Public Bathrooms

I believe that Dr. Fossen's question has gotten everyone thinking more deeply about design and innovation. I know the question he asked today in class to the group has been on my mind all day. Why is it that there is technology out there that we are not taking advantage of and incorporating into our lives ? Why do we know that we can improve things in society but yet things continue to stay the same with no improvements ? Thinking about this all day has led me to some conclusions on what I believe are some of the answers to these questions.

1. Cost- This was discussed in class saying that many things have a bigger upfront fee but will save you more in the long run. One reason that builders may not use them or incorporate them into their designs is they don't do their research and simply are scared away by the upfront fee of the product. The information may not be well known and therefore is misunderstood, harder to find, or takes more effort to research.

2. Innovation is often a slow process- not many people are looking to reinvent the wheel. Public bathrooms have been around for a long time. There are many improvements that have been made to public bathrooms over the years but we may not notice or they may start in one area and slowly spread to other areas. There may be designers who are trying to incorporate new ideas and new technology but getting everyone to follow along with their ideas could be challenging.

3. Motivation- Why fix something that isn't broken? Many builders or designers may thing that the bathroom is not a top priority, thinking that if they are functional they are good enough. People continue to use public bathrooms so the design must be working right ? In high school there was one bathroom in our science building that was so old and gross they weren't even functional. All the locks were broken, the stall were learning so some of the doors did not shut, the mirrors were scratched out, and it appeared to be very dirty. No one used that bathroom and after a year the janitors saw that no one used it and suggested to the principal that it needed some renovation done to be functional. The bathroom was renovated for the simple reason that no one used it, if people would have continued to use the bathroom and deal with the problems it would have never been fixed. People keep using public bathrooms so to builders or the bathroom there is not large problem with they are they are and the way they are always designed. Also buildings do not often win awards because of their remarkable bathroom design so a designer may loose motivation to worry and spend time and money on the bathrooms.

4.Time- Many time designers, builders, contractors,etc. are under a time crunch. Mentioned earlier they may not make the bathroom a priority so they do it the way they have always done it instead of going through the knowledge funnel they use the algorithm that already exists.

I do not know if these are the exact reason to the problem of our "broken" public restrooms but I am sure they all play some factor in why not not a lot of innovation has been brought to public restrooms.