As a very frequent traveler
, I see a lot of paper towel dispensers.
Most of them represent the worst in design.
A good designer can make even complex mechanical objects simple to use. But why is this so rarely applied to paper towel dispensers?
I have a rule, if you need to label a paper towel dispenser, you have failed as a designer. (For that matter, if you need to label a door ‘Push or Pull’ you have truly failed.)
The dispenser pictured failed on two accounts.
1) The “Pull with both hands” should be a reminder to the user that the designers failed to take into account that a users hands are often wet when grabbing the sliver of exposed paper towel. As a result, the towel will fail to retain that modicum of strength required to get the towel out.
2) Once that sliver of exposed paper towel disappears the user requires additional instruction to turn the knob on the side of the dispenser to get more paper towel.
This is not an old dispenser, I took a picture of this dispenser in a recently renovated bathroom in the Portland, Oregon airport.
Contrast this with the paper towel dispenser now seen more and more often, the Georgia-Pacific enMotion.
A picture of a waving hand in front of a small window is all that the user needs to know about how to operate this dispenser. Such a dispenser works, and works well.
Though I’m biased (I worked with Georgia-Pacific for over a year in the early 2000′s) but also had the opportunity to have lunch (in a diner in Green Bay, WI) with the designers of this paper towel dispenser and learned how well it is designed.
- “D” cell – This thing runs on a single ‘D’ cell battery, and should last over a year on a single battery.
- The plastic is barely see-through. Why? The user can see if the paper towel has ran out and can move on to another dispenser, but not get distracted by it’s mechanical contents.
- Length – Settings inside the dispenser control how much paper towel is dispensed each time.
- Wait – Settings inside the dispenser control how long the user must wait until the next towel.
- Pre or Post – An additional setting controls whether a towel should be ‘at the ready’ or spit out when the user activates it.
As a result, the dispenser can be setup to prevent that ’4 foot paper towel guy’ to dry damp hands or customized to keep nicely square towels on the ready for a kitchen.
It’s very economical to operate, looks cool and the user is usually left not even aware they had an encounter with a paper towel dispenser. This is a function of good design.
I hope that you’ll never see a paper towel dispenser in the same way again.
- The Traveling Trini
