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Letter Transcript
Dear New Zealand Towel Service
As a first year design student at Victoria University you could say we quickly develop a sharp eye for products with ‘bad’ design. Unfortunately, I feel a product manufactured by your company exhibits the undesirable characteristics of bad design. Fear not, design students aren’t all doom and gloom and while critical we often have some good ideas on how to improve the design of a product.
So lets look at the product in question, the ‘NZTS Visiomatic Cloth Towel Dispenser’. As not only a design student but also a resident of nearby University Hall Weir House I am forced to face and on occasion use your product. This product exhibits what I see as two major design traits causing it to score unfavourably on the design spectrum, its aesthetics and its design functionality.
Aesthetically your cloth towel dispenser leaves much to be desired. While I would be the first to admit the loo isn’t my Mecca for creative inspiration it would be nice to be greeted by a towel dispenser with a visual appeal representative of even the current decade. The 1970’s style design is dull and thoroughly outdated but a few simple changes would certainly liven up its aesthetic value. In my view simplicity is the key, remove the logo from the front face of the product and keep the main body a uniform white, not the sickly cream colour adorning the current model. Changing the body material from metal to a more modern feeling plastic would be another subtle yet important change to ensure this product gains the modern aesthetic it currently lacks.
I’m sure you at the New Zealand Towel Service would agree a products ability to function is key to its design success. Why then does this product fail so spectacularly to function when required? It is in its functionality where the Visiomatic Cloth Towel Dispenser shows its true lack of design pedigree. The mechanism has an awkward tendency to jam on the odd occasion you decide to wash your hands and even when the dispenser pulls freely the towel itself proves to be an absorption disappointment. Just have a test run on your own product. See for yourselves just how poorly the towel dries even damp hands.
All of a sudden the outside of your trouser leg seems like the better option.
In terms of design functionality the Visiomatic Cloth Towel Dispenser needs a complete overhaul. Certainly a more reliable mechanism needs to be installed in the machine and the towel itself needs to be upgraded to one with much greater absorbency. Unlike the aesthetics a more complete change is needed to ensure a new product would function effectively.
In conclusion, to ensure the improvement of your current product, I would simply suggest developing a new line of hand towel dispensers to replace the older models, such as the ones in Weir House, using some of the simple design ideas I discussed above.
In the future try to provide a product that doesn’t leave the consumer reaching to the outside of their trouser leg or shirt sleave for a superior hand drying option.
Yours Sincerely
Ben Pexton
