BAMBATA
The train is a social environment. Whether you like it or not, you share the space with other people. And despite most people
seeming to want to exclude themselves from others by being on their smartphones, 43% of the people who travel in a regular train mentioned that they are very open for a conversation (4 or 5 on a scale from 1-5). Perhaps unwillingness is not the reason people are not talking much in trains nowadays. It may be people need a little
icebreaker to start conversations.
The Bambata water sofa was made to fit exactly on top of the existing bench inside the train. People could not see there was water inside the sofa, so they could not expect interaction with the seat. The Bambata water sofa made more people be very open for a conversation. The amount increased from 43% on a regular first class seat to 64% of the people being very open for a conversation sitting on the Bambata water sofa.
Interestingly, frequent travelers were less open for conversations using a regular seat. Their average score of openness was 3,3 on a scale from 1 to 5 compared to 4 when sitting on the Bambata. This mades frequent travelers the highest impact group on being open for conversations triggered by water sofas. Women are the second most triggered target group: they are slightly more open for conversations than men. Women’s average
openness increases to 3.9 when sitting on a water sofa compared to 3.5 on a regular seat.
When people sat on the Bambata 18% gets excited or lively compared to 10% sitting on a regular first class seat. Water sofas can contribute to people their openness and mood in semi public spaces.