The Problem:
When such a simple act as washing your hands can make such a big difference, why wouldn't you?
According to a study by the BBC, 68% of men, and 36% of women do not wash their hands after using the bathroom. This can lead to the spread of germs, and consequently disease.
The purpose of Handsy is to raise awareness about the importance of hand hygiene, and encourage people to wash their hands. In this way, the ideal future being created is one where people care more about their personal hygiene due to the simple
reminder they receive from Handsy. This is such an important thing because washing hands can prevent illness, disease and death.
The Insight:
When surveyed, people cited a number of reasons why they don't wash their hands.
- They can't be bothered.
- They feel that their level of general hygiene is quite high, and consequently it doesn't matter.
- They don't understand why they need to.
These reasons are problematic. According to the CDC, failing to wash contributes to 50% of food-borne diseases, however, washing hands can reduce diarrheal diseases by more than 40%.
The Solution:
As part of Pitch The Future 2014, I'm presenting my idea for the future of hand hygiene.
Handsy is a urinal where the bowl is shaped like a pair of hands, to act as a reminder to the user to wash their hands. This urinal attempts to change the way people think about hand hygiene and bathrooms, in the short term. But, over the long
term, Handsy's primary purpose is to change the way we talk about hand hygiene. By making a funny and thought-provoking urinal, I want people to be able to discuss bathrooms, and bathroom habits more openly, and remove the taboo surrounding "toilet talk".
In this way, Handsy is about opening up discussion, changing minds, and changing the world.
Handsy emphasises the importance of hand hygiene. It is a urinal where the bowl is shaped like a pair of hands so that the user is reminded of the bacteria transmitted onto their hands whilst using the bathroom, and encouraged
to wash their hands afterwards.
This is a rendering of what this future could look like: