The emergency chairs for when the family comes around for Christmas and birthdays live in the back bedroom. You might all end up sitting at different heights, but you’re around the same table. The message is simple: nothing is too much trouble.
Where you put the chairs tells a story. Chairs in a row tell a different story to chairs around a table.
When Wendy Woon wanted to teach museum curators about how to design a space for interaction, she jumbled a pile of chairs and left them in the centre of an otherwise empty room. The students had no choice but to participate in designing a space—where else were they going to sit?
When we design an online event, it’s worth asking: Where do you want to put the chairs?