Redefining perspectives, one toilet at a time.

This innovative system seeks to redefine perspectives by fostering a collaborative environment that not only addresses sanitation concerns but also contributes to positive social change. It is designed to empower the residents, provide them with a sustainable income source, and challenge societal preconceptions about their community.

Roles

Methods adopted

1. 01 Systems Mapping
2. 02 Affinity Mapping
3. 03 User Journey Mapping
4. 04 User Scenario Mapping
5. 05 Persona
6. 06 Participant Interviews
7. 07 Subject Matter Expert Interview
8. 08 Opportunity Mapping

Between aspiration and the cost of city living.

India, in its journey towards development, witnesses a significant influx of people transitioning from rural to urban landscapes in pursuit of an improved life and better economic opportunities. However, the shift to metropolitan cities brings with it the harsh reality of increased living costs and expensive housing.

This stark economic disparity forces many individuals to find alternative, more affordable living arrangements, leading to a substantial population residing in slums as a realistic means of survival. In the gap between aspiring for a better life and facing the tough realities of city living lies a powerful story of the people living in the slums.

Perspective was an academic project centered around the system of community toilets. Having lived in Nashik and Mumbai — the latter home to one of the world’s largest slums — I’d long wondered about conditions there. Observing the population and congestion made me curious about something specific and rarely examined: how does the community toilet facility actually work? Who runs it, which agencies and stakeholders are involved, and to what degree is the system really functional? The designer in me was intrigued. That curiosity became Perspective.

Designing for collaboration, not delivery.

The challenge was to design a sanitation system that fosters collaboration among the community to address community hygiene concerns as well as contribute to positive change.

This meant creating a sense of ownership through diverse beneficiary streams and empowering residents to reduce reliance on external agencies — and eventually changing the perspective of slums from places of filth and neglect to places of resilience and pride.

Letting the method follow the community.

According to the UN, slums are places with groups of individuals lacking one or more necessities of life — access to water, sanitation, living spaces, durable housing, or security of tenure (Nolan, 2015). The core of this project was constantly adapting my methodology to fit the community and surface meaningful insight.

Adapting the method to the context

To gain a comprehensive understanding of the workings of the slum, I initially conducted secondary research using published articles and journals, which gave me an overall picture but lacked quantitative grounding. I considered surveys to fill that gap, but realised they weren’t feasible: many residents lacked suitable devices and the technological literacy surveys assume. In the absence of quantitative data to guide my interview questionnaire, I immersed myself in the slums to observe daily life before commencing primary research.

Discovering group interviews in the field

In the absence of traditional surveys, I employed semi-structured interviews as my primary research tool for gathering qualitative data — but in the field I noticed a dynamic I hadn’t planned for. While I engaged with one participant, others would overhear and join in, sparking curiosity and prompting them to share their own experiences.

Recognizing this pattern, I adapted my approach to include group interviews alongside individual ones. This method allowed me to draw out deeper insights by fostering open discussions about issues related to toilets, sanitation, and the involved stakeholders. The shift in research strategy proved instrumental in capturing the emotional perspectives of the community, enriching the overall user experience exploration.

Subject-matter expert interviews

The targeted demographic comprised individuals residing in the slums, while interview participants included community members and government employees responsible for daily toilet maintenance. I also had the privilege of conducting interviews with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) — specifically, NGOs working with slum residents and government officials overseeing the entire system. These conversations revealed the government’s perspective, the revenue considerations behind the system, and illuminated the structural factors driving its gaps and poor hygiene.

The toilet is not the system. The slum is.

In this context, a toilet functions as a sub-system within the broader framework of a “slum” — a comprehensive system. Community toilets are not a standalone facility, and understanding that context was essential to understanding the users’ challenges. The toilet comprises multiple interconnected components, spanning drainage, water supply, and electricity. Without water for flushing, toilets lose their efficiency; lacking electricity poses safety hazards for nighttime usage; and a clogged drainage system results in unhygienic and unusable facilities.

Rather than viewing these interdependencies as pure barriers, I mapped them — and looked at residents’ reasons for migrating and their skill sets — to find opportunities to repurpose one sub-system’s output as another’s input. For instance, the water utilized for washing clothes could be repurposed for toilet cleaning or watering plants, showcasing innovative ways to leverage resources within the system for multifaceted benefits — small, resourceful loops within an under-resourced system.

The infographic illustrates the intricate network of sub-systems within the community toilets. It served as a pivotal component in my research, shedding light on the procedural intricacies involved not only in the construction of new toilets but also in their ongoing maintenance.

A second map traced the web of authorities responsible for maintenance — and made visible how a single point of failure created heavy dependency on external agencies. For example, taps and flush mechanisms are essential for a toilet to function properly. However, in communities where daily wages are the norm and ownership is lacking, theft of these items was common due to their good resale price.

