Exercise more. Turn off the lights. These are among many messages we receive about how we should change our behaviour for the better. Now a German designer, Matthias Laschke and a team of students are proposing designs that help us make the changes, reports co-exist.

“if you choose the car key, the bike key drops to the ground, forcing you to pick it up and reconsider your decision.”

He calls them “pleasurable troublemakers” and they include:

• an elevator that takes you to the floor below where you’re going so you can walk up the last flight of stairs
• key hooks that will drop the key to your bike lock on the floor when you choose your car key
• a light turns off slowly unless you keep touching it to indicate you still need the light

On the project’s website, http://www.pleasurabletroublemakers.com, each object comes with a short paper that details the concept. Handy for researcher types!