3 Concepts Research

I did not get my blog post finished on schedule this week. Now I believe there’s a reason for that. Okay, so maybe it’s not a real excuse, but I plan to use it anyway. I had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco for AIGA’s Gain conference this week and was really struck by something that was brought to light in Norman’s Design of Everyday Things “Design For Change” chapter: faucet design (and public restroom design in general) is incredibly frustrating when you pause to pay attention! The bathroom sink in my beautifully renovated hotel room consisted of mirrored knobs that Norman lambasted in his book. Even more frustrating was that the flow of water out of that faucet was almost exactly the same volume regardless of how many knobs or how far the knobs were turned, making the proper direction in which to turn knobs off harder to determine. By day three, I was (sort of) getting the hang of things. Another problem on top of that, was that the tall faucet poured a long ways down to a shallow sink, meaning that water splashed everywhere when it hit the sink bottom, or my hands, or my toothbrush. And because I’m on a roll… another issue in the bathroom was a light switch. The toilet and shower were in a smaller room with their own door so that one person can be using those while another can use the sink. Pretty thoughtful. But the light for the toilet/shower room was outside of that door. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME I went into that room, I had to walk back out to turn on the light because I had forgotten to switch it in advance. I can envision this becoming an even bigger issue in a family with mischievous kids. I can guarantee you that I would have purposely turned the light off while one of my family members was inside, knowing they could do nothing about it when I was younger.

I encountered other restroom problems over the course of the trip. In the conference building, the individual stalls in the women’s restroom were apparently designed to look very sleek and neat, with minimal visual disruption. Unfortunately, this made it impossible to tell if a stall was occupied without bending over to check for feet. There was also no indication of which way a stall door opened. When it came time to wash hands, there were four sinks in a line. The problem is that there were only two soap dispensers and they were located on the ends of the line so that the ladies using the two center sinks had to stand and wait until the person beside them finished and moved away before they could access the soap. This proved very slow and frustrating when a large group is taking a quick restroom break in between sessions. I also used a variety of automatic sinks, once of which would only dispense about two seconds of water before you had to remove your hands and put them back in front of the dispenser to get a second, or third, or fourth, or fifth squirt of water. One paper towel holder would only dispense the paper towel after the patron held a hand still in front of the sensor for a few seconds. Many women waved and waved their hand before giving up and drying their hands on their pants. All it took to really understand the principles that Don Norman advocates for, was a few days outside of my normal surroundings and routines. Thank you Don, for making me even more critical of public restrooms. J

One more thing that really stood out to me from the readings, was a statement Norman made about designers also being users. I chose to tackle an issue that is one I have dealt with often and one that I hope to be able to make use of. As I conduct research and prototype the solution, I will have to remember that – even though I am a user – input from other users who are not so familiar with the project will be very important to keep pushing me toward the best possible solution. Norman warns, “Even when designers become users, their deep understanding and close contact with the device they are designing means that they operate it almost entirely from knowledge in the head. The user, especially the first-time or infrequent user, must rely almost entirely on knowledge in the world.”

PROJECT RESEARCH

I spent the week collecting ideas that were similar to or applicable to the three concepts I was considering for improving the dining out experience for those following a gluten-free diet.

Concept #1 – Color-coding to improve safety

There are many examples of industries and businesses employing color to help improve the safety of workers and/or customers. In 1970, the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) was passed and involved the use of color-coding to help workers identify and safely react to hazards. Their universal code is:

Red – fire-extinguishing and protective equipment, flammable liquids, emergency stop buttons & switches, etc

            Yellow – caution, indicates physical hazards (tripping, falling)

            Orange – dangerous parts of equipment where body parts may be caught

            Blue – equipment under repair

            Green – first aid and safety gear or equipment

            Purple – radioactive materials or equipment

Similarly, Sherwin Williams Safety Color Guide provides a code for painting certain physical hazards and pipe identification to improve safety.

Medical facilities have made efforts to use color-coded wristbands to rapidly communicate key information about a patient. If a patient is moved from unit to unit or if new staff interact with the patient, they can immediately know important details about the patient based on the color of the wristband. 

Unfortunately, this system is not universal between hospitals, and some confusion occurred with patients that wore yellow Livestrong wristbands when they came to the hospital. More recently, there have been efforts to standardize this system among all medical facilities, and to remove any colored wristbands a patient is wearing once admitted in order to eliminate potentially fatal mistakes.

Within the food industry, there are some color-coded products (like cutting boards, below) already that are focused on preventing cross contamination between things like raw poultry, raw and cooked meats, vegetables, dairy, nuts, etc. I know many gluten-free diners use some color-coding or labeling in their own homes to prevent cross contamination if all family members do not follow a gluten free diet. Some restaurants and food producers, like GF favorite Rudi's already use color-coding or zones to promote food safety and to prevent cross-contamination  between foods like raw meat and vegetables.

I think this idea has potential to be very helpful to restaurant staff, which translates to a safer experience for the diner. I also think this idea has potential for scale.

Concept #2 – Embrace & celebrate the problem or difference.

Dealing with a disease or special medical needs can be stressful, intimidating, and just “un-fun.” It can also be embarrassing to talk about. I don’t exactly enjoy explaining the particulars of my gastrointestinal issues to friends or strangers. However, trying to live in denial or be secretive about serious problems can lead to stress and additional sickness that inhibits recovery or good quality of life. I believe this is why numerous campaigns have embraced humor and honesty in their campaigns. Most of us have seen at least one of the irreverent breast cancer campaigns that aim to remove the stigma associated with the disease.

While gluten intolerance is a very different kind of disease, I think this concept could help promote conversation and understanding among a greater number of people. The folks behind the “Feel Your Boobies” campaign believe that their use of unexpected and unconventional methods help younger women in particular pay greater attention to their health when encountering these messages whereas they tune out traditional or clinical messages.  I think this could also be a good option, with potential for scale. It would be important to keep this tied to dining out however, instead of creating just another campaign to raise awareness of the disease.

Concept #3 – Gluten-free family night

It was tough to find quantifiable information about the success of restaurant family nights. While it seems that chain restaurants such as Pizza Hut and Chik-fil-A have built quite a following using family night, this initial concept does not seem conducive to scale or reproducability outside of an individual restaurant. While I have no doubt that a single restaurant could make great headway hosting a gluten-free family night, the success of that would depend greatly on the menu and price offerings, as well as the atmosphere of the restaurant and commitment of the staff. I'm not saying that there isn't room for innovation in this area, but I did not find information or numbers that made this concept feel right for my particular project.

After all this research and some deliberation, I would like to focus on the color-coding for safety concept, with maybe a bit of concept #2 (celebrate the difference) thrown in the mix. By combining bits and pieces of these ideas, I think it is possible to create a better experience for gluten-free diners that any restaurant could reproduce.