Over the past few weeks, I have been visiting the hospital, and most recently, the dentists’ office, for a few routine checkups, in particular, regarding my broken clavicle. These office visits, as most of you know, require a fair amount of time. As I was contemplating this, my mind came to the realization that the majority of this time was actually spent, not in the waiting room, but in my actual ‘checkup’ room, with me laid upon my back, staring blankly at the ceiling.

As I was gazing up at the ceiling, counting all 8,713 little chunks of blanketed stucco, my design thinking mindset began to go into sports mode. If you really think about it, when you go to any-type of ‘checkup’, such as the dentist, doctor, therapy, etc. you are usually placed upon some sort of bed. Now I don’t know about you, but I never know when that doctor is going to pop his head in for the checkup so I usually decide not to pick up any of the gossip magazines laying in that neat pile because I just know that I will find an interesting article and just as I begin to delve into it’s contents, will be interrupted by the doctor and all hopes of learning the “58 ways men can make their girlfriends happy’ will vanish forever. So, instead, I choose to stare cross-eyed up at the dear ole ceiling.

So as I was saying, my design thinking mindset kicked in and I began to think how brilliant it would be if these offices began to actually design something across their ceilings. I watched a lecture a few weeks ago from TED about Scott Kim who designs puzzles for a living. Imagine with me the concept of designing the ceiling, and maybe even the walls itself, of the office, as a visual puzzle that evoked all your senses of intrigue and interest. As you laid in your checkup room, your eyes and mind could dissect the visual designs and puzzles that lay scattered across the ceiling and room walls. What would ordinary be a completely boring wait would turn into an adventure, a game in which your mind and body utilized it’s components to interpret a visual masterpiece.

This masterpiece, if done properly, would be something that could be interpreted in many different ways and always beheld a new story or answer. Whether you visited the office a few times a week, or a few times a year, your mind would always be searching for new elements that could be trapped within these visual designs and puzzles. Talk about an office visit that you looked forward too.

Now from a marketing standpoint, the word of mouth on this would be wild fire. The authenticity of your office would be something of legend, providing a very good reason why people would choose your office over someone else. As you can guess, the return on investment would definitely be seen. The effects on people like Scott Kim would be fairly nice too since puzzlers and painters could now become synonymous with each other… a new booming business, aye.

So overall, what do you think? Would you like to start seeing these new visual designs at your next office visit? As a doctor, dentist, etc., would you see this as a good idea to incorporate into your business? Let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially any additions that may evolve from your own mindset on this idea. Go ahead, spit it out.

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