Ideas to Improve Restrooms (Public Bathrooms)

Entry


• door knob should not be spherical. much harder to turn, and when gripping you tend to need to place much more hand skin surface area against the knob to get enough traction to turn it. A spherical knob cannot be used with just the side of your hand or elbow, for example. So overall it is both unnecessarily harder to use, and, less sanitary.
• door should not be see-through
• door not positioned such that for an occupant to open the door in order to exit, that he might be hit by a new person trying to come in the room
• door when opened should not allow folks outside room to see into parts of the restroom where occupant likely to be undressed or in embarassing state
• don't put stuff somewhere such that for person to use them they will be hit by door when new person enters the restroom
• flat surface upon which to place personal items (books, bag, laptop, etc.) while using the room, so user does not have to put them by the sink (wet) or on floor (wet or unclean)
• coat hangers, both inside each stall and in the main body of the restroom (near sink?)

Toilet Stall


• when standing in stall should not be necessary for person to stoop or bendover to grab toilet paper
• there should be multiple rolls (or enough paper) in each stall; do frequent restocking visits by staff if needed [NOTE: have a section that talks about what things a staff member should do when visits restroom for maintenance, what tasks, how often, etc.]
• toilet paper dispenser case should not fling open suddenly, loudly, painfully, when user does something normal like grabbing more sheets, or shutting door to stall
• if multiple toilet paper rolls in place they should not touch because if touch then when person pulls paper from one roll it cause other roll to spin too, possibly causing it to dispense paper too
• have plunger

Sink


• have hot water and cold water
• should not be necessary to use hands to turn on/off water
• do not be stingy with water, with auto-off every few seconds requiring several annoying actions by user to keep getting more water
• sink water stream should be far enough away from back sink wall that hands will not touch it
• have a soap dispenser
• soap dispenser should be reachable by kids
• have paper towels
• paper near sinks whose primary purpose is for drying hands should not be so close to sink that it gets wet during normal sink use (splashing, spills, drops)
• should not have to touch a trash can in order to put trash into it

Misc


• floor should have drain in case of toilet or sink overflow (drain away pipes should assume came from toilet)
• air ventilation system should disperse air but NOT disperse it somewhere unhealthy, such as in a restaurant it should not disperse the air into the dining area, or kitchen area, of the restaurant
• smell improvement system
• restroom inside restaurants should not have doors propposed open, due to unsanity air dispersal, and embarassing sound propagation
• room should not amplify/echo sounds within it, so that sounds become painfully loud to occupant, or, sounds produced inside are not heard by folks outside the restroom (think kids yelling/screaming)