Spotted: Update Screens For Toilet Occupancy Status
January 27, 2023 by Dave Haynes
Running around madly for meetings and site visits in London this week, so minimal desk time for knocking out posts.
That curious polka dot painter from Japan, which had big digital installs in NYC, has a version in London outside Harrod’s – but it is mostly a huge figurine in front of a door. There are visuals on window screens supporting it.
I didn’t see much new signage at retail or elsewhere, but have some things scheduled today. I got a good rundown from The LED Studio, which is based in Swindon (hour west), but has a showroom quite near to Paddington Station. They will have much more display gear at ISE next week.
Getting over there led me to the most interesting thing I saw for the day – digital signage outside the toilet areas of a hyper-busy rail station. The screens were tied to sensor data that reported in real time how many toilet stalls were occupied, for both male and female.
So if you need to, ummm, wash your hands, and there is full occupancy, you can pivot and find another option in the station.
Boring to talk about, I am sure, but profoundly useful. I love variations on what are simple data displays.
All the focus of awards tends to be on sheer scale and investment in projects, or Wow Factor, but there should be awards for great utilitarian use-cases like queue management, guidance and notification screens, and status visualizations like this.
Too tired and in need of coffee to come up with a better, pun-heavy headline. Add yours in comments.
Dave those occupancy screens are kinda genius, especially in an aviation or rail terminal. If you learn more about who’s behind it please share.