Bollards – IRELAND 24-Hour Design Challenge

November 7, 2009 udcom

An urban navigation system won the Judges Award in the Centre for Universal Design Excellence first ever 24-Hour Design Award Challenge.

The design contest consisted of five teams working with an “expert user,” called a “design partner,” to develop a product or service that addresses a challenge commonly faced by the design partner on the streets of Dublin. Participants on the teams were architects, landscape architects, engineers, product designers, interaction designers and students.

The winner, “What a Load of Bollards,” is an intuitive navigation system that can be added to the top of any curbside bollard in a city. The bollard head is replaced by an information dial with tactile highcontrast colored direction arrows and speech output.

Universal Design (UD) is an approach to design that increases the potential for developing a better quality of life for a wide range of individuals. It is a design process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation (Steinfeld and Maisel, 2012). It creates products, systems, and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation.