Outlet eject buttons – for the sake of old people everywhere – GIZMODO

Dreamed up by UK design student Glen Crombie, this concept won first prize at the Future Perfect Company design competition, which asked its competitors to find elegant solutions for the problems faced by an aging population. The idea is simple: if the average three-pronged plug is too hard for an older person to grip, add an easily-installed eject button to push the plug right out of its socket. Quick and easy. It might be nice to see this concept see some real-life use. [Wired via The Future Perfect Company]

Send an email to Kwame Opam, the author of this post, at kopam@gizmodo.com.

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WIRED features Collyers competition

Ejector Plug Makes British Sockets Pensioner-Friendly

This curious plug-ejecting power-socket has just won first prize in the The Future Perfect Company design competition. The brief: Come up with “attractive and aspirational” designs that help people carry on as normal when they get older.

For most of the world, pulling out a plug is as simple as yanking a cord. Arthritis? Wrap the cord around your wrist before you pull. In England – where the fear of electrocution is only matched by the fear of the gangs of teenagers that roam the streets like marauding post-apocalyptic biker-gangs (only without the bikes) – things are more complex. Switches, interlocks and a three-pronged design with a side-exiting cable mean you need some strong fingers to unplug a plug.

Glenn Crombie’s winning design has an eject button. Press it and three prongs push the plug out and let it drop gently to the thick carpets that cover the floors of Britain. Never mind that frail fingers will have to press hard on a thin rod to make it work, or that when the plug is not in place there are three prongs sticking out to catch on skirts, slacks or any furniture you may wish to place in front of the sockets.

I guess the best thing to do would be to change UK plugs, but that’s about as likely as the country ditching the pound for the Euro, driving on the right or finally admitting that it is no longer in charge of a world-spanning empire

International online design magazine Core77 features Collyers competition

Posted by hipstomp | 25 Jan 2011

One of the funniest things I ever saw during my corporate design years was the tech support guy who was trying to get fired. He never confided to me that he was trying to get fired, but no other motivation could explain his behavior. One day I called him in to complain about a faulty monitor. “Let the doctor take care of it,” he said, grabbing the power cord. He then suddenly, savagely yanked it out of the wall so hard it was like he was trying to start a lawn mower. (And yes, he bent the prongs.)

The tech support guy had a good grip on the cord, if not job security; but for those with arthritis, removing a power cord from a wall socket can be an ordeal. Addressing this latter fact, UK design student Glen Crombie has designed a power outlet with a sort of eject button. Press it and the plug is forced out, easy peasy.

Crombie’s outlet design took first prize in a design competition sponsored by product manufacturer The Future Perfect Company and the UK’s College of Richard Collyer. (No word yet on whether it will see actual production.)

West Sussex County Times features Collyers design competition

Nice write up  today from our local paper, the West Sussex County Times about the Collyers’ design competition.

A good quote also from tutor, Kate Sharp : “Without design and technology in the national curriculum and its progression to product design at A level, our students’ experience at school and college would be a lot less enriching. As a subject, product design is the perfect bridge between science and creative, innovative design”.

As funds are ploughed into the sciences, it is easy to forget the importance which design and creativity play in our lives and how transformational good design can be. As we get older, it can mean the difference between being independent or not, enjoying our later lives or not.

Innovative push-out plug socket wins student design competition

We are delighted to announce that sixth form student, Glenn Crombie has won first prize in The Future Perfect Company and Collyer’s competition to encourage young designers to think about the challenges that an ageing population presents – and to create innovative, attractive and aspirational designs that allow people to continue to live enjoyable, active and independent lives as they get older.

Glenn’s winning product is designed to eject a standard plug from a socket at the touch of a button – deceptively simple but very ingenious!  Although initially designed to meet the needs of people with arthritis and similar gripping disabilities, this product has universal appeal and because it is based on a standard UK plug socket fitting, it is easily installed anywhere it is needed.

Joint second were Lucy Martlew, Andrew Marsh, Lauren Hale, James Delve and Jessica Chapman. whose designs included a light bulb changer, a mug which boils water using electromagnetic induction, a drinking glass with finger grooves for easy gripping, a soap sword and a long-handled personal grooming set.

The competition was open to Collyers students on the GCE Advanced Subsidiary Product Design course and judged by Denise Stephens (co-founder of online design community Enabled by Design), Harry Trimble (former winner of the competition at University of Brighton), and Philippa Aldrich (founder of The Future Perfect Company). Tutors Kate Sharp (Faculty leader – Arts and Communications) and Hari Atkins (Subject Leader – Product Design, Materials) acted as advisors to the judging panel.

Denise Stephens commented: “It was great to see design students exploring and addressing the challenges faced by many of us, but especially an ageing population. I was particularly excited to see entries that were clearly developed from a real need identified when speaking to people during the research stage of the design process, leading to some innovative results and mainstream appeal too.”                                                                   

Harry Trimble said: “Collyers’ students demonstrated great quality of thought and initiative to uncover the fundamental issues underpinning the various challenges of becoming older. The competition illustrated wonderfully how the standard of design education can be significantly enhanced if we encourage designers to have firsthand experience of the problems we hope to resolve through design”

We were delighted with the enthusiasm with which the students approached the subject of ageing, something that they would not ordinarily consider and the high quality of the design thinking which resulted. It was good also to see that the students had spoken to potential older  users as to what sort of products they wanted and needed and listened to what they were told.

