Thoughtless Acts

Observation:
I have observed a lot of people using crutches as extensions of their limbs (beyond just walking). One of the uses is shown in the attached image where a man is pointing to a screen using one of his crutches ( Source: http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/carlsen-beats-howell-in-first-round-lo...) Apart from this, I have seen people use crutches to close doors, to press the elevator button, etc. 
 
Potential Design Solution:

One thoughtless act I found is that many people rest their umbrellas on handrails while they're not using them. This eases them off the inconvience of carrying an object and since the shape of an umbrella provides a perfect balance on the handrail, people naturally do this all the time. 

I walked around Berkeley to find people using crutches or find some thoughtless act people commit while just walking. 
 

I always use my forearm and sleve of my shirt to wipe sweat off my head when exercising. I don't even think to get a towel sometimes. It's just more convenient.
When exercising at the gym I have my valuables with me but I always try to keep them concealed, which means I put them under towels, tucked in my sweatshirt, or under other gym equipment. 
Whatever augmented exercise equipment our team ends up making, it will have to be something that fits with the rest of the gym equipment and doesn't seem like it is worth stealing.

On a recent group trip to Hawaii, we were sitting on the lawn on the ocean-side of our hotel watching the sunset. I had my camera and was taking pictures of the sunset when I turned around and noticed that everyone was on their phones! I attached the photo of the sunset and my friends on their devices. 
 

For the first image, while the bed is “made” I noticed that I ‘thoughtlessly’ aligned my pillows along the wall instead of in the middle of the bed.  This highlights to me how arbitrary pillow alignment can be on a bed, but still form an order.

My thoughtless action is a picture of directions to Kips. There are several elements of thoughtlessness from this picture. One is that people naturally herd together and show others where they are going. The second thing I noticed is that people slow their pace when walking and reading something. This related to my midterm project because one thing the project is geared toward is understanding the social nature of children. This is a thoughtless action indicating the social nature of adults. 

Rocks seem to invite all sorts of thoughtless interactions. People like to kick rocks that seem out of place or skim flat stones on the water. On Baker Beach in San Francisco, stones tend to be deposited on the beach in small rocky patches, due to the movement of the current. When I first arrived at the beach, a group of people had made a small tower of balanced stones by their beach towel (I took the picture on the way back after they had left the beach).  The flat shape of these stones afforded easy stacking.

This week in the library, I noticed that a lot of people use headphones while studying. I realized that I use headphones only partially from music; I also use them to isolate myself a little, so I can concentrate more. I think headphones could be useful as part of an instrument as a way of integrating the instrument into the user's body more, and as a way of keeping the user's full focus on playing the instrument.
http://i41.tinypic.com/i5dqwx.jpg

Our team's project revolves around using the foot and its gestures as a tangible user interface. In this thoughtless act exercise, I took two photos of people resting their feet--one on a stool and another on a table leg. This is an action that people do very frequently without consciously choosing to do so. 
 
Possible design solution