Introducing Integrated drainer to enhance the Bathroom experience

12 min readSep 10, 2023

SECTION 1 : INTRODUCTION

Step into the tale of how I created an Integrated Drainer for my Bathroom

Well It all started as we engaged in a friendly rivalry to claim our designated areas of our home for creating a new product that would enhance the experience.

Once I knew I was going to design a product to enhance experience in bathroom I pictured up what I was going to design at that moment itself only to find out later that it was all wrong because I didn’t have proper statements and explanations to support.

So let me take you take you on the journey of what all you will see in this study and how I actually created an Integrated Bathroom Drainer.

Section 2: A sneak peek to the final solution and its explanation.
Section 3: What is the Core Problem.
Section 4: Why and How I Identified the problem.
Section 5: Some Important decisions that I took during my journey and how did it Impact the outcome.
Section 6: Future scope of my project.
Section 7: Learnings that I gained from the journey.

SECTION 2: PRESENTING YOUR FINAL SOLUTION

Look into my final prototype of creating an “Integrated Drainer” for improving the experience in the bathroom.

Do you experience a sense of disgust when examining the drain where hair residue accumulates after bathing?

Well! Here’s my one end solution of an Integrated drainer which collects the remains in it and can be removed separately.

So this Integrated drainer consist of a drain along with a metal container.

This metal container holds the hair remains and it can removed by pulling up the knob that will be present above the drain. The excess water will be drained out from the container through the porous holes that is present on the side walls of the container.

Now this also prevents from water clogging in the bathroom while taking shower or cleaning when the holes of the normal drainer is blocked by the hair remains.

To mention the Knob is a round solid just above the metal rod that is handy.

SECTION 3: MY CORE PROBLEM

Now why was it Integrated Drainer? What made me decide on it?

I can name it as a micro opportunity that is, I selected a small part of a problem that users are facing and tried to improvise the experience at the micro level.

So to start off My Core problem was to solve the drain blockage problem that generally occurs with all users: when there is a lot of hair remains that get accumulated above the drainer which subsequently slows down the drain of water in the bathroom.

But while going micro in the given problem I found another problem which was the hair remains getting collected above the drainer and now I had confusion on which to take as my core problem.

I decided on taking up the micro problem as the core problem as the more and more micro I go the more precise my problem definition will be and the more accurate my solution will be.

SECTION 4: MY STORY OF HOW THE INTEGRARED DRAINER EVOLVED?

To kickstart the interview process, I began by preparing a set of questions in advance that I intended to ask the user. I opted to write these questions down on a piece of paper, capturing a wide range of inquiries that came to mind during my planning.

Formulating the questions posed its own challenge, and subsequently, the task of asking these questions to users proved to be quite difficult. This was primarily due to the sensitive and private nature of the bathroom as a space, which made it challenging for me to inquire about certain aspects.

Some Eye opening realizations that created a huge impact in my journey

So after these realizations hit hard I breezed down onto the Interview notes and two of my Users users mentioning about

So from these and my validated hypothesis of Unhygienic bathroom when hair remains are present in the bathroom , I concluded this would be my Core problem Hair accumulating in the bathroom drain.

I also realized that this is a common problem that is left unnoticed by a lot of users, so when I pulled upon in finding the solution which I thought will be easy but I had a lot of stop points where I couldn’t find feasible solution.

So I tried CRAZY 8 technique where, I had to do multiple runs on the same problem to brainstorm

all kind of solutions and then Choose the best feasible Idea among them and did a prototype on it.

SECTION 5: SOME IMPORTANT DECISIONS I TOOK THROUGHOUT THE JOURNEY

If you scrolling forward, Stop! this is what you are looking forward to because this is where my important decisions that led to the final product is revealed so heads up. This section will take you upon a coastal ride and wait until you experience it.

I will be discussing about what made me go up to my particular decision and how I prioritized one

Here is how I learnt the value of listening and made conversational questions after a couple of Interviews

So to begin with I had to start with the Interview for which I had prepared questions prior to ask the user. So I decided on writing it down on a piece of paper where I noted down all kinds of questions that came to me.

Bathroom was a private space for the users and I couldn’t bring myself up to ask certain questions to the users. So in the first I skipped a lot of spaces like the Commode, toilet flush and asked focused on the general space question like about the storage, placement of mirror, about the door lock and so on… only to find later while writing the notes and insights that they were not enough for concluding something and even if I did it was not an Insight of the bathroom but more about the storage cupboard or the lock system. So I mustered up my courage and starting asking proper(Real) questions to users about the bathroom space, commode space, water pressure, ventilation, drain system and many more.

There were a lot of mistakes I did in my Interview which I figured out after the subsequent interview

I also noticed that During the first 2 interviews I have asked direct Yes/No question to users for example I asked questions like “Do you take your clothes inside the bathroom for taking a bath?” instead of Conversational questions like “How do you dress after taking a bath?” which didn’t give a lot of information as the user anyway was only agreeing or disagreeing with me rather than explaining their routine.

There were times where I couldn’t ask the user any more question as I couldn’t engage with the user so that’s when the revised questions helped me.

Here is a glimpse of how I rephrased my questions:

These improvised questions led to insightful user responses, aiding in understanding their bathroom experiences a lot better.

Here is how I identified the problems from the User Interviews

After gaining insight into user’s bathroom experiences, I crafted a comprehensive user journey. This journey outlined actions at various stages, aligning with my hypotheses about what users did or might do. I then integrated information from all users into a cohesive map.