We will feature more of the winning designs over the next few weeks but would interested to hear what you think about Glenn’s push- out plug socket. Would you buy one?

Update on student design competition with Collyers Sixth Form College

I returned to The College of Richard Collyer last week to review progress in our competition “Designing for the Future” which  requires students to design products which meet one or more of the challenges of ageing. 

In all, around 70 AS level students have entered our competition and if this visit is anything to go by, we will have around that number of unique designs to judge next month. Good to see so much innovation.

I was also delighted to see that the students had embraced the brief so readily  – the most thoughtful designs came from those who had spoken with their older relatives about the realities of ageing, something which must seem almost unimagineable to this group of 16 year olds.

I was helped out in my duties by Holly Sheppard, a product design graduate who was fitting in some work experience before starting teacher training. Her previous work has been for children. I am hoping to persuade Holly of the benefits of designing for an ageing population. In fact, perhaps all young designers should, as part of their training, be required to design or redesign one everyday object to make sure we all have the right tools we need as we get older.

Next month I am joined at Collyers by judges Denise Stephens, co-founder of Enabled by Design and previous winner Harry Trimble who is now in his final year at the University of Brighton. Together we will attempt to select one winner and 5 runners up from the finalists selected by tutors Kate Sharpe (Faculty leader – Arts and Communications) and Hari Atkins (Subject Leader – Product Design, Materials). Watch this space!

It’s our first birthday!! And what a year it’s been!!

I know it may be hard to believe but it’s been a whole year since we launched The Future Perfect Company and what a year it’s been!

ORIGINAL

Having launched our original and innovative product range in November 09, we continued to add exciting new products throughout the year including the Culti Cave, Many Happy Returns 1940s, the Trabasack and not forgetting our best selling handmade double handled teapot!    

INNOVATIVE

We ran one great competition with the University of Brighton and are just kicking off another with the College of Richard Collyer. We have been asking students to design products which not only address the challenges of ageing but also look good.    And we have been spreading that message wherever we go, most notably by speaking at the “We are Enabled by Design” conference at the Design Museum in London.

AWARD WINNING

We were delighted to win the Best New Business Award in the West Sussex County Times Business Awards and to be finalists in the Southern Business Awards.

THANK YOU

We wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU for everyone’s support over the past year – to our customers, family, friends, suppliers and designers, guest bloggers (including Howard Croft, David Edwards, Catriona Watt, Ronnie Fox) and our increasing numbers of Facebook friends and Twitter followers.  And also to the people and businesses which have helped us on our way including Cambertown, Fridays and most particularly our web designers, Jumpstart Interactive .

To help us celebrate, we are giving everyone who makes a purchase between now and Christmas Eve the chance to win one of our fabulous teapots.

Here’s to the second year!

Kind regards

Philippa Aldrich

Founder

The Future Perfect Company

Press Coverage of Collyer’s Design Competition

Today’s West Sussex County Times featured the Designing for the Future Competition we have just launched with Collyer’s Sixth Form College.

Like all areas in the UK, coping with an increasingly ageing population is an issue West Sussex is starting to address. We are keen to make sure that good design is seen as part of the solution to helping us all live longer, happier lives.

Launch of new design competition with Collyer’s Sixth Form College

Following on from the success of this summer’s ”Designing for the Future” competition with the University of Brighton, today we launched a new competition with sixth form students at the College of Richard Collyers.

The competition seeks to encourage young designers to think about the challenges that an ageing population presents – and to create innovative, attractive and aspirational designs that allow people to continue to live enjoyable, active and independent lives as they get older. 

The UK is going through an enormous demographic transition.  The first ‘baby boomers’ born after the Second World War are now drawing their pensions and the number of people over State Pension Age is overtaking the number of children.  However, research released in April 2009 from charity Age UK revealed that the majority of people over 50 feel that businesses in the UK ignore them, instead focusing the majority of their attentions on the ‘youth’ market.  This is despite the fact that older people’s spending power is worth an estimated £250 billion a year. 

Ageing is characterised by certain physical changes – a decline in short-term memory, failing eyesight, hearing and problems with manual dexterity.  Whilst there are products already available that are designed to address these changes, they are usually dull and clinical with very little emphasis on attractive design, making them ‘necessary evils’ which highlight disability rather than aid and promote ability.  

After the success of the University of Brighton competition earlier this year, we are very excited to be running this competition with Collyers. There is a dearth of attractively designed products available for people who want to continue enjoying life as they get older. By engaging designers at the very beginning of their careers, we are hoping to encourage them to focus on this increasingly important market.

 The competition is open to Collyers students on the GCE Advanced Subsidiary Product Design course and will be judged by Denise Stephens (ex Collyers student and co-founder of online design community Enabled by Design), Harry Trimble (former winner of the Designing for the Future Competition at University of Brighton, final year 3D Design student), and Philippa Aldrich (founder of The Future Perfect Company).

Tutors Kate Sharpe (Faculty leader – Arts and Communications) and Hari Atkins (Subject Leader – Product Design, Materials) will act as advisors to the judging panel. The results will be announced in December 2010 and the winner will receive a prize of £75. There will be five further prizes of £25 for highly commended entries.

Image : Pill Box by Sophia Fong, University of Brighton