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.
