high chair
Observation: High chair repurposed
The other day I was out to dinner with my wife. As we were sitting there, a couple with a young baby was being seated next to us. The couple asked their server for a high chair. Upon obtaining the high chair, the couple proceeded to flip it upside down so that the larger base was in the air and somewhat cockeyed. Here is a sketch to illustrate what this looked like. The chair on the left is your right-side-up sketch with the one on the right being the situation present in this story.
They then nestled the baby basket (I’m not sure what you call this thing, but it looks like a seat for a baby with a handle on it) on top of the upside-down chair. It was obvious that the ‘baby basket’ wouldn’t have fit if the chair was in its normal position. The whole time, however, I was worried that the thing would fall over and the baby would go tumbling. I voiced to my wife that the whole situation looked rather precarious. To my surprise, she said (having worked in several restaurants over the years) that this was a normal thing for people to do.
Here’s the point, as you may have guessed. Why aren’t these things designed with this use in mind if it is common practice for people to use them this way? I love when people repurpose items, but it also screams to me a need that is not being fulfilled.