The document provides an overview of a development project focused on improving the public perception of public restrooms. It discusses common nuisances faced by users, such as a lack of privacy and cleanliness. Research included visits to local restrooms and interviews with users. Analysis found users were uncomfortable with shared and dirty spaces. The concept presented is a modular restroom system centered around a self-cleaning toilet pod called an "Escape Pod." The pod aims to provide privacy, cleanliness and sustainability through features like a steam-cleaned seat, integrated hand dryer and water recycling. A prototype was built to demonstrate the concept. Further business development is discussed to commercialize the improved public restroom experience.

1. Changing Public Perception
Highlighting nuisances faced by the public
Development Project Report
2015

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Preface
Going to the bathroom is a private experience, but outside your home this is not
always the case.
If we take for example the hotel business, for the hotel the costumer is king. They try
to cater for his/her every need. They are given a private room, they can order
personal meals to their room etc. So what we see from that is that they try very hard
to create a perception that a costumer is an Individual i.e a person with
PERSONAL/PRIVATE needs and for a great experience all those needs will be met.
So it’s an ecosystem where the costumer is in the limelight. This kind of attitude
creates value for the costumer. Makes them feel good/special.
But then again the public bathroom in the lobby gives off a totally different feeling. All
of a sudden what should be a private experience becomes a very public/shared
experience. Now everything is shared. The only small part of privacy left for you is a
small booth with a toilet inside. You are no longer thought of as a person with
PERSONAL/PRIVATE needs but as a part of a crowd, part of the group who all visit
the hotel, part of the list of numbers on the Excel table for the quarterly economic
report. With this the illusion on privacy and feeling something special is lost.
This doesn’t only apply to the hotel business. Any business that relies on the
costumer to stay with them or keep coming back to them, any business that wants
the costumer to feel special can face this kind of effect.
If we think of how most public bathrooms are laid out right now than it doesn’t feel
like a personal experience.
You can almost see that the owners’ train of thought was that the PEOPLE need a
bathroom to relieve them self. This is where the problems start.
Think of the standard/classic public bathroom. You have a room with different
equipment spread around – sinks, urinals, toilet booths, hand dryers etc. People are
coming in and out, using different equipment in different ways. Somebody is washing
their hands, someone is checking themselves in the mirror and someone is just
exiting a booth. So this very private experience is now done, shared and witnessed
by everybody. You can see every little thing someone does and the same applies to
you. This creates a situation where everyone’s private space and feeling of privacy is
being invaded by everyone else. The word uncomfortable comes to mind.
We have gotten so used to the classic way of doing things. We have accepted the
problems that come with it on some levels so we just try to get it over with and get

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out of there. So designing something to make you feel a little bit better/safer or help
you get out of there quicker is almost like trying to put out a fire with a glass of water.
It’s like we have accepted it as the only way to go and just try to patch the holes.
So what we want to do is to take a step back, look at the whole experience and say:
“This is flawed from the beginning – a private experience made public.”
What we propose is to put the PRIVACY back into the PRIVATE EXPERIENCE of
going to the bathroom in a public place.
What if you could have a feeling privacy in a place classically considered public. Not
having to share your private experience. Not having to share the SPACE. For a
moment it’s all for you. For a moment you are considered as a PERSON with
PERSONAL/PRIVATE needs. You are a king and this is your throne.
It’s about communicating to the customer that they are cared for. For a business this
is very important if they want to have a positive image. A positive image brings in
more customers, more income.
We want to change the experience. Shape it. Through that we also hope to change
the perception of public bathrooms. Create value for the owners by creating positive
emotions/memories for the user (where before were mainly negative ones).

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Chapter 1
Introduction

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About us
Team
Hafiz Abdul Manan Taavet Pärenson Pranay Kenkre
Mechanical Engineer Designer and Craftsman Industrial Engineer
We are an interdisciplinary team with backgrounds in Industrial design,
Mechanical engineering and Production engineering.
We took a D&E approach to our project and did multidisciplinary team work to
achieve our goals
Supervisors
Martin Pärn - Professor from the Estonian Academy of Arts
Ruth-Helene Melioranski - Researcher at Tallinn University of Technology
Peter McGrory - Visiting Professor from Aalto University
Janno Nõu - Teaching assistant and D&E veteran

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Aim
The initial objective of the spring semester
project was to find common nuisances in
the public areas.
Public toilets were highlighted as one of the
area with most nuisances, mostly based on
personal experiences, we then sought out
to research the problems and find the root
causes along with how to mitigate them
using both design and engineering.

