24 Hour Inclusive Design Challenge 2005
Footprint
Factory Design
The issue
As mass transit systems become more efficient, one thing remains unchanged – lifting, placing, pushing, pulling and storing luggage are as challenging as ever, especially when you are disabled. “Luggage is the problem not people” said the team.
What is it?
Footprint is a modular luggage system that will integrate into mass transit systems, set a biometric standard and take ‘the lug out of luggage.’
How does it work?
The system would be modular and flexible but based on a standard biometric platform to allow it to integrate into mass transit systems of different kinds. The fixed footprint of its dimensions would mean that it could be easily slid on to trolleys and stored on buses and trains as well as in overhead lockers on planes. It could have the following features and attributes:
- Handles that lift out
- Handles all around and not just on the top of the case
- Inbuilt seat
- Inbuilt rollerball
- Stairclimbing ability
- Could be motorised
- Removable smaller case to allow for increase in luggage on journeys
- Inbuilt smart card to carry information about owner
- Opportunity for branding.
What are the benefits?
Setting a standard footprint for luggage in relation to the many interactions that a traveller must go though on their journey, would ensure that the integration of the luggage with the system would be seamless, and not haphazard as it is now. The modular nature of the footprint would allow for flexibility in design that could accommodate individual needs and desires.