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Rachel Lehrer is just finishing up her MFA in Transdisciplinary Design at the New School. Her Core77 piece, Designing Handwashing: Diverse Nudges In A Hospital, looks at her seven-month-long project tracking handwashing compliance in, well, hospitals. It’s a fascinating insight into the many contradictory pressures faced by those looking to implement design principles in both their broadest sense and in contexts unused to the influence or potential of design. Lehrer nails the complexity of the issue, and while she understandably veers towards the idea that she and those imbued with design skills are just the ladies with the lamps needed to help, she also understands that design is most certainly not a silver bullet that will solve the many issues embedded in such a complex environment, but rather one critical way to help create the conditions for success.

The solution is not a single process or product or able to be purchased with one lump sum but lies in reconfiguring people, spaces, objects and expectations all together, over the course of many years. The treatment is not a magic pill but a series of small gifts. Each one can incrementally improve the likelihood of compliance, but only if encouraged by a service institution that understands the long term effectiveness of slight, diverse, persistent nudges.

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