Fly-Equipped Urinal
Emailed image shows a restroom urinal in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport with a fly etched in the porcelain to improve users' aim and reduce 'spillage.'
Description: Emailed image
Circulating since: 1997
Status: True
Email example contributed by Sandy S., Sep. 19, 2005:
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Analysis: The story is a bit dated — it has been floating around the Internet in various forms since 1997, with the earliest variant attributed to an article in the Wall Street Journal — but it's true. Most recently the fly-in-urinal concept was touted by engineering professor Kim Vicente in his book, The Human Factor (Routledge, 2004), as a prime example of "human-friendly design."
"If you go to the men's washrooms at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam," Vicente writes, "you may notice there's a fly in the urinals. So what do you think most men do? That's right, they aim at the fly when they urinate. They don't even think about it, and they don't need to read a user's manual; it's just an instinctive reaction. The interesting feature of these urinals is that they're deliberately designed to take advantage of this inherent human male tendency."
Still, one can't help but wonder whether a plain black dot mightn't work just as well as the lifelike image of a housefly, and, if not, what exactly does that reveal about masculine psychology?
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Sources and further reading:
The Human Factor (Book Review)
Eye Weekly, 16 October 2003Urinal 101
The Straight Dope, 9 May 2003Urinal Innovation
Pasta and Vinegar (blog), 11 July 2005The World's Best Ideas
Whole Earth, Spring 1999
Last updated: 09/21/05
