Designing a safe pint glass

Two revolutionary prototype pint glasses have been designed to reduce the injuries caused by glassing attacks.

The Design Out Crime project has developed two revolutionary prototype pint glasses that have been designed to reduce the injuries caused by glassing attacks. The designs represent the first major advance in pub glassware since the 1960s and feature new high-tech ways of using glass, so they feel the same as conventional glasses, but crucially do not create loose, dangerous shards if broken.

See the Design Council’s website for more details on this and other crime-related design projects.

Police Crime Maps “Improved”

The Guardian has been dissatisfied with the way the UK crime maps were produced:

The government’s recent launch of police.uk saw a phenomenal public reaction. Within hours of going live, millions of users had attempted to gain access to maps permitting street-level scrutiny of crime incidents across the UK. Dogged by “technical problems”, the site was reported by many to have failed in the face of public interest. Although the servers now seem much more capable of dealing with ongoing demand, we couldn’t help but wonder if we could offer people some alternative ways to compare and contrast crime levels around the country.

Read the whole article on what they did next, and click here to try out the new maps.

 

(I think it might be England only…)

Why is public signage failing? – Design Week

Interesting article from Design Week:

The phrase ‘to have lost one’s way’ is often applied to people who have become anxious, confused and vulnerable. Although meant metaphorically, it’s no coincidence that to literally lose one’s way – to become disoriented – also causes tension to rise very quickly. In public spaces, such as hospitals, car parks and stations, this is the last thing users want, yet poorly designed wayfinding systems often compromise safety and may even increase the risks of criminal behaviour.
Blind alleys, dead ends, poor sight lines and disappearing trails all leave people floundering. As the Home Office’s guide to designing out crime says, good street lighting and wayfinding measures, clear sight lines and a minimum of secluded or isolated areas go a long way towards making people and places less vulnerable.

‘In designing spaces we want people to feel safer and be safer, and wayfinding is important in this,’ says Jake Desyllas, director of wayfinding and pedestrian movement specialist Intelligent Space. ‘By moving people around in a certain way, you can increase the number of people who are viewing a space, as well as the potential for people to enter it at any given moment. Even if no one is actually coming in through a doorway, the fact that they might makes a space feel safer than, say, an alleyway which nobody can suddenly enter.’ The need for a calm, safe flow of people is especially important in environments where tension may already be high, such as hospitals.

At Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, for example, the Accident & Emergency department suffered a rise in crime five years ago, especially in violence towards staff. An analysis by Intelligent Space found that incidents were talking place in the treatment rooms – the worst possible place – largely because people entered through the wrong entrance and were then drawn by natural light and activity into a medicallooking area. Poor wayfinding and signage also led to rising stress levels, increasing the likelihood of aggression. Intelligent Space created a new wayfinding system and resited the reception area so that it provides greater ‘natural surveillance’ by staff; the number of incidents subsequently fell by around 80 per cent.

Car parks are another trouble spot…

(Read the rest online or in the current issue of Design Week)