The design of your product will evoke a certain behavior. That's the basic premise underlying the principle of what's labelled product impact, persuasive technology, design for society, design with intent, or design for conversion.

A vivid example of this principle is the bus stop. They are often deliberately designed to be, and especially to look, fragile, as companies such as JC Decaux experienced that fragile-looking bus shelters are considered less of a challenge to destroy, and therefore are less subject to vandalism. In addition these companies have a policy of fixing anything that gets broken as fast as possible, so hooligans won't see the effect of their work (for long), which apparently is one of the most satisfying aspects of vandalism.

Enter Prokol Polymers, who in 2007 with great pride announced their indestructible bus shelter (sorry, in Dutch only), made out of - you guessed it - polymers. Of course the sturdy looks of this bus shelter presented the hooligans (or 'hufters', in Dutch) with more of a challenge, but to make matters worse the press release announced the bus shelters as being 'hufter-proof'. That really brought out the best in our hufters. What a few half-hearted attempts by TV-programs could not do, destroying the indestructible bus stop, proved no problem at all for real hooligans, as can be seen in the before-and-after pictures above and in this picture set. Apparently, they really had to put their heart into it: it was said that to overcome the 500 degrees Celsius fireproof properties of the plastic, the hufters actually used flame throwers.