Research on Innovative Design and Usability of Toilet Dedicated for Both Sexes Applied in Vibrating Environments

• Main Authors: Hsueh-Yao Chen, 陳學嶢
• Other Authors: Ding-Bang Luh
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/93712748174546718188

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 工業設計學系碩博士班 === 94 === Taiwan is promoting cultural and tourism industries. The quality of public toilet environments and facilities is one important index for industrial development and living standard of a nation. Toilet spaces in transportation vehicles (airplane, ship, train, and bus) are usually narrow and unstable and used by both sexes. Public toilets as such are frequently accessed by the public and tourists. In mobile environment, due to low toilet bowl in height and instability of the vehicle, the surrounding gets filthy easily, resulted from urine contamination of male users in particular. The next user conceives of an unsanitary facility and tends to adopt nonstandard posture to use. Employing abnormal posture might cause miss droppings and more pollution; Worsen toilet quality induces improper use of the facility, resulting in a vicious cycle. Concentrated on the above problems, a new toilet design dedicated for both sexes is developed, which integrates an urinal for male and a bowl for female. The research focuses on Toilet Dedicated for Both Sexes, a new toilet designed for both sexes (a combination of an urinal and a bowl friendly to both standing male users and sitting female users, ROC invention patent number I241905). “Observation on adopting behavior” and “ergonomic measurements” are conducted to explore the innovation recognition, adoptability and relevant ergonomic issues of the product in a vibrating environment of transportation. Special test equipments such as vibrating environment test procedure, vibrating platform, urination simulator and infrared ergonomics positioning systems are also developed in this research. Test result indicates that innovative unisex toilet is highly adoptable, and that male users tend to straddle wider than their shoulder lengths and slightly squat to lower the center of gravity for a better balance while urinating in a vibrating environment. The research also suggests the following ways to reduce urine spilling outside the toilet: (1) mark guiding signs to indicate ideal standing position on the ground; (2)design urinals with drawn-back upper fronts that allow male users to stand closer; (3) design urinals with a 15 degree inward-inclined urinal wall to reduce urine incidence; (4)design smaller urinals to improve user’s concentration while urinating.