutes.  The goal is to challenge society to integrate movement within the home, work and societal environments through the support and influence of communal behaviour.  10/60 is facilitated by a website and a smartphone application. The website provides ideas shared by the community to help inspire movement into people’s lives. The app tracks a person’s daily physical activity levels and sends a reminder when he/she has been sitting for too long. How much a person moves is reflected by an avatar’s physical state as well as graphical data by the time of day. Challenges can be submitted within the inner circle of friends to encourage more movement.  The initial strategy around this topic was through the intersections of four subjects: human evolution, philosophy, behavioral psychology, and physiology. This concept was developed based on findings from foundational research, expert interviews, user tests, experiments and behavioral observations - in particular social influences and the underlying principle that motivation is different for everyone.  Awareness alone does not generate action. Motivating people to move more is beyond an individual problem - sitting is a societal and cultural issue and unless that is addressed, no long term changes can be sustained.  This project aims to inspire people to leverage their communities and integrate more physical activity in the home, work and societal environments.  Societal and cultural norms will not change unless we change together.