Over the last six months we have been part of the Royal College of Art’s Pathfinder Innovation projects supported by Design Age Institute.
The Process:
We’ve been working on designing a new range of Invisible Creations products for use in the garden. Our products are inclusive, attractive, and dual-purpose mobility products to support people to live well and maintain independence for longer.
Our outdoor mobility products are combined with everyday garden items, like plant pots and window boxes, to disguise grab rails. Through this project we have been designing products to enable safe and supported access to the outdoors while promoting active mobility and preventing falls, without compromising on dignity and style.
We collaborated and co-designed with a range of people to ensure that these products really meet our needs as we age and as our mobility becomes more challenging. We completed a range of research sessions and user workshops to gain further insights and understandings of the problems people face when accessing their outdoor spaces and we tested a whole range of designs to ensure our approach remained inclusive, creating the perfect combination of safety and style.
Our products have been designed with the goal of enabling individuals and communities to maintain an active and joyful life at every age.
Laura Wood, Director of Invisible Creations, said:
“We’re all about changing lives at Invisible Creations, through good design, collaboration and creativity, so we’re absolutely delighted to have received this award which gives us the opportunity to improve and develop on the work we’ve been doing. We were delighted to be working with the Design Age Institute and the Royal College of Art to transform homes into more beautifully accessible spaces through simple, thoughtful, inclusive design.
The work we do at Invisible Creations is designed to disrupt the adaptations market and provide people-centred solutions that support mobility in and around the home. Receiving this award has been a real pivotal moment for us because it has provided us with the opportunity to develop a whole new range of products which will help many more people live independently and well for longer.
This award supported us to design adaptations that can assist people inside and outside of their homes to prevent falls, promote mobility and prolong independence. We’re really excited that we could collaborate with the Design Age Institute to produce a range of products which will lead to the creation of much safer, accessible and desirable spaces to support people to age well.”
Pathfinder Pop Up
Based at the Royal College of Art’s Battersea campus, Design Age Institute was set up to provide design support for Pathfinder Projects; accelerating an innovative idea for healthy ageing from a prototype towards market. The Institute provides and facilitates seed funding for design, user research, opportunity scoping and mentoring, as well as connecting projects with design experts. The Pathfinder Innovation Programme has been made possible through the generous support of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Healthy Ageing Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency and Research England.
Colum Lowe, Director, Design Age Institute, said:
"One of the biggest frustrations of my career to date is witnessing how few potential entrepreneurs manage to get their ideas to market, and as such fail to deliver real and lasting benefit to their intended audience. It has been a joy to lead Design Age Institute's Pathfinder Programme which helps overcome some of the barriers that entrepreneurs face, while at the same time demonstrating how great British design can help innovators connect with users, solve problems and communicate benefits making ideas more real, less risky and ultimately more investable."
The project has now come to an end and we are in the final stages of tweaking the designs ready for sale later this year.
Watch this space for more info on when the new garden range will be available.