If you have small children…boys, you are undoubtably familiar with things like: “My Wee Friend”; “Piddlers Toilet Targets for Potty Training”; “Potty Training Targets – Look like real targets!”; “Tinkle Targets for Boys”; “Wee Wee Pals”; or “On Target Infant Toilet Training Balls” from Amazon.

Problem:

Solution:

The conceptual design is pretty straightforward: align the goals of the parents (teaching bathroom skills) with the goals of a toddler (have fun) to improve the toilet experience for all concern–basic goal alignment!

Unfortunately, the problem doesn’t seem to go away as these boys grow up. Product design to the rescue!

The Urinal Lips design uses the same product design strategy: make aiming fun! What sign on the walls of the bar’s men’s room couldn’t achieve, a playful design did–these men’s room stay clean.

One Step Farther…

While attention controls might lag during a long bathroom break, video games seem to have a tighter control over attention. So welcome to the future of urinals:

These are the Toylets–the Japanese answer to men’s aim difficulties. Currently, there are four locations in Tokyo that are testing the Toylets.

Toylets are designed by Sega and feature such exciting games as “Graffitti Eraser”–cyberwalls covered with graffitti just waiting to be power-washed (the stronger the stream, the higher the score). A bored Toylet user might consider playing “Milk From Nose”–the new concept in the multi-player gaming. Players compete by blowing the opponent out a ring with a jet of milk flowing from a nose of a virtual character–the strength of jets are directly correlated and asynchronous play is strongly recommended! Or a player can use his power to hose up a virtual girl’s dress, the more power the player is able to produce the higher the skirt rises. And obviously no bathroom experience could ever be complete without seeing a few ads…

Tags: children, contextual actions, emotional design, emotional reaction, problem solving, product design, social value, toilet training, usability, user errors, user satisfaction

This entry was posted on January 18, 2011 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Attention, Conceptual Design, Flow, Pipsqueak Articles, Product Design Strategy, Scaffolding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.