Twice a year, we all agree to feel slightly off.

The clock changes.

Sleep breaks.

Schedules wobble.

And we just… accept it.

In this episode of Curious by Design, we explore why Daylight Saving Time exists—and how a wartime energy strategy became one of the most persistent design choices in modern life.

The idea didn’t start with farmers. It started with fuel. During World War I, countries shifted their clocks to conserve coal, hoping to extend usable daylight into the evening. The policy returned in World War II, resurfaced during the energy crisis of the 1970s, and was eventually standardized in the United States under the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

But the energy savings were always modest. The disruption, however, is measurable—sleep loss, increased accidents, and even short-term health effects follow the clock change each year. And yet, it persists.

This episode looks at how Daylight Saving Time became embedded into transportation, commerce, broadcasting, and software—how coordination hardened into infrastructure—and why changing it now is harder than keeping it.

Daylight Saving Time isn’t really about time.

It’s about synchronization.

The next time you wake up feeling slightly misaligned with the world, remember: you’re not failing to adjust. You’re responding to a design choice inherited from a moment of crisis—one that worked just enough to stick.

That’s Curious by Design.

Support the show

Everyone has an assigned seat.

The plane isn’t leaving without you.

And yet… boarding always feels tense.

In this episode of Curious by Design, we unpack why airline boarding feels chaotic, stressful, and strangely competitive, even when, on paper, it shouldn’t be.

Airline boarding isn’t designed around comfort. It’s designed around constraints passengers rarely see: turnaround time, overhead bin interference, narrow gates, and predictable departure schedules. What looks like disorder is actually a system shaped by operations research, behavioral psychology, and monetized scarcity.

This episode explores why “efficient” boarding methods often fail in the real world, how overhead bins, not walking speed, create the true bottleneck, and why systems that are mathematically faster are often rejected because they feel unfair. We look at how standing creates the illusion of progress, how vague boarding groups reduce conflict, and how charging for checked bags turned early boarding into a competition for survival.

Airlines don’t optimize for happiness.

They optimize for reliability.

The result is a boarding process where position feels like value, waiting feels like risk, and movement feels like safety, even when it changes nothing.

The next time you find yourself standing up before your group is called, hovering near the lane, or guarding your place in line, remember: you’re not being irrational. You’re responding exactly as the system was designed for you to respond.

That’s Curious by Design.

Support the show

You’ve pressed it.

Probably more than once.

And almost nothing happened.

In this episode of Curious by Design, we explore why elevator “close door” buttons often don’t do anything, and why they still exist anyway.

Elevators are among the most carefully engineered systems in modern life, designed around safety, predictability, and shared use. But as elevators became automated, designers ran into a new problem that had nothing to do with mechanics and everything to do with psychology: people hate waiting, especially when they feel powerless.

For years, the “close door” button actually worked. Then accessibility laws standardized how long elevator doors must remain open to ensure safe entry for everyone. Shortening that delay was no longer allowed. Removing the button entirely would have confused users and required costly redesigns. So manufacturers left it in place, familiar, lit, and reassuring, but often inactive.

This episode unpacks how perceived control reduces frustration, why shared systems prioritize predictability over individual speed, and how design sometimes favors comfort over clarity. The button isn’t there to speed things up. It’s there to make waiting feel easier.

The next time you press “close door” and nothing happens, remember: you’re not being impatient. You’re responding exactly as the system was designed for you to respond.

That’s Curious by Design.

Support the show