Problem Statement

Our user needs to find a public restroom in a hurry so they can avoid an embarrassing situation. Users also might need to find restrooms frequently or need to use public restrooms on longer trips. We want to provide urgent and planning ahead tools to support efficient, stressless restroom breaks.

Solution

Build an app that can help users locate nearby public restrooms with the minimum amount of clicks and also include features that allow users to proactively, even automatically, find public restrooms that meet their filtered needs.

Tools

Figma, FigJam, Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, Google Drive/Docs/Slides/Sheets, InVision, Zoom, Slack,Trello

Duration

4 Weeks

Team Members

Fayeka Fateh | Heather Dadmanesh | April Hong

In this research project, we planned and conducted 4 recorded 1:1 Zoom interviews with people of various ages and backgrounds. We conducted additional qualitative research with 1 open-ended, anonymous questionnaire in the event that users might be reluctant to talk about public restrooms. We tried to understand the users’ thought process about the motivations and challenges they face when they are trying to find public restrooms.

Objective 1: Demographic objective: age, daily life

Objective 2: What tools do users use when trying to locate a public restroom?

Objective 3: What challenges do our users face when they are trying to locate a public restroom?

Objective 4: Do our users or their companions have any medical or other issues that cause restroom stress?

This user is a busy sales executive who often drinks coffee to stay alert in different time zones while traveling for work. She often finds herself in unfamiliar places.

Because she is rather organized and tidy herself, she has similar expectations for her surroundings but she can also adapt when necessary.

Some of her pain points:

• Impossible to find public restrooms in the city.
• During Covid, people were not allowed to use restaurant restrooms.
• Dirty/broken toilets that are not usable.
• Does not want to buy something just to use the restroom.

Key Learning from User Tests

We listened to user feedback and also watched users click on the app screens, taking notes about stumbling blocks. The matrix to the right lists the features that we iterated or are in process of iterating, and the following pages illustrate some of our key revisions.

Collaboration:

Our group of three were great collaborators. Our skills complemented each other and we REALLY enjoyed working together and learning from one another. We probably should/could have delegated tasks to one another but the synergy of doing most tasks together seemed to be the correct way for us.

Tools:

When working together in Figma, we sometimes stepped on each other’s fingers, and “Control Z” became our favorite phrase. When we zoomed out on the Figma board and saw the spaghetti lines connecting all of the app screens, it felt like we were creating magic together. Even though overlays would not behave and we needed to consult YouTube on a daily basis to find fixes or workarounds, we managed to find errors together and show each other how to solve problems. We all were willing to push ourselves to add something that will make the app better. Quick surveys in Google Forms were handy tools for getting quick responses.

Testing:

Technical glitches with Usability Testing setups (e.g., User’s iPad would not play the prototype, weak internet connection voided another test, phone would not upload prototype properly possibly because file was heavy, etc.) created the need to schedule additional testing at a later moment, which meant that iterations could have been more efficient if testing had gone according to plan.