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Phase: Ideas Opportunity Areas: What Surrounds Us

The floor is yours

Remain in control of your floor and make objects stand out in a visual, auditive or sensor based way so you can keep your walking lane free.

Photo of Guy De Koninck
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Who is your idea designed for and how does it enable older adults to live their best possible life by preventing falls?

Visual factories have been organized for years to promote good habits and prevent unwanted actions. We need to take the same precautions in our homes, where the majority of falls occur. All objects and standard routes should be made clearly visible so objects that may cause you to trip are always removed before moving. I was inspired by the book "Visual workplace/visual thinking" which contained the images added below.

Full description

"Fall proof" the home. 

I saw a production floor in a supplier factory that was arranged like this to enhance security and operations, using visual queues to help the operators and guide the flow.  We can use those same principles to help us in our homes.

What early, lightweight experiment might you try out in your own community to find out if the idea will meet your expectations?

Discuss with family and local community members how they feel and how they could translate the idea in their home environment.

What skills, input, or guidance from the OpenIDEO community would be most helpful in building out or refining your idea?

How to translate from a factory to a home environment? How to make it less "cold" and more "liveable"?

How long has your idea existed?

  • 0-3 months

This idea emerged from

  • An Individual

Tell us about your work experience:

I follow design and innovation topics. I work in the procurement department of a bank.

Inspired by (1)

Are we really working on fall prevention?
Are we really working on fall prevention?

4 comments

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Photo of Kate Rushton
Team

Hi Guy!

Really interesting! Would this be done in a way that would 'retrofit' an existing carpet/flooring? Are there any other aspects of the home that need a redesign e.g. light switches?

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Photo of Guy De Koninck
Team

Indeed, the idea is to start working with the existing environment, so changes can be limited, acceptable yet effective. Good suggestion to include light switches too. Thanks.

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