For decades, technology has been measured by how much effort it removes. Convenience, speed, efficiency. These have been the benchmarks of good design. But research is catching up with what many people already feel: that frictionless living has a cost, and that the things we optimised away — movement, concentration, sensory experience, presence — turn out to be the things that sustain us.
Vital Agents exists at this intersection. We are a design research studio that studies the cultural, behavioural, and policy forces reshaping how people want to live, and translates that knowledge into actionable insight for the teams designing our environments, products, services and systems.
Themes
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What happens to human attention when everything competes for it, and how intentional design is reclaiming it.
Technology designed for engagement has made sustained focus harder to achieve and easier to lose.
From the rise of dumb phones and screen-free spaces to platform regulation and youth mental health policy, we study the growing movement toward calmer, more intentional digital environments, and what it means for the brands and designers building within them.
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What happens to human bodies when the world is designed for convenience, and how active design is reversing it.
The car, the lift, the delivery app: each one a small victory for ease, each one quietly removing a moment of movement.
We study the growing response: in urban planning, outdoor culture, biophilic design, and ‘human rewilding’, exploring how cities, brands, people and communities are designing vitality back into daily life.
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What happens to human experience when everything is frictionless, and how material culture is pushing back.
The resurgence of vinyl, film photography, print, and tactile craft is not nostalgia. It's a signal that people are seeking depth, texture, and the particular satisfaction of things that ask something of them.
We study the analog and offline revival : its cultural roots, its commercial momentum, and its implications for product design, retail, and brand experience.