Modern public restrooms are fitted with a wide range of automated fixtures that promote cleanliness and afford ease of use. Unfortunately, frustrations pervade from the lack of usable and effective restroom technologies. This feature critically examines poor designs encountered in typical public facilities in the Western world and suggests guidelines for future improvements.
ArroyoE.BonanniL.SelkerT. (2005). Waterbot: Exploring feedback and persuasive techniques at the sink. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 631–639). New York, NY: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/1054972.1055059
2.
BravermanI. (2011). Governing with clean hands: Automated public toilets and sanitary surveillance. Surveillance & Society, 8(1), 1–27.
3.
DodgeM.KitchinR. (2016). Towards touch-free spaces: Sensors, software and the automatic production of shared public toilets. In PatersonM.DodgeM. (Eds.), Touching Space, Placing Touch (pp. 191–210). New York: Routledge.
4.
FoggB. J. (2002). Persuasive technology: Using computers to change what we think and do. New York, NY: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
5.
GaverW. W. (1997). Auditory interfaces. In HelanderM. G.LandauerT. K.PrabhuP. (Eds.), Handbook of human–computer interaction (pp. 1003–1041). Amsterdam, Elsevier Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044481862-1.50108-4
6.
HarjumaaM.Oinas-kukkonenH. (2009). Persuasive systems design: Key issues, process model, and system features. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 24, 485–500.
7.
HillsS.BirksR. (2004). Washroom behaviour and users’ perceptions of “novel” water-efficient appliances. Water Science and Technology: Water Supply, 4(3), 13–23.
8.
KlevensM. R.EdwardsJ. R.RichardsC. L.HoranT. C.GaynesR. P.PollockD. A.CardoD. M. (2007). Estimating health care-associated infections and deaths in U.S. hospitals, 2002. Public Health Reports, 122(1), 160–166.
9.
MorayN. (1995). Ergonomics and the global problems of the 21st century. Ergonomics, 38, 1691–1707.
10.
NormanD. (2007). The design of future things. New York, NY: Basic Books.
NormanD. (2013). The design of everyday things (rev. ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.
13.
ReichardtC.KönigerD.Bunte-SchönbergerK.van der LindenP.MönchN.SchwabF.… GastmeierP. (2013). Three years of national hand hygiene campaign in Germany: What are the key conclusions for clinical practice?Journal of Hospital Infection, 83(Suppl. 1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-6701(13)60004-3
14.
SaxH.AllegranziB.UçkayI.LarsonE.BoyceJ.PittetD. (2007). “My five moments for hand hygiene”: A user-centred design approach to understand, train, monitor and report hand hygiene. Journal of Hospital Infection, 67(1), 9–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2007.06.004
15.
SrivastavaJ.ShuL. H. (2013). Encouraging resource-conscious behavior through product design: The principle of discretization. Journal of Mechanical Design, 135(6), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4024225