I am a software tester, finding flaws in products. I am also passionate about user experience & design and find it exciting to simplify & improve the experience of products we use. One such thing I wanted to simplify & make it better accessible is the side walks. Something that’s part of our public space.

Like many, I’ve tried to de-stress by going for a walk, only to be forced off the sidewalk and into the street. Our sidewalks are often unusable—either encroached or poorly designed. The intersection of my experiences in testing, design and walking, made me view these sidewalks not just as civic problem, but as a design & behaviour problem. I began to capture pictures of various footpath patterns I encountered, trying to understand what makes some pathways easily walkable and others a nightmare. How might we reclaim these vital public spaces? How might we build better & pedestrian friendly sidewalks? The solution might be right beneath our feet. Let’s design our way to a better walk.

Think about the Nudge Theory, the Nobel Prize-winning concept that shows how subtle cues can guide our behavior. If we put a sign to switch off lights before leaving the room, we are most likely to do so. What if we could apply this same principle to our public spaces?

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell argues that for an idea, trend or behaviour to spread, the Power of Context is crucial. He shows how small changes in our environment can trigger significant behavioral shifts. The environment itself becomes the nudge.

My idea is simple, yet I believe it holds the potential for significant impact: a new standard for footpath design based on these behavioral insights. What if we started using indicative colors on our sidewalks? Imagine clear, universal visual markers painted along the edges of our sidewalks, sending a subtle, non-intrusive message to vendors, to vehicle owners, and to pedestrians themselves: “This is the pedestrian zone. Please respect it.” We’re not just painting lines; we’re changing the context. We are nudging people not to encroach, not drive vehicles on the sidewalks and guiding pedestrians to walk on the designated path. A small modification to our public space can potentially create a positive change in how we use it.

1. As a first step, let’s understand some examples that hinder pedestrians from using the sidewalks.
Pedestrians prefer to walk on even surfaces. Unevenly built sidewalks like shown in the examples below, where houses and shops add kurb ramps/driveway ramps, forces pedestrians to get down and walk on the even road. Pedestrians also avoid sidewalks that are too high to easily step on.

Below are some example of uneven sidewalks, which dissuades pedestrian from walking on it comfortably.

2. Below are some examples of how sidewalks get encroached.

• Ramps & stairs extended beyond the home boundary, onto the public sidewalk.
• Shop ads placed onto the sidewalks
• Shops extending their storage area onto the sidewalks
• Small eateries placing tables onto the sidewalks
• Tea shops letting customers utilise the sidewalks while refreshing
• Housing building gates that opens outward rather than inwards or sliding sideward
• Shops converting sidewalks into customer parking
• Residents utilising the sidewalks as private gardens

Encroaching to Prevent Encroachment

Below are a few examples of residents, shops & business establishments pre-emptively seizing public space to prevent others from doing the exact same thing.

Illustration of better sidewalk with border markings.

*Images generated with the help of Gemini.

Below images show a sidewalk encroached by a lawn and flower pots and an AI generated illustration of the same sidewalk with clear border markings, so as to dissuade people from encroaching a pedestrian space.

Curb ramps/driveway ramps shall be built like illustrated below. (Image generated with the help of Gemini AI.)

What materials to use?

Below are a few examples of different materials with which a sidewalk could be built

Reading essays by Paul Graham, I learnt that for any idea, it is hard to predict success upfront. We have to launch the MVP, let the real users use it, keep talking to the user, take feedback and keep iterating to achieve the perfect fit. I reside in the state of Tamil Nadu and if I have to make a suggestion to the government to try this, I suggest that the government enter into an agreement with the department of civil engineering/architecture/planning/design with 2-3 institutes of repute. Ex. Anna University, IIT Madras, NIT Trichy. Let these institutes independently design and build sidewalks with various designs like sidewalks built using paver blocks, cement, stones, sidewalks with 2-3 different heights like road level, 12 cms above road, 1 feet above road level, sidewalks with inset ramps connecting the road, sidewalks with outset ramps connecting the road, different side makings like paint, coloured tiles, sticker…etc. The institute can take feedback from students who are its users and independently present which design can help pedestrians use the sidewalks to the maximum and which will also nudge people away from encroaching. The institutes can also provide details like ideal width of sidewalks. Ex: 6ft in residential areas(1.8 meters) – This provides enough clearance for two people to walk comfortably side-by-side or for two individuals in wheelchairs to pass each other. [1, 2, 3] and 8-12 ft in busy commercial or urban areas.
Ref: https://globaldesigningcities.org/publication/global-street-design-guide/designing-streets-people/designing-for-pedestrians/sidewalks/design-guidance/
Ref: https://globaldesigningcities.org/publication/global-street-design-guide/designing-streets-people/designing-for-pedestrians/sidewalks/design-guidance/

The institutes can share templates: Ex for a 6 ft side walk measuring 100 mtrs to be built in a street, how much of depth to be dug a filled with gravel, how much sand, cement and gravel does it consume, how much sq ft of tiles or paint does it consume, and in case of installing bollards, how many bollards, which material like plastic or steel, how many kgs will it consume. Creating an letting people follow standards will remove the confusion and make it easy to build.

Also, pedestrians find it easy to walk when the starting point and end point of the sidewalks are built like a ramp rather than like a step.

Below is a depiction of an encroachment clearance vehicle that is mounted with a camera to capture on spot evidence, generate fine and immediately remove sidewalk encroachments like shop name boards placed onto the sidewalks. The government can work with organisations like eGov foundation to create a software product that can capture evidence of encroachment using the camera, add time, date and location details, generate immediate fine slips, collect payments or mark pending payments for spot fine and track repeat offenders…etc. The software should also have options to accept evidence of encroachment from the public. Ex. the public, when they see and encroachment, should be ab;e to capture an image on their phone and easily share it a designated number maintained by the corporation, just through an SMS or WhatsApp message, along with details like the location, date and time.

*The article is being drafted. Apologies for publishing a not fully drafted post. Just published today as it is a day of significance for me.

Additional reading:
How a broken wall led me explore the modern management principle, Therblig?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVKTX_Sbwzw