I wonder if you make the stairs just incrementally more interesting to use, would a lot more people use them? That is, people have a tendency to follow other people. So, for example, all you need is to do something that generates [initially] 10% more interest and you'll get 50% more usage (if that makes sense).
I see the potential for a lawsuit here. What if someone comes up with the obvious idea of trying to play a tune? The leaping around would most likely result in serious injury.
This experiment was not performed in the US.
Yeah, this is a pretty cool idea. The Science Museum of Minnesota has a very long staircase that's musical just like this one, pretty interesting idea.
What happens when the novelty wears off?
Tune the keys to different scales on different days. Have it play certain themes on important days and holidays when you step through it in sequence.
Personally I'd like to hear some video game-style level up music whenever I climb to the top.
Nice. I just dismissed the tuning aspect completely.
Ok, but then you should take care to make it look different. Having the keys laid out like a piano keyboard but playing the wrong notes would just be ... wrong.
I wondered about that as well, but humans really like music. They will play the same tunes regularly for years on end, because they love them so much. It wouldn't surprise me if the change in use is permanent.