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Mar 21

Guys, gals... let's call a truce in the toilet seat wars

hacks, wtf?, berkeley, usability

Link: http://coe.berkeley.edu/engnews/Spring06/EN09S/toilet.html

So a few UC Berkeley ME students have designed a toilet that automates the process of raising and lowering the toilet seat.

Ladies, how many times have you gone to use the bathroom and the toilet seat is left in the unconscionable upright position by your boyfriend/brother/housemate/fill-in-the-blank? Gents, do you bristle every time you%u2019re asked/begged/nagged/fill-in-the-blank to put the toilet seat down? For years, this problem has left men and women flush with anger. No longer. A team of ME seniors (all men, most now alumni) promise peace with their new design called the Hands-Off Toilet, a bathroom system that automates the raising and lowering of the toilet seat and flushing process.

I've actually had on my blog-to-do list for a while this exact subject.

I realized a while back that this is essentially a usability problem... or better stated: This is a problem in differing user modes of use. The essential point is that guys have two modes of using the toilet; one requires sitting down and the other usually involves standing with the toilet lid raised (although this isn't required, of course). Gals, on the other hand, have only one mode: sitting down.

Women get bent out of shape because it can't be that hard for guys to remember to put the seat down. Guys get frustrated because it seems easy enough for a woman to look before they sit and adjust their behavior.

So the essential rub is this: women don't have to change their mode, so it's especially frustrating when something involving the one mode they participate in is different (the seat being up). Guys, on the other hand, have to look where they sit because they're accustomed to having to change their mode of use of the toilet.

So here's my proposal: guys could change their mode of use and save everyone the grief. Guys should sit.

UPDATE [2006-03-21T19:55:32]: Walking home, I realized how easy this is from a technological point of view. The mechanism is very simple: if the toliet is flushing and the seat is up, put it down. Duh. (Comments on this post are enabled for a bit.)

2 comments

  1. § Notta Spammer said on : 03/21/06 @ 21:01
    I've always thought the solution was to be found elsewhere. I reasoned thus: both men and women approach home toilets and find lids in both up and down states from time to time. Since both sexes sit (some more than others) both sexes, facing the same peril, have to do a lid up/down check before sitting or they will occasionally find themselves unpleasantly wet. The rule is: never sit where one hasn't first looked. This is a good rule for both sexes and a good rule even outside of bathrooms. A corollary of this rule then is that men have no special obligation to leave the lid in a particular position, because everyone looks before they sit.

    If this smacks of male favoritism I have always proposed an alternative argument: The proper placement of a (not currently occupied) lid is down and covered. No one wants to see or smell toilet water, and some house pets and toddlers are prone to be dangerously attracted to an uncovered lid. Therefore it is the obligation of both men and women to put down both the lid and its cover before leaving the bathroom.

    (Note that people who insist on the freedom to sit without having to look will face equal difficulty with this alternative rule because they will often find themselves pressed all-too-close to a fuzzy lid cover. I take this as further confirmation of the wisdom of the first rule and a reductio of the no-lookers view.)
  2. § joe® Email said on : 03/21/06 @ 21:14
    Oh Man, that's wonderful... the image a suprised no-looker sitting on a fuzzy toliet cover is hilarious. This theory of "always leaving the top lid down to incentivize looking where you sit" could be extended by covering the top lid with some truley perlious material... like nails, punk rock spikes, etc. Actually, that's a silly idea...
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