Why we love being lazy and why it should matter to Designers
All living beings are wired to conserve energy all the time. Animals are lazy at every opportunity they get — they do what’s necessary to survive and thrive, and not one thing more than that. Expending more energy than necessary is a waste of their resources. And evolving from apes, by nature, we follow the same rules.
Our Body is Lazy
The muscles in our body work in ways to complete their task in the most efficient manner, such that there is minimal motion and minimal consumption of energy. In a study published in the book “Principles of Animal Locomotion” by R Mc Neill Alexander, simulations of leg muscles and joints of a few animals were done.
The muscle and joints were modeled as “combination of motors and actuators” on a computer and these models were made to run at different speeds of the animal while minimizing the power consumption to run the motors and actuators. And the results were very similar to the natural motion observed in these animals.
Simply put, to achieve a higher speed while moving on land, we switch from walking to running, which are two very different ways to move. This happens because running is a much more efficient way of moving as compared to walking at that speed.
Ever wondered why people of different sizes and body types walk differently? It is because our bodies optimize our way of walking to the laziest way possible to take a step. We are naturally, involuntarily, being lazy.
Our brain is lazy
The way we make decisions is also lazy, which means that given a choice, we will always choose the option for which we have to work less given that the end result both options give is similar.
In his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman discusses various experiments conducted to understand the way people think and make decisions. The following puzzle from his book explains how most of us think:
A bat and ball cost $1.10.
The bat costs one dollar more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?
Your immediate answer was probably $1 for the bat and $0.10 for the ball which is obviously wrong.
The explanation to this behavior lies in the way our brain works. We have two types of memories:
1. Long Term Memory
2. Working Memory(Short term memory)
It takes us effort to put our working memory to use, and we tend to make connections between the question and a memory closest to it in our long term memory. We do not want to make an effort to think deeply and this is the reason why we place a lot of faith on our intuitions.
We are also highly likely to choose the default option when given a choice regarding some activities. In his book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Nobel laureate Richard Thaler, has talked about how designing the Default option skillfully can make a predictable change in decision making of people. He cites an example of Organ Donation in Spain which operates in an “opt-out” system in which all citizens are automatically registered for organ donation unless they choose to state otherwise. The result of this default setting is that Spain has the highest number of organ donors in the world. Similarly, most of us won’t change our default ringtone or the temperature of our fridge. Thus, the natural way we think, is lazy.
Laziness is a natural human behavior that has for long enough, been used in a negative sense. The problem with keeping a natural human behavior in a negative light is that the answers to the following questions are “no” for most of us:
Have you ever read the terms and conditions of a software installation agreement completely?
Have you always seen all the Speed Limit signs on the Road and never gotten a ticket?
Have you always placed the toilet roll in its holder as it is supposed to?
Why Design for Laziness
Laziness is a natural driver of innovation. Had it not been for the lazy people, we would still be living in the stone age hunting animals.
“ I’m lazy. But it’s the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn’t like walking or carrying things” - Lech Walesa
The products designed to be used by us, always cater to the needs which we identify for ourselves. For example, in a user survey about a new product to be designed- safety, aesthetics and function will come out as well defined user needs. But since we have a negative connotation with the word “Lazy”, you, the designers and the decision makers will assign a minimal weight-age to it, undermining the effort which you will put to get any useful task done with this product, resulting in products like a 10 page terms and conditions agreement.
It is time we recognize laziness, with due respect, as a natural human behavior, a need. Because once we do that as a society, we open up a whole new world of possibilities where Designers consider Laziness as a common user behavior and identify micro problems that affect the User Experience of the product. Only then, our surrounding world will be designed as per our natural self and we will see innovation at a much faster pace than today. And in this age of AI and AR, we should expect nothing less.
Laziness is Sugar
Being lazy, like anything else in life, is harmful if taken or done in excess. In that sense, Laziness is like Sugar.
So go ahead, take a break, be lazy at times, reflect back on the way how you do day to day tasks and ask- is this the laziest way of doing it?
Congrats, you have not been lazy today and reached the end of this article. Please tap 👏 if you liked it so it can reach more people.
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