At xkcd on November 28, 2022 there is a cartoon (shown above) about how every designer’s dream is to invent a faucet control that isn’t confusing.
Long ago there were separate faucets for hot water and cold water, as shown above. You only could mix them in the sink to get warm water. Conventionally the hot water is at the left, and cold is at the right.
Then there were mixing faucets, like the one shown above from our half-bathroom. Again, hot water is at the left, and cold is at the right. Centers of the valve handles might be labeled H and C, or color-coded red and blue – but these are not.
More recently there were single-lever (or joystick) faucets on a vertical axis, like one shown above. Water is turned on and flow rate is controlled by pulling up on the lever, and temperature is controlled by turning the lever to the left (hot) or right (cold).
And for kitchens there are single-lever faucets on a horizontal axis with the lever at the right, like one shown above. To turn the water on and control flow rate the lever is pulled to the right. For hot water you rotate the lever clockwise (up), and for cold you rotate it counterclockwise (down). Hot is higher, but that contradicts another possible mapping which would just turn the axis from vertical to horizontal.
For public bathrooms, like in airports, there often only is premixed warm water. Once there were annoying spring-loaded faucets with a handle you could push down to get just a few seconds of water. Currently it is more common to have a faucet that goes on when it senses your hand is in front, as shown above.
Images of separate faucets, single lever faucet, vertical single lever faucet and a sensor faucet all came from Wikimedia Commons.
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