In a community largely made up of daily-wage workers, this pointed to acute financial need — shedding light on the financial needs of the community — and, more tellingly, to a missing sense of ownership over a place residents nonetheless call home. I also gained insight into the complexities associated with elevating complaints or issues to higher government authorities, and the community’s reliance on governmental support. The map clarified the inputs and outputs of the system, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement.

Different ages, different relationships, same facility.

Journey mapping enabled us to collect valuable data regarding the various age groups of users of the toilet facilities, their respective needs, and the essential components required for functionality. It provided insights into the behavior and experiences of different age groups of women, and across genders — revealing how differently people related to the same facility.

By visually mapping out these broken links, we identified areas needing intervention and devised effective strategies to address them.

Three problems, one root, one leverage point.

The infographic outlines the three primary issues concerning toilets along with their underlying causes. Applying the 5 Whys to the three main problems — theft, clogging, and open defecation — I traced them to a single root cause. An opportunity-mapping exercise was conducted alongside to identify the project’s scope and pinpoint the critical link within the system that, when triggered, may have a repelling effect on the wider issues.

The core problem

At the heart of the matter lies a lack of accountability among individuals towards government-built toilets. While a minority prioritizes toilet cleanliness, a collective sense of unity is absent. The absence of a sense of ownership — wherein individuals do not identify with the toilet as “ours” — stems from a lack of pride in their living conditions. Circumstances have forced them into this situation, leading to a disconnection from their surroundings, including the toilet facilities provided by the government.

Opportunity mapping helped me find the leverage point: the insight that, once triggered, would have a knock-on effect on the other problems. Ownership was that point.

A four-stage loop with a financial spine.

The entire system operates as a loop of four interconnected stages: generation, collection, conversion, and selling. It begins with the generation of feces as people use community toilets. The next step is the collection of human waste in an underground container. The third part involves converting this waste into dump cakes and fertilizers — historically, cow dung has been used as fuel for cooking in India, and we propose applying a similar circular approach to human waste while integrating sanitation, energy generation, and economic opportunity. The fourth step is to create a space within the slums that serves as a nursery for plants and a market for fertilizers.

Similar systems have been implemented in parts of Africa, where human waste has been converted into fuel briquettes and fertilizer through community-scale sanitation systems (Big Ideas Contest, 2015; International Energy Agency Bioenergy, 2021).

By producing fertilizers from human waste, we can sell them and use them to grow plants on rooftops and verandas — beautifying the slum and challenging the notion that slums must be dirty. Many people from rural areas are farmers, potters, or artisans; the selling stage leverages those existing skills. This initiative can foster a farmers’ market, attracting outsiders to the slums and breaking the societal norm of avoiding these areas. Visitors would pay to use the toilets, generating additional revenue for the community.

Roles by skill, surplus into a trust.

To instill ownership within the community, the key is helping them generate revenue from this system. For the system to function effectively, the toilets must be clean — thus placing the responsibility of maintaining them on the community rather than a third party. I proposed forming an organization within the community and assigning specific tasks by skill and capacity:

Surplus income would flow into a community trust fund — providing crisis loans and funding children’s education. This collaborative approach not only fosters a sense of belonging and ownership but also strengthens community bonds, ensuring mutual support during prosperous as well as challenging times.

The aim throughout: not just cleaner toilets, but a sense of belonging and ownership that strengthens community bonds in good times and hard ones.

Validated by residents. Halted by a pandemic.

The root of this project was to provide the people living in the slums with clean, hygienic, and sanitary community toilets — something they can use, be proud of, and take ownership of. It further aimed to combat the stigma surrounding slums and their residents by integrating outside populations, potentially breaking societal barriers.

This was an academic project, but it engaged real stakeholders. Discussions and demonstrations of the proposed solution were shared with NGOs and government officials, and — most importantly — taken back to my participants, the slum residents themselves. Their response was broadly positive: the ownership-and-income model resonated, and the project received recognition from the community for its role in providing clean community toilets, generating income, and fostering independence and unity.

The significant exception: the proposal to use human waste as a resource clashed with cultural beliefs, creating hesitancy among both residents and stakeholders.

Further development was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What this project taught me.

Building trust was the hardest part

In an underfunded community shaped by years of broken promises and information exploitation, many residents — especially the older generation — had come to accept their conditions as normal, which made it harder to uncover the deeper issues.

My first mistake was legal

I began user interviews before familiarising myself with the laws around legal vs. illegal slums, community rights, and government involvement — an oversight that resulted in a delayed timeline.

The cultural clash

Though the project was recognised by my participants for its potential to provide clean toilets, generate income, and foster independence and unity, the proposed use of human waste for fuel clashed with cultural beliefs, leading to hesitancy among stakeholders. A critical realization was recognizing the unique cultural context of India.