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Chapter 2
Research

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Focus
● General user perspective about public toilets.
● Reasons for reluctance to use public washrooms.
● Common nuisances faced by users.
● Which touch points in the washrooms user feels are the most infected
● What precautions users take before and while using the public loos?
● What user expects to be changed in the existing public washrooms?
● What are the unspoken demands of the users?
Methodology
Visits
Personal visits were made by the team
to local washrooms. Washrooms at
venues like malls, theatres, tourist
spots, hotels were visited. Hands-on
experience was taken to identify the
flaws in existing public loos.
Team managed to arrange a meeting
with manager of a well known luxury
hotel in town. Their perspective
towards public loos also influences the final design of the product.

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Interviews
We set out to interview users to find out
more about their impressions and
thoughts on the topic. We were seeking
information about how users behaved in
the toilets, what are some of the
nuisances that they can tell us about,
and do they agree with our personal
experience?
We were also fortunate enough to get a
sitting with the manager of a renowned hotel in Tallinn and get their view on
this topic, the findings encouraged us to pursue the topic and get different
viewpoints on this huge industry
.
Online survey
Anonymous online survey was conducted involving
people from varied demographics. It is observed that
people do not wish to share their washroom
experiences. The survey was aimed at getting people to
share their step by step experience at a public
washroom. We tried to understand what the user
expected at every stage of his/her washroom
experience.

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Chapter 3:
Analysis

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Team visits to the local public washrooms gave
the following insights:
 Difficulty in identifying if the
washroom is occupied.
 Wet toilet seat.
 Flush lever is a major infected touch
point.
 Washroom door handle can be a nasty
touch point.
 There is no proper arrangement for
storage of luggage.
Statistical outcome of the survey:
 56% of people are not comfortable using public toilets.
 34% of people find it difficult to know if the toilet is occupied or not.
 89% of people find that there is no adequate place for their belongings.
 36% of people try not to sit on toilet seat.
 75% of people do not touch or are concerned about touching a door handle
in a public toilet.

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User map
● A detailed user map was plotted to analyze
the user route.
● Extreme users were given personas and then
each persona would hop through each touch
point, effectively role-playing the scenario.
● We then gave different scenarios to our
users,( by using sticky notes) eg a backpack,
a purse and then they would hop through
again.
● Problem areas at every stage of his/her
washroom experience are identified.
● Touch points at every stage are pointed out.
● How experience of a hygienic user is spoilt by
an unhygienic previous user, has been
highlighted.
Public Toilet industry has a lot
of stakeholders which include:
1. Common Users
2. Contractors which maintain the public spaces
and charge for it
3. Toilet manufacturing companies which make
different appliances.
4. Contractors which put together the
appliances to build together toilet spaces
5. And finally the owners of these spaces.
EXISTING SOLUTIONS

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TOILET SEAT SHAPED TISSUE PAPERS ANTIBACTERIAL SPRAY
SELF CLEANING TOILETS UV LIGHT CLEANING
TOILETS WITH REMOTE DOOR INDICATORS
Chapter 4

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Ideation
For us creating a new piece of a puzzle was not an option. We wanted to
change and control the entire experience. Thus we needed to create
something that has it all – a central unit.

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Central unit
For the Central unit we started out with very different idea how to combine
features, make it accessible and how to approach the design.
At one point a decision was made to take us on a new path and truly make us
different from the competitors.
The theme of the design came from a name we gave our project – Escape Pod.
This name became the driving force that helped us tie it all together by giving
us a theme – sci-fi.
Following were the key points that we agreed on before going on with the
design of the central unit
-It should be combined
Meaning that it should include all the necessities, this decision was made
because we wanted to save space as well as make less hassle for the user to
user our toilet. Lastly including the business aspect of this product we wanted
to
-It should give out a feeling of liberation.
We really struggled with our theme as seen below from the initial sketches, we
knew what we had to include in our product but we needed a theme to wrap
the product in. During our branding class we were brain storming the different
names for our product and experimenting with different themes, and the
theme of Space stood out very strongly to us most importantly the picture of
the astronaut walking in a space suit above the earth.
We thought that it very neatly tied our different values: Hygiene, Privacy,
Space and introspection

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Design Theme
Space... The final frontier
Central Unit_In progress

