WEB BURGER DESIGN In-house project · Aloha-chan's Hawaii Toilet Map
A free map that walks travelers to the nearest restroom
In Hawaii, many restrooms are locked or reserved for customers. We researched restrooms across Oahu and built a free map for Japanese travelers that shows who can use each one and gives walking directions from the current location, down to the floor and landmark inside the building.
alohachan.com/toilet ↗
750+
Restrooms on the map, across Oahu
1,000+
Visitors on launch day
Background
For visitors from Japan, finding a restroom they can actually use is one of the less obvious difficulties of a trip to Hawaii. Restrooms in train stations and convenience stores are not part of daily life here, and many cafés and restaurants keep their restrooms locked or reserved for customers.
The map is part of Minna no Aloha-chan, our own YouTube channel and website for Japanese travelers. It is written in Japanese and works in the phone’s browser, with no app to install and no account to create.
What we built
Walking directions to the nearest restroom
One button finds the nearest restroom and shows the walking route and time on the map, with arrows at each turn. The current location is used on the device for directions only, and is not sent to the site or stored. Travelers can also tap any point on the map to check what is nearby before they go.
The floor and the landmark
On arrival, the map shows where the restroom is inside the building, such as the floor and the nearest shop, in large type. For shopping centers and hotels, restroom positions were placed using each facility’s official floor map.
Who can use it
Each restroom is marked in one of three ways: no key needed, conditions apply (a key, a door code or customers only), or not yet checked. Travelers can also show only restrooms with wheelchair access, baby changing tables or bidet toilets.
Directions without street names
Many visitors do not know the local street names, so turns are described with things they can see, such as toward the ocean or toward the mountains.
Opening hours and safety
The map does not direct travelers to restrooms outside their opening hours, or to park and beach restrooms at night. Locations we do not recommend for visitors are outlined in red, with the reason.
Sources and reader reports
Every restroom shows where its information comes from: checked on site by our team, the facility’s official map, reviews and blogs, or reports from readers. Readers can report whether they were able to use a restroom, and each report is reviewed before the map is updated.
Connected to the channel
Restaurants and shops featured in the channel’s videos can be shown on the same map, so viewers can find the nearest restroom to a place they saw in a video. The map was launched with an Instagram reel and a YouTube video on the channel.
Applying this to client work
The same approach applies to location-based tools for businesses and facilities, such as store and facility finders, walking directions to an entrance, or information that staff and visitors can keep up to date.
Tell us what you want to achieve.
We work in English and Japanese and usually respond within one business day.