We have all been there. Road trip bathroom stop. You enter a bathroom, which appears to be decades old.  You are met by cobwebs, dirty puddles of who-knows-what, and a general stench in the air.  Almost a moisture you can’t escape.  You take care of business and proceed to the only part of the experience that could offer some respite: washing your hands.

Except the sink appears to be some disease cesspool.  But no worries, because you should not have to touch it.  Nope, again. You do because the sink is shallow. Oh, and also the water pressure is ridiculous. You put your hands under it and it sprays EVERYWHERE. Such was one of my recent ‘adventures’ at a Dunkin Donuts bathroom.

All I wanted was to wash my hands, but no.  I had to touch the sink and faucet and everything it has come in contact with and be sprayed by the stream of water reminiscent of a fire hydrant being emptied. (Also side note, the sink handles are also probably rank with germs.  Because it was not an automatic sink.)

Not all design issues are software related or even virtual. This is a very real world/physical design problem. Faucets/Sinks were never intended for anything but to clean your hands and your hands alone. Not to cause you to contract diseases or any other foul substances. Not to wet your shirt and jeans, causing embarrassment and shame. But to clean your hands. Why is this so difficult when implementing the design of a faucet?*head scratch* The goals seem straight forward to me: clean your hands. Somewhere along the process, goals were either lost or never existed in the first place.

The faucet should have been longer (look at how SHORT it is.)  What?  Who ok’ed that?  And the sink basin is like 3 feet long.  So unless you are some sort of orangutan or Mr. Fantastic, this sink is impractical and poorly designed.  It would appear the designers forgot to design this.. for humans.

I think, from what I have seen in the world, that the most fundamental processes of design are overlooked when a team designs a product, whether it be an app, a car, or a faucet and sink. It is crucial to first set your design goals when designing a product and second to constantly be returning to those goals throughout the process so as to not lose sight of what solution the product is offering.  Because while the sink thought it was getting my hands clean it was, in fact, only further making them unclean.