Photographer says: "These are the controls of the toilet in a restaurant in Ginza. Most of the toilets in Tokyo are remote-controlled. You can control the strength of the splashing water. I even saw one with a "flushing sound" button."
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Photographer says: "These are the controls of the toilet in a restaurant in Ginza. Most of the toilets in Tokyo are remote-controlled. You can control the strength of the splashing water. I even saw one with a "flushing sound" button."
No Ideas But In Things is a library of controls, animations, layouts, and displays that might be a source of inspiration for interaction designers. Dan Saffer is the curator.
The title comes from a William Carlos Williams poem.
This page contains a single entry from No Ideas But In Things posted on November 5, 2006 9:40 PM.
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Comments (2)
Beautiful. Also note the small bump on the second button in the bottom row—to ensure that no injuries happen when the toilet is used in the dark? Anyway, great photo, and those toilets are a blessing! ;)
Posted by Mathias Maul | November 6, 2006 1:35 AM
Posted on November 6, 2006 01:35
The small bump is the "mekura homu" or tactile indicator used by the blind/partially sighted to orientate on the UI. There are some conventions here but I think in this case they would have to have read the manual in advance for this to be useful.
Some other random observations:
The two buttons linked together (next to the floating woman) are given the group label "arse" (well, "bottom" or "posterior"), one with the word "mild" and the other with "powerful." The icon on each button indicates a water jet. Interestingly, these two buttons are labeled using transliterated English, as if the words needed some cultural distance (a bit like saying "a soupçon more" ) yet the native Japanese word for "bum" is used - indicating (to me, the amateur ethnographer at least) the lack of embarrassment about posterior ablution in Japan.
I can't see the third character labeling the jog shuttle, but that appears to be a "flow" control for a water jet - not sure though.
There are several opportunities for mode errors here which (I hope) are mitigated by the LCD display: the button above the jog shuttle labeled "wide jet" is toggled on/off, and the "dryer" button cycles though three strengths. My experience with toilet UI (although not great) indicates that mode errors are a problem though. If that jet feels rather, er, surprising, a lack of mode data makes you reluctant to try to alter it...
I do not, not do I want to, know what the "bidet" button does and how this is different from the general operation of the system.
Posted by Jonathan | November 8, 2006 7:54 AM
Posted on November 8, 2006 07:54