Everyone knows the smaller and larger toilet anecdotes - stories of shame, disgust and fears in public toilets. But who are the people behind it and what moves them? What are their needs and what are their limits and what are their fears? And what are their creative approaches of solving problems that are only talked about behind closed doors, if at all? What are designers capable of, when it comes to dealing with shame and fears? How do we, as designers, deal with a topic that is full of prohibitions and taboos?
Cultural probes are made to answer these questions. They are effective, provocative tools that question the realities of the participants in a creative way. They help to take a look at people's everyday lives and to allow them to make observations themselves where they would otherwise not take anyone with them. In particular, the object of investigation of fears and shame in public toilets touches an intimate area in the everyday life of the subjects. Talking about this can be difficult. Thanks to their ability to approach questions and problems in a creative and entertaining way, cultural probes offer a pleasant setting that invites self-exploration and puts the person being observed into the role of the observer.
