This toilet seat/tray is designed to create a new look and feel for tomorrows toilet seats. Studies of ergonomics, aesthetics, consumer needs, and fun were all part of the overall design. Restrictions in the design were to make the seat cost efficient in manufacturing and targeted towards public use, for public restrooms. The final results of the toilet seat gave the toilet seat a form that was more interesting, comfortable, practical, cleaner, and more user friendly.

GOAL
Redesign a toilet tray/seat based on studies of ergonomics, consumer needs, opinions, and evaluations of current toilet seats in the market.

RESEARCH
- Distribute surveys and questionnaires concerning complaints, changes, needs, looks, and also a tad bit on the process of going to the toilet and using it.
- Evaluate surveys and questionnaires and research what has been done to solve these problems.
- Research and study differences in today's varieties in toilet seats and why they are so different.
- Sit on a variety of seats

RESTRICTIONS
Through research of current designs or gizmo's to solve a few problems I have decided to focus on a design for the public restrooms. Designs that solved a few of these problems were expensive by means of multiple parts and they were also really ugly and distracting.

GOALS
Redesign a toilet seat that is designed for the public, therefore creating a design that is cost efficient and that has low cost in manufacturing. To accomplish this my design will only deal with the cavity of the mold made to create the seats.

CONCEPT/SOLUTION
Through the surveys and questionnaires, create solutions to the problems by change in the form and structure of the toilet seat.

MODELS
- Create models and sketches for people to evaluate.
- Create changes and remove unnecessary form changes

PROBLEM LIST (these are a few selected suggestion from surveys)
Why people don't use/Problems/What changes
- make larger seat making it easier to sit on
- Make seat more comfortable
- Round the edges of seat
- Create more curves
- Reduce the size of the hole and the width, people claim they can fall through
- Lengthen the hole for people who wipe from the front and sit far back into the seat
- Make more exciting, more sculptural, more fun, playful
- make easier to clean
- For guys: make easier to lift up or kick up seat
- Make seat easier to lift up
- The seat is too cold!
- Don't want contact with the cold ceramic part of the toilet( also known as the dirty part)
- Make appearance cleaner
- For clubs: make burn proof. People did not use seats because of burn marks on seat.
- It's had to get up!
- Raise the side nibs
- Seat to low, cant get up

SOLUTION/ CONCEPT
The hole was slightly lengthened and slightly made smaller as the seat itself was extended on the front and front side ends to prevent the thighs from touching the cold and dirty ceramic portion of the toilet. This also added the feature of extended ledges to lift the seat from, that is when being lifted, the fingers would not touch the dirty ceramic part. This extension also added ease for some men to kick up the seat rather than pry the edge of their shoe between the seat and the toilet then kick it up. The separation of the front end edges were raised slightly and angled outwards to prevent contact to the exposed ceramic toilet portion which in most cases appeared the most dirty from men's use. The back or butt portion of the seat were widened as well to support more weight and achieve a better balance for some consumers. This extension also aided in the men's kick-up technique. The back edge is also angled/tiled inward to help maintain correct positioning. This extension on the back aided taller people in getting up, kind of like a bench; now there was a surface that they were sitting on that they could push off. Underneath the seat, the four regular nibs that usually separate the seat from the toilet bowl now became three. The bottom or back nibs were formed into one continuous line eliminating more backsplash from getting out and onto the seat. The front two were widened slightly and now became part of the mold rather than separate components, which is how some seats had been manufactured. The space left floating or hovering over the toilet was left the same as this toilet seat would be molded of ABS plastic which is flexible and provided cushioning by taking ones weight and molding the seat to them slightly more. An extra little feature that added playfulness and a smile to a great deal of people was on the back and the top back portion. When raised for men's use, the nibs of the seat created an image of a smiling face with two nibs acting as the eyes and the longer nib becoming a smiling lip. The grooves on the side handles can also appear as dimples. On the top, the back end is shaped to look like a butt. The theory here is that if an object looks like a butt then people are more likely to put their butts there and be more comfortable. It also gave the overall shape a softer look.

CONCLUSION/EVALUATION
With over two dozen people trying out the seat, there were no complaints about comfort, even though the model was made out of MDF wood. In fact some people felt the seat was more comfortable than chairs. People were pleased with the new look and design, saying that it was a sleek new look for toilet seats. People also commented a great deal about the smile on the back side, saying that it added a nice touch to an object that needed a change in its view and its character. In this Toilet seat, problems were solved while creating a seat that was designed to be cost efficient and that added value to the customers. This design achieved its goals and more.