Can we design a product for everyone? A Look at the Design of Water Fountains
The old standard water fountains that we see in buildings usually come in two sizes and they are almost always placed side-by-side. What could this choice indicate? When my teammate and I decided to take a closer look at redesigning the water fountain, we came to the conclusion that since the water fountain station comes in two different sizes maybe the designer intended to cater to people of different heights. Instead of having two water fountains that may or may not cater to everyone, why not create one water fountain that caters to “everyone”.
We went over to the water fountain in our building and acted as if we were going to use it. We noticed that for someone to be able to drink from the water fountain they would have to bend their backs which might be a strain for taller people or people with back conditions. We also noticed that the old standard water fountain might also be a concern for people who cannot easily reach the fountain due to their height or their physical condition. These are all assumptions that we made. We didn’t do any user research testing to see what people thought about the design of water fountains.
With the assumptions that we made, we created a prototype of a new water fountain that automatically adjusts to you based on the placement of your face. Now when you approach the water fountain all you have to do is stand in front of it and open your mouth and the water will go directly into your mouth.
Prototype
When we presented the prototype to another team they brought up some concerns and good points that we haven’t considered before. One concern that they brought up was the pressure/force that the water will be going into someone’s mouth. Is the water fountain practical? If someone wants to stop the water from coming out do they just close their mouth or press a button? All of this questioning got us to think about different options of input and output. This also got us to think about whether redesigning the water fountain is solving the problem that we intended or just making a water fountain more complicated than it needs to be.
Can we design a product for everyone?
While doing research on how to can design a product for everyone, I found that in order to design a product for everyone your design should be accessible, inclusive and usable. We were primarily focused on the accessibility aspect of the water fountain but we didn’t stop to think about the usability and inclusivity of the fountain. Since we built this prototype based on our assumptions of potential problems, we based the design of the water fountain based on our needs and requirements but we didn’t consider and understand the needs of different people. It is possible to design a product for everyone but we would need to consider the different needs and abilities of our intended audience and gather feedback on what works and doesn’t work.