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Modular WC system
From a rather early stage we knew we needed to have an environment that we
could control. We played around with different layout but finally settled on a
shape that works with the Central unit we designed.
It was designed to support the central unit and other support units needed for
recycling and maintenance without compromising the feeling of space and
privacy. With this system we can create different layouts depending on
location and different types of surroundings.
Pod Should Be Solitary and Visible
We reached this conclusion after discussing a lot of possibilities, we wanted
the architecture to embrace the toilets and make it an integral part of the
architecture rather than tucked away in the corner, we wanted them to be
embraced rather then discarded.
Having a solitary space meant that one has more privacy, one takes less space,
and lastly since each pod is a closed environment, having one pod dirty would
not affect the other booths.
It should give out a feeling of spaciousness to the user
We wanted to make the shape of the pod so that it gives out the feeling of
space to the user sitting on the
toilet seat.
We experimented with different
shapes and made 1:1 mockup of
the wall space using cardboard,
we found that within reasonable
limits the hexagonal shape is one
of the best for giving out the
impression of space and hence we
chose that. We also found out
later that it agrees with our theme
of space and scifi.
Space_The Sign

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Booth Concepts

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Main UnitSupport Unit
Small
Support Unit
Large
Modular Concept

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Modular Concept
Modular Concept_Built it

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Chapter 5
Final Concept

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Product Overview:
The final concept is a Central unit that combines and refines all the different
features needed to create a new experience.
Different technologies are used to achieve this:
1. Steam Cleaning toilet seat system
2. Water Conservation system / Container
3. Integrated Hand-Dryer
Steam Cleaning Toilet Seat:
The Toilet Seat was one of the most important points that needed our
attention, since in the minds of the people this is the most infectious area.
The steam cleaning system consists of nozzles in the toilet lid, these nozzles
when they are pressed into the seat will release high pressure steam which
then cleans the seat along with warming it.
It was important that the user itself does some action because we wanted to
force the point that the seat is clean.
We had our inspiration from the people who took toilet paper and used it to
make a cover for them to sit on.
Even though hygienically it doesn’t make any difference, it was important cue
for us if we wanted to change the perception of our toilet.

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Water Conservation system
One of our core values was sustainability. The world is increasingly utilizing
the natural resources of earth and it is vital for us designers and engineers to
keep that in mind.
The water conservation system in Escape-Pod works by conserving the water
used to wash hands in a tank and then using it for flush when it’s needed.
This results in almost 50% reduction in water used.
Integrated Hand-Dryer
One of the most common nuisance that users feel is the drying of hands.
Drying of hands using the tissues is the most common but it requires labor and
is not cheap. Frequent visits are required by the staff to keep the quantity in
check.
Furthermore the trash bins in the washrooms are normally full and they have
to be emptied which incurs extra labor cost.
Hand-drying using air is cost effective which eliminates all the hassles that are
described above.
In order to find the perfect hand-drying solution we chose a mechanism which
uses a high pressure air film to effectively ‘brush’ the water off your hand.
We placed it in front of the unit in order for it to be most effective. We found
that it’s a hassle with wet hands if you have to travel the length of the
washroom with dripping hands in order to dry them.
The hand-dryer is conveniently placed in front of the sink so you can use it as

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soon as you have finished washing your hands. This eliminates hassle, prevents
unnecessary movement and saves space.

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Chapter 6
Prototype

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Chapter 7
Business

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Although we didn’t thoroughly develop the business plan we still did a lot of
work exploring the possibilities that can be done using our product.
Business model
Our business model was made as to gain full control over the spaces where our
toilets are installed in order to fully optimize the experience.
Therefore our company will be divided into two work groups:
1. Production Group
Will organize and maintain the production of the central unit, it will ensure
that the demand is being met, in addition this group will also further research
the central unit in order to continue to the development process.
2. Field Group
This group will assist the contractors in the design of the washrooms, their
proximity, certain do’s and don’ts with regards to the installation of the central
unit and other different factors.
Target group:
Our target group is aimed towards:
- Shopping Malls
- Office Spaces
- Private users
Strategy:
1. We aim to make the first prototype by pooling together our own
resources. This working prototype we will use to present in different
competitions and investor summits.
2. We then hope to raise enough capital via crowdfunding to make a
decent facility which can roll out enough units

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SWOT analysis
Strength
1. Innovations: Integrated hand-dryer and ergonomic design.
2. User Friendly product.
3. Economically feasible in long run due to less resources
4. Planet friendly with water saving and potential to get a sustainability
grant
Weakness
1. High end product in a saturated market
2. People are reluctant to talk about toilets as a luxury experience.
3. Less units produced means that production cost will be high.
Opportunity
1. The world getting increasingly smaller due to travelling generation, the
community services are getting more and more popular. (Airbnb, Public
Transport)
2. People need some time to get away from all the chaos to immerse in
themselves. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with
information we can capitalize on the fact that we are giving privacy to
you in the world that is so interlinked now.
Threats
1. A very niche product, this might not appeal to the general masses.
2. Existing contractors might not appreciate the change.