Innovation for anti-theft product design
Virgil:
August 11th, 2007
Usually, if something you own has a better design, it’s more likely to be chosen as a target for theft. But new innovation and fervour from the Design and Technology Alliance, a government-backed group hoping to bring crime-prevention into the design process for products, hopes to turn this around.
A bike, for example, is usually sold separately to the security equipment (locks, etc.) that will keep it safe. This obviously raises revenue for the manufacturers. Indeed many companies profit from theft - mobile phone companies, for instance, simply make another sale when someone needs to replace their stolen phone. However, the Alliance hopes to encourage manufacturers to build stronger theft-prevention into their products, insisting that this will be of benefit both to customers and companies alike. David Kester, a member of the Alliance and Chief Executive of the Design Council outlines this aim, saying:
“The public want industry to be responsible, as with the environment, and they will put more trust in firms who they believe are interested in protecting them.”
With this in mind, lateral thinking going on at the Alliance-run Design Against Crime Research Centre has come up with two ideas to demonstrate how simple design features can be easily incorporated into products to help prevent theft. The first is a self-locking bike, which has a hinge down the main frame allowing it to fold in half, rendering the whole thing useless even if it is taken away. The second, and by far, I think, the more ingenious, is a chair which simply has two slots in the front. Women are able to hang their handbags from these slots, meaning that if someone tried to steal the bag, they’d be forced to put their hand between the lady’s legs. Lorraine Gamman, who works at the Centre, comments on this design, saying:
“The genital region is the most defended part of the body. If someone puts their hand down there, you notice.”
With any luck, we should soon be seeing more and more of this kind of simple innovation working to keep the things we’ve bought safe.