Meria
A Troublemaking Clothes Hanger
Meria is a clothing hanger situated in the closet that dismisses clothes when one does not go exercising as intended. The user can hang their sports clothes, and according to their activity goals, the hanger will shrink in a few days, by lowering its arms. While this happens, Meria tries to encourage the user to grab their clothes and go exercise, by letting the clothes slip more and more. When the clothes are ignored for a period of time, the hanger will eventually drop the clothes on the ground. Although Meria does not make the choice to go exercising easier or harder, it gives the user the opportunity to reflect on their activity goals by being slightly annoying. The user would then have to collect their sport outfit from the ground and put them back on the hanger, creating friction, or can decide to cheat the system for instance by leaving them on the ground. While holding the clothes there might be even less of a barrier to actually go exercise. The hanger implies an alternative choice: if you are holding the clothes anyway, why not put them on and go exercise? If they take the clothes off the hanger and not ignore its signals, they will find an encouraging message hidden under the clothes.
Another scenario is to ‘beat the hanger to it’, by grabbing the clothes before they fall on the ground, and going for a workout. To try and increase the sense of enjoyment this might create, a motivational message was added on the hanger, positioned under the clothing. The user will only see this when they interact with the prototype, which might give them a final nudge towards getting dressed for the workout or at least encourage reflection when they decide to hang the clothes back.