Make it less shitty to change my kids diapers

Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 11, 2022


A Service Design Principle to serve better families.

We are in the middle of a zoo, and our little one is a few months old. So obviously comes a moment when the little guy shits himself, and you have to go change his diaper. I find the changing table in the toilets of the zoo. Perfect. The really shitty experience starts.

The changing table is next to the hand dryer. Each time someone dries their hands, a big scary sound makes the baby cry! So now I have to calm the baby. It’s calm again. Back to business. Shit, someone else comes to dry their hands… Back to crying baby…

The experience is not only shitty because the baby cries. As a polite guy, I try to leave room for others to clean their hands and not show them my kid’s poop as they are washing their hands.

So it’s extremely noisy, I have no space, and I’m disturbing others. Definitely not the best spot to try to calm a shouting baby who is unhappy that he is still full of shit and that you are so slow.

Years later, as I remember that zoo, I remember the awful experience in those toilets, even if the zoo was pretty nice and extremely well-designed.

So let me ask you this: how can you provide a calm space where parents can sort out their baby’s shit, both real and metaphoric, in a peaceful and relaxing setting (1)?

Footnotes

(1) Such calm spaces will help parents remember the good parts of the experience and let other visitors enjoy a quiet experience too.

Daniele’s personal notes

  • You just read the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • The length of this principle has been reduced by 49% compared to the first draft.
  • Once improved even more, this principle could be part of the book “Service Design Principles 201-300.”
  • As always, feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.

1 comment

Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 31, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

We are in a zoo with and baby, so obviously comes a moment when the little guy shits himself. I find the changing table in the toilets. Perfect. That’s when things really go to shit.

The changing table is next to the hand dryer. Each time someone dries their hands, a big scary sound makes the baby cry! So now I have to calm the baby. Once it’s calm, I continue. Shit, someone else comes to dry their hands… Back to crying baby!

The experience is not only shitty because the baby cries. As a polite guy, I try to leave room for others to clean their hands and not show them my kid’s poop as they do so.

So it’s extremely noisy, I have no space, and I’m disturbing others. Definitely not the best conditions to calm a shouting baby (1)

So let me ask you.

How can you provide a calm space where parents can sort out their baby’s shit, both real and metaphoric (2)?

Footnotes

(1) Years later, as I remember that zoo, I remember the awful experience in those toilets, even if the zoo was pretty nice and extremely well-designed.

(2) Such calm spaces will help parents remember the good parts of the experience and let other visitors enjoy a quiet experience too.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 29 % compared to the previous draft.