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An user-friendly location-based mobile application that helps users locate the nearest available restroom quickly
Toiletor
“It will be great to not have to worry about going to a dirty place when you can find better places through the app."
The NYPD issues between 20,000 and 30,000 citations for public urination each year. According to the independent survey (Summer, 2017), about 83% of participants visiting or living in New York City have been challenged with finding a nearby public restroom, meaning that almost three out of four people on the street of NYC will struggle to find a clean, available restroom when they need to go quickly.
The mission is simple: solve this exact problem of locating the nearest, available restroom by building a mobile application that informs users where and how to get to the nearest public restroom quickly and easily.
Key Research Findings
Pain Point
Limited Information: Today, most people rely on google maps to search for the nearest cafe, but it does not provide them with any more useful information beyond the location
Recommendation
Build select differentiating features that other apps do not have, notably filters and favorite page that users want to see. Critical information to collect and display is:
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Restrooms’ hours
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Cleanliness
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Length of line
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Accessibilities (customer use only and passcode)
Provide an accurate, up-to-date list of all public restrooms along with their information
Competitive Analysis
There are many similar apps such as "Sit or Squat", "Flush Toilet Finder", and "Bathroom Scout" that already exist in the market. However, they do not provide any detailed information such as availability and cleanliness which is what sets Toiletor apart from the existing apps.
Sit or Squat
Flush Toilet Finder
Bathroom Scout
Toiletor
Location
Tracking
Filtering
Information
Visit History
Customer
Review
Business
Model
Free​
Ads Sale
Paid App
$0.99
Ads Sale
Features were identified and added to the Must-Have based on the research findings, the 4 Toiletor:
Accessibility
Customer Engagement
Accessibility
People can easily access the information that they need to know about the restroom
Data Filtering
users can selectively use the filters to obtain the information that they need or would like to know
Data Filtering
Reliable Information
Coustomer Engagement
Customers can rate, write reviews on each restroom and update the restroom availability, creating a feedback loop and network effect that enhance the contents of the app as user base grows over time.
Reliable Information
Toiletor only publishes the information that have been validated by app manager.
Persona
"There's got to be a better way to find a nearby restroom than use Google Maps. I just haven't come across one yet."
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Rosa has been living in New York for almost 3 years. Her school is located in Brooklyn, but she often goes to Manhattan to hang out with her friends. She loves everything about the city except when she too often has trouble finding the public restroom when she needs to go. She has a sensitive stomach, thus not being able to locate the restroom quickly bothers her more than other people.
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Also, even when she ends up locating the restroom, she gets surprised and frustrated by the long line and/or uncleanliness of the toilet. She wishes she had known about the wait time and condition of the restroom before she chooses to go there.
Rosa Martin
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College Student
Female
Age 21
Hobby: Hiking and Traveling
Personality: friendly, impatient, curious
Goal: graduate with Honors and lands a job in NYC
Card Sorting Project
Arranging/Rearranging information to create navigation
Design Process
After collecting useful insights from the interviews (Primary Research), I engaged others to participate in the card-sorting activity in order to create a navigation that makes sense for users. It turned out that many participants categorized the words in different ways. Some recommended words that I never expected to embed in the navigation bar. Then, I began to mock up user flows before creating a low-fidelity prototype. With feedback from TAs and classmates at General Assembly, the prototype was constantly refined, user-tested and iteracted.
Card Sorting / User Flow / Prototype
Usability Test
I conducted usability test through InVision (an online prototyping, collaboration and workflow
tool) with over five of my potential users. I prepared three major tasks that each participant was asked to do during the testing. Here are key insights drawn from the test that influenced the design decision:
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The alert box appeared to the first-time users after they launch the application asking permission to access their location information. Some users were a bit hesitant to share their current location information.
⟶ Pop up contents were altered with more friendly and descriptive language to ensure users that their location
information is protected and would be not shared with any third parties.
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Many participants were looking for a search bar on the main page as they wanted to have an option of locating a place through typing its name.
⟶ Search bar was added on top of the application page and the filter was relocated as well.
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'Rate Page' was one of the navigation menus where users could rate the restrooms or leave comments. However, during the testing, I noticed that users frequently clicked the restroom located on the map to access the rate page, not through the Rate Page on the navigation bar.
⟶ Removed Rate Page from the navigation bar and add rate page separately on the restroom page.
Final Products
As mentioned above, Toiletor was developed with focus on incorporating four core differentiating features and characteristics (filtering data, customer involvement, easy accessibility, and reliable information).
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Let's explore its functions below!
Let's Flush -> Toilocator -> Toiletor
Main Page
User's location
Toilet paper icon refers to a restroom location in the map. Based on the rate of the restroom, the icon's color becomes darker (bad) or lighter (good).
Users are easily able to search for restrooms using filters. Finding nearest restrooms is a default criteria.
Users can view the rate of the restrooms before they click to look at the details of restroom information.
The notification pops up when users open the app for the first time. It is necessary to collect user's location information to search for the nearest restroom.
Filters provide more options for restrooms. When users click the search bar, the typing bar comes up to search the locations by words
Rate/Navigate page
Additional information about the restroom: availability, number of bathroom stalls, and distance from the user
This button lets users start the navigation on the map
Going back to Main Page
Add this restroom to Favorite page
Once operators click the toilet paper icon, the Restroom Page pops up and they can view the details of restroom information
This button navigates to rate page
Going back to Restroom Page
This is Rate Page, where users can rate and write a review about the restroom. They can also view the rates and comments from others.
After users push complete button on Rate Page, this pop up appears and it leads to Hisotry Page or Restroom Page.
Favorite Page/History Page
Favorite Page is where users can save their favorite restrooms and edit their list. They can directly go to Restroom page when they click one of the restrooms on the lists.
Users can get a stamp on their "coupon" when they finish rating or writing comments on the restroom that they visited
Revisit user's rate and comment history
This page shows bathroom history.
Duration: 3 moths (June 2017-August 2017)
Project Name: Toiletor_restroom finder app
Instructors: Dom Propati, Rafa Torres, and Alisa Kharakozova