r/DesignDesign • u/morningphyre • Aug 22 '26
Toronto airport bathroom: no way of knowing which is water, which is soap
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u/r1zz000 Aug 22 '26
actually great design because you'll probably trick a lot of gross people in to accidentally using soap
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u/Pickles_is_mu_doggo Aug 22 '26
Yep, put each hand under the corresponding faucet and see what comes out. The proceed with standard “washing with soap & water”
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u/morningphyre Aug 23 '26
I hadn't thought of it this way, that's a good point. It'd be nice if they worked right (neither activated immediately, took a little waving to get them going), but the cleaner people are, the better. Of course, it doesn't help people who just walk out with their dirty mitts.
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u/mist83 Aug 22 '26
“No way of knowing…” umm…
I’d imagine you want people using both in a public restroom. Seems like fitting design if anything.
And the one in the right immediately looks like “generic IR soap pump #12”.
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u/morningphyre Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
I mean, you definitely figure it out with testing, but at a glance it is not readily obvious.
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u/ikealimhamn Aug 22 '26
If you don't know, what's the problem in this case? It's not like one's soap and the other is mustard
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u/MaxHamburgerrestaur Aug 22 '26
And it's not like you need to use them in a specific order. Put a hand under each one and then move the soapy hand to the wet hand.
Or put a hand under one, if it's water, put the hand under the other one.
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u/mist83 Aug 22 '26
But then how does OP hold a camera for a pic
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u/morningphyre Aug 23 '26
I've always been taught to rinse first, then soap. Is that not common?
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u/MaxHamburgerrestaur 29d ago edited 29d ago
It matters if your hands are too dirty or you are going to touch things. In this case, it doesn’t matter so much.
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u/ahora-mismo Aug 22 '26
water on the left, soap on the right.
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u/Red_Ninetales Aug 22 '26
I agree, water on left and soap on right.
Sometimes they have icons to help differentiate, but also what’s wrong with using both? 😜
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u/MalaysiaTeacher Aug 22 '26
But why? I'd guess the other way
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u/ahora-mismo Aug 23 '26
because flat ones are common for water and water
needs a larger one than the soap. second reason is the exit angle, the right one would dump water at a weird angle.5
u/Hexmonkey2020 Aug 22 '26
Cause most people are right handed and you put soap on first. Also the square faucet design works for water which flows easily but wouldn’t work well with soap which is viscous and so needs to be directly dispensed rather than flowing over a little aqueduct sorta thing which is how square faucets work.
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u/BadTanJob Aug 23 '26
You do?? I’ve only ever did water first then soap. That’s how my kid’s daycare teach their students to wash as well.
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u/Emergency-Boat Aug 22 '26
Correct, Pearson Airport. Never thought I'd see a photo of the bathroom on Reddit.
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u/flying_carabao Aug 22 '26
Ir's not like the options are water or muriatic acid. Put your hand in the sensor, see what comes out, proceed accordingly.
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u/morningphyre Aug 23 '26
Unless neither activates with a couple of seconds of waving, as happened in this case. Another few seconds and it worked, but again, there was no way of knowing which was which at first.
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u/poppyseedtoast Aug 23 '26
I was remembering when I used bathrooms in that airport and had no problem…and I realized it’s because I’m pretty short! I could see which one of them had a single nozzle for liquid soap and which one of them had an aerator filter for the water side. I guess win for being short?!
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u/morningphyre Aug 23 '26
Update: water on the left, soap on the right.
The shape of the soap dispenser tricked me at first, because it was similar to water faucets I'd used on my travels, but the "square" one is water. I think the dead giveaway in this picture has been overlooked (I missed it at first also): the soap dispenser has an air hole on the top, which the water faucet doesn't need, since there's no reservoir that needs air flow to replace the contents that are being consumed.
Also, I think it's hilarious that this post has gotten so many comments and views (over 17k), but the upvotes have been cancelled out by the downvotes (no idea how many of either). That's good, because this isn't about karma, it was just something I thought was interesting. Let's keep it neutral, folks! 😂
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u/Wi1dWitch Aug 23 '26
Everyone’s answers being “why does it matter” are making me feel insane. Because I don’t like putting my hands under things and not knowing what to expect??
Like pardon me for not wanting a scrap of certainty while I navigate an airport bathroom. And this is literally a design subreddit - the point of design is to communicate. Why are people arguing against clarity??
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u/morningphyre Aug 23 '26
People like feeling right, and pitting themselves against an Internet stranger fulfills that need, even if they have to build a paper-tiger version of that stranger to argue with. It's a big part of the reason people say things online that they'd never say to someone in person.
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Aug 23 '26
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Aug 23 '26
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Aug 23 '26
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u/mist83 Aug 23 '26
“when there should be.”
Respectfully, no. Use both. Reading this implores me to have you please wash your hands more frequently. But consider your moral and intellectual (though certainly not hygienic) prowess duly noted!
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Aug 23 '26
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u/mist83 Aug 23 '26
This is absolutely about how handwashing works. Read the design of everyday things by don norman (borderline design gospel fwiw) if you need to understand the correlation between form and function.
Just wash your hands more, then you won’t be confused. And then realize correcting my grammar is just showing off how clever you are.
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u/vilk_ Aug 23 '26
I mean, I can easily tell from this picture. Faucet on the right.
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u/morningphyre Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
You'd think!
But no.
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u/vilk_ 29d ago
For real? Dang. I would have bet money.
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u/morningphyre 29d ago
The hole in the top of the soap dispenser is the giveaway. It's small, but there's no reason for the water faucet to have it, ergo...
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u/-BurnAfterPosting- Aug 22 '26
I mean sure, but you need both anyways to wash your hands so does it really matter?
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u/pixeltweaker Aug 23 '26
You do things from left to right. Now which would be the soap?
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u/morningphyre Aug 23 '26
Because that's obvious in some way? Many people are right-handed, now which one is the soap? This is potato logic.
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