A 130 - Year UX Problem 🧻

Written By Maikel Mirabal

You’re probably using toilet paper wrong.

Not because you don’t know how. Because design failed you.

The “over vs under” debate isn’t a joke, it’s a UX problem that’s been hiding in plain sight for 130+ years. The original patent got it right: paper goes over.

âś… Visible
âś… Reachable
âś… Clean
âś… Intuitive.

That’s good UX.👍

And yet… millions of people still install it the other way. Why?
Because UX doesn’t end at design.
It breaks at behavior.
It bends to habits.
It adapts to context.
It gets rewritten by whoever touches it last.


The toilet roll 🧻 is a reminder that:
👉 The best solution doesn’t win.
👉 The most natural interaction does.


And if people keep “using it wrong”…maybe it was never truly right. UX isn’t what you design. It’s what actually happens. Even on a bathroom wall.

U.S. Patent No. 465,588, filed by Seth Wheeler and granted on December 22, 1891.

The patent illustrations clearly show the paper hanging over the roll, one of the earliest visual “UX decisions” baked into the design.

Read a summary of the 1891 toilet paper patent

Reflection inspired by Joe Kissell’s article: https://itotd.com/articles/4437/the-story-of-toilet-paper/

Maikel Mirabal

A designer is duty-bound to push the client as far as they will go.

Everything around us has a message developed from the field of design. We are 24 hours a day under the influence of design. For those who work directly in this profession, it’s a way to stay up collecting every detail, and then return it, interpreting it into visual and aesthetic codes, suitable for all audiences. My goal is to belong to a team that shares a perfectionist vision about graphic design and, therefore, try to find a better place in this world.

http://www.maikelmirabal.com
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