design stories in everyday things

You are sitting alone in this confined space. Except occasional distant noise from late night trains, the house is simply dead silent. The bathroom door next to your elbow is loosely shut, you can hear your breath echoing inside this space. The dim light above your head can barely light up the room, as well as the paper you are holding. But it casts an annoying shadow of you head onto the paper, making it even hard to read the small print. You move the paper closer and closer to your nose, tracing every line of the horror novel, and your heart beat is mixed with your ever faster breathing.

Can you picture this experience in your head? I am trying to describe a Japanese product: a horror novel that is also a toilet paper roll. The name of the novel is called ドロップ (Drop) written by 鈴木光司 (Suzuki Koushi). Mr. Suzuki also wrote the famous horror novel リング (Ring).

From User Experience point of view, the combination of toilet paper and horror novel is a brilliant idea.

• Time condition: People are usually free for 3-5 minutes (or longer) in bathroom. They would find all sort of things to kill the time, such as handheld gaming device, magazine and book.
• Emotional condition: When a person is alone in a confined, quiet space (the bathroom), he/she is more emotionally vulnerable to horror stories.
• Convenience: toilet paper is always placed in a bathroom, there’s no doubt about it. It is right at the place of reach, doesn’t require battery, and you don’t need to bring a book in and out of the bathroom. Even better, after reading a page you can simply use it for it’s primary purpose: toilet paper.