Its good to see a bit of design that uses its own form to lead its users to do the right thing. That makes real good design, but requires a truly holistic view that we should, as designers, be aspiring to.

In this case, it is a requirement on this Virgin Trains loo that the seat be down when its flushed. (I’m not sure what the consequences would be if it were not, but I am sure that I’d rather not be there!). So how does the design assure that? In this case by hiding a control so that when the control is visible and able to be used, the artifact is in a state when it can be used. In straight terms, the flush button is behind the seat. So, you got to put the seat down to flush.

This use of the form to define the use has an unfortunate side effect, though. It means that the flush button has to be signposted as it is not immediately visible. Unfortunate, or consequential? Whatever, the seat being down would have to be mandated in some way, I guess a less farsighted designer might just put up a sign stating the fact, but this would be poor and would not 100% determine the final state of the loo, so I can live with it as consequential.

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