Designing for Humanity

Freak weather. Vandalism. Shoddy materials. Software bugs.

Whenever a designer starts work on a new project, they need to think of all of the bad stuff that could happen, and "accident-proof" against it.

Though one thing that Emily Pilloton never expected to have to consider was flying feces.

When Ms. Pilloton and her colleagues embarked on the redesign of the "quiet rooms," where the troublesome kids in a Texas foster care home are sent to calm down, they had lots of constructive ideas - or so they thought.

"We went in with music, aromatherapy and all this designeresque stuff," she recalled.

"Then the head of the home said: 'You can't have anything that can be used as a missile, or that a kid can choke on, and you've got to use this material on the walls, because we have to think about flying feces.'

It was very humbling to realize how functional it needed to be."