You can try this yourself, by dropping cigarette butts, or disenfectant cakes into urinals and then observing the results.

Posted by: Mac on January 16, 2003 05:45 AM

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Brings a whole new meaning to "designing on the fly" :)

Posted by: daniel szuc on January 16, 2003 06:19 AM

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I just sent this note to 12 people...

"One of the best examples of usability I have ever seen. I'm serious. This is damn clever."

I really do like this idea. Simple. Effective.

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on January 16, 2003 11:10 AM

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That's funny! Maybe I should show this as an example during one of my "The importance of usability" presentations... :o) I'm sure the guys'll love it!
hmmm tho.. wonder if they can also apply this to the women's bathroom :opp

Posted by: Berna on January 16, 2003 11:16 AM

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Brilliant idea and so simple.

I would be interested to know if it works the second and third time for the same person...you know it is fake and thus the 'drown the fly' mindset is lost.

Posted by: JB on January 16, 2003 12:21 PM

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A) Why would I pee on a fly, only to have it sputter up and swirl urine in the air around me?

B) This design will encourage an urge in men to urinate whenever they see a fly. Drive by some roadkill? Ooops, gotta pee.

C) This design will increase instances of public urination when drunk men see insects on the sidewalk.

This design is a public nuisance.

Posted by: Amber-colored, slightly acidic fluid on January 16, 2003 02:31 PM

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If your pee is amber colored, you have more important things to worry about, my friend.

I like this idea! It is similar to something I have heard about for women. In Japan, they are installing bathrooms that have constant white noise playing in the background. Most, from what I have heard, are of flowing water.

This isn't for the purposes of encouraging peeing (since why would you be in a filthy public restroom if you didn't really have to go?), it is to cover the sound of urine hitting the bowl so you don't freeze up when you sit down.

Before you laugh, consider that women's restrooms (at least the ones outside America, which aren't usually inexplicably full of groups of females gabbing at each other) are very quiet, especially in office buildings, and you can basically hear everything people are doing. It is very off-putting for the woman who is more modest about her toilet activity (I know it is for me).

For guys, who are more playful about their functions (don't say you aren't), the fly is a very clever idea. Subtle. I bet they don't get enough repeat business to make the novelty wear off too fast, but even if they did the average guy with a good sense of humor will probably like the intent.

Posted by: Lydia on January 16, 2003 04:56 PM

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Expect some reasonable traffic: I passed it on to Scott Rosenberg at Salon, who has linked it in his blog.

Posted by: Frank on January 16, 2003 09:47 PM

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Here is Scott's blog.

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on January 16, 2003 10:15 PM

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Ah, but Scott linked directly to the other URL. No mention of Webword anywhere. Boo hoo! After I went to all that trouble of posting it. ;)

Posted by: MadMan on January 17, 2003 12:10 AM

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Here is some more information about the fly. This book was published in June 2001 by a very good friend of mine.

Small can be big

In Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, they have used a small black outline of a fly, etched into the porcelain. It is noticed because of its position and clarity in a pristine background.

"It improves the aim" says Aad Kieboom, an economist who directs Schiphol's building expansion. "If a man sees a fly, he aims at it." Kieboom's staff conducted fly-in-urinal trials and found that etchings reduce spillages by 80 percent, and the attendant cleaning costs. "We will put flies in the urinal, yes. It gives a guy something to think about. That's the perfect example of process control. Fine, laugh at me; it works."

From User-Centered Web Design by John Cato, Page 153 ( amazon link )

Posted by: Mac on January 17, 2003 05:01 AM

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I remember reading a newspaper article a few years ago about a landlord who had put a fake spider in a urinal in his pub. Unfortunately, he'd wired it up to a weak electric current, so that anyone tempted to pee on it got a mild electric shock! Don't you just love practical jokers?

The story may be an 'urban legend', but ever since then I've scrupulously avoided peeing on foreign objects in urinals. Wouldn't work for me!

Posted by: Alan Fisher on January 17, 2003 06:08 AM

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Scott's not mentioning WebWord is my bad, I failed to tell him where I saw it. Sorry!

Posted by: Frank on January 17, 2003 06:55 AM

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