Public Toilets
We have all grown so accustomed to public toilets (I’m referring to the western-style toilets here) that we don’t notice a major usability flaw: sitting on the toilet seat is unsanitary.
Essentially, public toilet seats are seats that you shouldn’t sit on.
In some places, mainly the west coast, toilet seat covers are available in all restrooms. However, the east coast and much of the rest of the United States ignores the usability flaw. Other countries that have western-style toilets tend to ignore the problem as well.
The usability issue here is a flaw in the fundamental design of the western toilet. Eastern-style toilets do not have this problem; you use them by standing on two bricklike blocks and squatting, and there is no seat.
However, eastern-style toilets have a large usability problem that may be even more problematic than the seat issue of western-style toilets: squatting over an eastern-style toilet is an uncomfortable, unsanitary experience because you are squatting over a large, unsanitary basin in the ground. If you fall, you are immediately vulnerable to diseases, and falling is not uncommon. Furthermore, the bricks that you have to stand on are unsanitary.
In the end, I believe that the gaping usability flaws of western-style public toilets are smaller than the usability problems of eastern-style public toilets. Toilet design is something that most designers wish to avoid, and as a result, we have to live with the usability issues that have long been ingrained in the toilet.
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!!!i
