Months after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), it was imperative for the

government to lift the ECQ for the economy and the people to recover their losses during the
quarantine. This phase of re-opening of the public to the general population is called the New
Normal. More often there is an intensive feeling of anxiety and fear from the general public in
returning outside their homes. There are also psychological tensions that arise from the
possibility of contacting the disease from almost everywhere as there is no comprehensive and
conclusive study on the infection mechanism of the virus. There are also some radical sectors
from the west which opposes the use of protective devices such as face mask as it is
uncomfortable.

In the New Normal, it is required by several countries that person to person spacing
must be partitioned to shield against direct sneezing and air borne fluid particulates which might
cause infections from diseases such as the dreaded covid-19. There are several existing safety
device now in the market which includes face masks, face shields, thermal scanners, hand-free
devices for sanitation, tents for sanitation, motorcycle barrier shields, table acrylic partitions.
However, their designs are mainly focused only on the functionality due to the time constraint
needed to meet their deployment demands.

The paper from Tonya Sweet from the Journal of Interior Design talks about the need for
prioritizing the psychological design of furniture than its physical functionality. The current
devices in the market are highly conformal only to the physical protection of the people but are
actually intimidating to the naked eye due to the stereotype of health hazards and bulkiness of
the geometry. However, I think that it is very timely that the notion from Sweet be emphasized in
the design and redesign of safety equipment from covid-19, especially now that we are globally
pushed to rethink the design as we cannot go back to our way of living in the past.

The anxiety and fear of the people can be soothed by centralizing empathy for user to
the design to mitigate worry and to invite users to relax and feel safe. Also, by tapping into the
use of colour psychology to elicit a response of optimism can largely improve the psychological
response of people in public. In addition, playful and humorous shapes can be integrated into
the design of the safety devices, furniture, and spaces as a way to pique human sensory
experience. Importantly, we have to utilize this sensory experience to deliver the message of
psychological safety so that the public can have fun and forget the worries brought by covid-19
pandemic. This in general can sociologically improve the confidence of the public in safely
returning outside. But more importantly, injecting modularity and flexibility in the design which is
almost indiscernible from the old normal can improve the usage rate of people who were
detracting from the safety protocols of using these devices.