Design after a pandemic

I think its safe to say that after this all blows over, things will never be the same. In every walk of life, sacrifices will have to be made, changes will be implemented and attitudes globally will be forced to change. The barriers of working from home have been broken down, peoples attitude towards hygiene and cleanliness will change and life in general will become a new normal. As far as designed is concerned, I think a whole series of new steps will have to be taken into account before a new product can be put. Is there any points where bacteria can build up, if people handle it, can we minimize their need to handle or even remove the need for physical contact altogether.

As a cleaner in a hospital, these sort of things are very evident. Everyday in work, I have to take down curtains and put them back up due to infection control policies. Anyone who has experience lifting heavy curtains knows it is a very arduous task. Yet every time it's brought up to management that, especially during these times when we should be doing everything possible to reduce risk of infection spreading, they seem to think its essential that people have curtains. And it always lead me to wonder that there must be a better way to do this. Is there a way to block the windows without curtains, can we make curtains that don't have to be changed.

These small changes that can be implemented across the world and should have been in place before this. It is unfortunate that we had to go through such a catastrophic event in order for people to see these things. Shops will forever have to hold up to new hygiene standards, hand sanitizer will be a staple in every persons shopping list. Design from here on out will be much more focused on health and safety standards across the boards. I saw on the news that they have developed a spray that can be applied to metal door handles that continuously disinfects itself. And it had me wondering, why was this kind of stuff in place already, even in hospitals, schools or public areas. Hygiene will be an incredibly important part of design from here on out and any new products will surely have to adhere to some new standards. And i thoroughly believe this is a step in the right direction, but perhaps too late