Yes, it is a Dyson.
But even the best can fail.
The Dyson hand dryer was a pretty “far out” contraption when it came it out. It completely changed the way people dried their hands. It looked cool, it was new, and it was different. Wow!
The wow factor can be blinding.
I was amazed how quickly the sale of this product spread. Before you knew it, it was in airports, universities, shopping centres, and new office building toilets. Seemed it was everywhere. I guess interior designers and architects wanted to be seen as being on the cutting edge. And what better way to do that than to have the latest bathroom gizmo, by the coolest inventor at the time.
Dyson Dyson Dyson, he’s so hot right now.
But once you get over the wow factor, you start to notice the problems.
Firstly, the position of your hands/arms when using the dryer are particular. And by particular I mean awkward, not ergonomic, and not natural. A very odd design flaw considering the hands/arms are at the heart of this product. How could they get that one wrong?
Secondly, the gap in which you insert your hands is too narrow, and once you enter you hands you need to hold the position firm, such that the air does not blow your hands onto the air outlets…eeww. So, you need to move your hands up and down passing through the air “blade”, that’s one movement, while at the same time holding strong ensuring the air doesn’t blow your hands backwards or forwards, that’s another movement. It’s a tad complicated.
And thirdly, water collects at the bottom of the opening. Toilet, water, dirty…it gets messy pretty quickly, and kind’a disgusting.
So yes, even the best fail. And yes,
even failures succeed.
Budget, time, laziness, greed, not enough testing, the board on you back, different goals, whatever.. there are many reasons why bad design happens.
So, Dyson hand dryer innovative? Yes.
Dyson hand dryer bad design? Yes.
But plenty of opportunity to improve.
Citizenrod | art | design | think