what would you do...a design opportunity

Today an unfortunate thing happened... after class, I went to the ladies' room (that's not the bad part.) After doing...well, what you do in such a place, I went to flush the toilet. It was one of those automatic contraptions with a little button in case the sensor isn't working. The problem today, though, was that neither the sensor nor the button were working. Eh gad. At that point, I didn't really have too many options. I had to just walk away, knowing that someone else would have to come behind me and remedy the situation.

I walked away feeling like a bum, but what else was there to do? I certainly couldn't think of anything at the moment. So, then I started thinking- what sort of opportunities does this represent to me as a designer? Maybe it's a lesson that automated is not always better, or that the phone number of the custodian ought to be printed on the back of stall doors. I'm not really sure, but it got me thinking.

(with thanks to Lawrence Whittemore on flickr for the photo)