Restroom UX

Experiences are what life is all about in my opinion. I find myself exploring experiences even when on vacation.

Over the weekend, I was in New Orleans at a restaurant called Deanies in the French Quarter and I had to go to the ladies room. After I washed my hands, I dried them with a paper towel and was going to use said towel to pull the door handle. And then I noticed this…

A sanitary door opener! Wow! You use your forearm to open the door.

There have been many times I have seen people in the ladies room walk out without washing their hands (no judgement here, just not my thing.) I like to use a paper towel to open the door or my shirt if there are no paper towels.

Talk about user experience…I had never seen one of these before. Yes, I pulled out my phone in the bathroom, but I had to. I thought this was amazing!

Seeing this door made me think about people who are not able to grip a handle and how this type of opener could benefit them. UX and accessibility are never far from my mind. In addition to being sanitary this door was also accessible for some.

It’s a gift for someone to do something they couldn’t do before and something as simple as opening a door is something most of us take for granted. This door may not work for everyone but it will work for a lot more people than without it and you don’t have to touch the door handle to get out the bathroom.

As things move forward technologically we must remember to keep in mind all of those who may use our products. We need to do our research, work with our users and make great products for those we can.

Who knew going to the restroom while on vacation would bring about the thoughts it did? Going to the restroom is something we do everyday, using technology is something we use everyday. It’s up to us to make things better day by day.