The philosophy underneath

My approach towards this community exemplifies this philosophy. The solution not only ensures clean and sanitary community toilets but also addresses the emotional stigma associated with being a slum resident, which has historically prevented full ownership and pride in their environment. By challenging societal norms and encouraging external engagement, we aim to dissolve the barriers between slum residents and the outside world — fostering a sense of dignity and equality.

References

Conversations, not scripts. Insights, not opinions.

An aging country, a dream, and a broken on-ramp.

Every year, Canada welcomes millions of skilled immigrants to bridge the gap between its aging population and the rising labour market needs. They come in search of the Canadian Dream — the dream of better opportunities, a better lifestyle, and higher wages. However, the reality of the broken systemic and personal barriers integrating into the job market completely shatters their dream (Moffitt et al., 2020; Mello & Finnie, 2015).

Our team collaborated with the City of Ottawa through CityStudio to investigate a broad brief:

Guided by the City’s four strategic themes — Affordability, Accessibility, Sustainability, and Economy — we needed to narrow this down to a researchable, solvable problem.

A double diamond, twice over.

We ran the project as a double diamond: diverge to explore, converge to focus, twice over.

Narrowing the focus — secondary research

Working from research articles and academic papers, we mapped everything in Miro and used affinity mapping to converge on Affordability. Mind-mapping from there traced a chain: affordability → homelessness → a major driver of homelessness, unemployment → a population acutely affected, newcomers to Canada. Our literature review surfaced case after case of immigrants with the skills for a role being rejected and pushed into minimum-wage work to survive.

After reviewing progress with our client, we sharpened the brief into a focused research question:

Sub-questions. How do immigrants perceive the Ottawa job market? What is their initial experience navigating it? How effective are city services in helping them integrate?

Reaching a hard-to-recruit group — primary research

Skilled immigrants are not an easy population to reach, so the team and I recruited deliberately across six channels: partnering with relevant organizations, targeted outreach on community pages (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) with admin permission, in-person recruitment via Algonquin College student boards, personal networks (word of mouth), snowball sampling through screened respondents, and direct subject-matter-expert outreach for 45-minute interviews.

We used purposive sampling across these channels to capture the widest range of perspectives: students still anticipating the job search, immigrants navigating it with organizational support, and those without any, the small share who’d actually landed field-specific roles, and subject-matter experts with years of experience across different organizations.

We designed the survey to do double duty: gather quantitative data and have specific questions that could screen candidates for our semi-structured interviews and SME conversations.

Quantitative findings — survey

Qualitative findings — interviews & SMEs

Three themes emerged from the interviews:

SME conversations reframed these not as isolated problems but as an interconnected system of structural barriers.

One loop. Self-sustaining.

Mapping the links between these barriers — via journey mapping and an iceberg model I led in our affinity session — I identified a lack of trust as the core issue.

Employers, skeptical of immigrants’ credentials and lacking “local experience” to point to, doubt their qualifications. That skepticism funnels skilled immigrants into survival jobs, which then confirms the perception that they aren’t working in their field, reinforcing the original skepticism. A self-sustaining loop.

The City as first employer.

How might we use the City’s resources and influence to build employers’ trust in skilled immigrants?

We proposed that the City of Ottawa become the first employer for skilled immigrants, via a structured six-month internship program — breaking the cycle at its weakest point: the absence of that first piece of recognised local experience.

The solution was designed to work on three levels:

By giving immigrants early recognition and momentum, the intervention turns hope into traction — strengthening Canada’s economy through integrated talent while helping immigrants realise the Canadian Dream.

People’s Choice. And a conversation that kept going.

We presented the work to the City of Ottawa, who responded enthusiastically and flagged it for consideration at a higher level within the organization. The project won the People’s Choice Award at HUBUB 2024, and during the showcase, city officials spoke with us directly about advancing the proposal.

Four lessons I’m keeping.

The double diamond is a discipline, not a diagram

Funneling down such a vast topic — the challenges youth could face ten years out — seemed impossible at first. My greatest asset was the double diamond method: it let the team diverge, sit with the research, and then converge into discussions that were insight-led rather than opinion-led.

The dream rabbit-hole

Another invaluable lesson was what I call the dream rabbit-hole. We went down a hole so deep we believed we’d found our solution — without ever understanding the systems and processes the City of Ottawa already had in place. We trusted our own assumptions instead of checking them with the client, and it cost us a lot of valuable time. I won’t make that mistake again:

Low-fi prototypes save you from your own conviction

The third was the quiet magic of showing our low-fidelity prototypes to participants and SMEs. Their reactions let us tweak the solution in ways that genuinely served our demographic — and saved us from getting too invested in something before we knew it worked.

Data is not insight

And our surveys and interviews sometimes contradicted each other, which taught me something I keep close: treat everything you gather as data, not as direct insight. The two aren’t the same.

References