Since I had the journey of the users I thought it would be easy for me to note down the problems each users faced at particular point in the journey But even then it was difficult for me to find more problems as I didn’t go beyond the surface level problems.

So once again I revisited the Interview notes and found some opportunities where I can improvise the experience of the user, so I grabbed those opportunities and noted it down.

Here’s how I Identified the common Root cause from many different Problems

So after these realizations hit hard I breezed down onto the Interview notes and found two of my users mentioning about this Problem.

So after a lot of learnings I learnt that to simply put: “Any problem with solution given within itself is not a root problem”. For example for the problem “Users doesn’t have stand to put their clothes while bathing “ is a problem but the rooter for this lies in the predicate of the sentence “to put their clothes while bathing” as here the problem is the storage space which can be a wall mount, a cupboard, a rack, a sticky hook rather than the ‘presence of Stand’ that the user have mentioned. I began collecting down all the problems in this similar way.

Once I started noting down the rooter problems I anyway had to think a lot of possibilities in the activities of the user and had taken my time in noting down all sorts of problems , I didn’t initially concern myself with whether these issues had solutions or not. My primary goal was to uncover User problems, especially those that users themselves hadn’t recognized as problems, based on the interview insights.

Once I had some good amount of problems in my hand I had the confidence to move onto the next stage.

Here is how I prioritized the Final Idea

For the problems that I identified I had to prioritize the top problems for which I initially prioritized some problems on the basis of how efficiently they will enhance the experience of the user and also did not choose my hypothesis that was not validated. After these constraints and adding on to the fact that the problem that I must solve should benefit each user in one or the other way .

During CRAZY 8 for each problem a timer of 8 minutes is put and for each minute I had to write down 1 solution. This method of crazy eight was fun until the first 2 solutions because they were easy to be found and written but after the 2nd minute and idea I took up 2 minute for an idea and it extended for the next corresponding solutions. I came to a point where I had to do multiple crazy eight for a single problem as I couldn’t go beyond some ideas. Later to find out that for some problems I couldn’t come up with more than 4–5 solutions even after using multiple crazy eights. That’s when I found that the better my problems were defined the better and precise my solutions would be.

So again I went back to my Interview notes and did a refined User journey and then defined my problems. Now I used these problems for creating my Ideas and this time I had a quick shot of Ideas during my crazy eight but again there there were Problems that I couldn’t find more solutions even after multiple crazy eights but anyway I thought It would get better and moved on.

Here is how I did my prototype and tested it with Users

So I Started drawing my paper prototype of the product which I had in my mind. I somehow had to put everything that I had in my mind in multiple sketches adding all the features that I had planned. But later on I didn’t have much knowledge on certain system and connections in and out of the drain system due to which I couldn’t implement features that will remove the waste itself without doing it manually.

Subsequently, my limited understanding of specific drain system components and connections hindered my ability to incorporate automated waste removal features, necessitating manual intervention.

Also while prototyping I had the fear of how well the users would understand and react to the product, so I had to make sketches and added functionalities up to the level of the understanding of the users.

I had one big realization during the prototype stage that I was solving a Micro problem, to note that I knew I need to solve micro problem only then I would know the problem the user is facing and will be able to solve that problem, If i did not go micro then the solution that I will be solving will be an overall solution

To put it simple this prototype is for the micro problem “Hair accumulating above the drain” of the overall drain problem that the users are facing.

I thought I was heading in the right direction until I came into a phase where I had to test my prototype with my users for their feedback and I was suprised ! They(2 of them) didn’t understand the prototype at the first go and I had to give a detailed explanation to them. One of them told that they could not Imagine the working of the product in real life. So all I could do for that user was making an detailed prototype in the next session and explained it to them.

When I presented those detailed sketches to the next group of users, I received a suggestion to make the holder accessible with legs for user convenience. Additionally, it was recommended to lengthen the knob so that users wouldn’t have to bend down to reach the drainer knob.

Regarding the first suggestion, my concern was that if the holder is accessible with legs, there’s a risk that users might inadvertently step on the drainer, requiring waste collection. Therefore, I chose not to make changes to my iterated prototype.

SECTION 6 : FUTURE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

Here is how i will be taking over this project further

While no product can be absolutely perfect, I aim to make mine as excellent as possible. If I have the time and opportunity to work on this project, here’s what I plan to do:

By all these future scope my goal is to create a product that continually evolves to meet the changing needs and expectations of the users.

SECTION 7: KEY LEARNINGS

The entire product design journey has been a rich learning experience for me, and I’ve had additional insights as I wrote the case study and worked on its draft.

I wanted to add more than YOU=!USER in this

Some of them include

Prepare questions beforehand while going for an interview but just don’t stick to those questions rather engage in conversations with the users for better insights.
Listen to what the user is saying and bring out a designers point of view from seeing it in the users point of view
Dig in deep and find as many as possible problems and solutions and then from a point start bringing them down to a problem and a solution with proper reasoning how you came to that problem and solution as you cannot solve every problem that he users are facing
Make notes at each stage of the process so that it will easier while connecting the dots at the end of the project
DO NOT think of finding a perfect problem and a solution because they simply don’t exist just focus on enhancing the users experience better with an Imperfect product

I’d like to know if the case study is self-explanatory. Additionally, I’d appreciate your insights on the pivotal decisions I made that influenced the final product.

Special thanks to UX Anudeep for their valuable guidance throughout this journey. Thank you for dedicating your time to read my case study. Stay tuned for the next one; I look forward to sharing it with you soon!

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