Why is this work relevant for Innovation?

1,300 million people worldwide(more than 3 million in Thailand) currently have visual impairment according to WHO. This condition affects their daily lives, causing inconveniences even in their own home. Everyday items are blurred out and pose danger when not fully visible.

Background

Over 1,300 million people worldwide currently have visual impairment problems, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In Thailand alone there are more than 3 million people affected by visual impairment. Visual impairment is one of the most common conditions in people’s lives, because it is not only caused by diseases but also age. Those who suffer from this condition find that it affects their daily lives, causing inconveniences even in their own home. Everyday items are blurred out and poses danger when not fully visible. For example, people dangerously miss the cutting board when cooking, or sit down and miss the toilet or a chair. When their eyes cannot identify each furniture and its function, all the furniture in the home are rendered useless. How can HomePro, as a professional home solution brand, improve the home life experience for the visually-impaired?

Describe the idea

When developing furniture for people with vision impairment, we discovered that 90% of all the furniture in the world uses similar color shades in their components, resulting in very low color contrast in each piece. To people with lower visual ability, the furniture would just blend into the environment and become useless. HomePro’s mission is to provide professional home solutions to ensure everyone can have a better quality of life. 7:1 Furniture is an affordable and universal solution. This design system can be applied endlessly.

What were the key dates in the development process?

7:1 furniture collection took 4 months on design stage and another 2 months for producing in China before its first launch at HomePro Expo 2019 and at Bangkok Furniture Fair 2019. The furniture is now available at HomePro all nationwide branches.

Describe the innovation/technology

7:1 Furniture Collection, the furniture made to be seen by the vision-impaired. The collection precisely uses a 7:1 color contrast ratio, a contrast level that makes a visual most accessible to people with disability. We use an international vision enhancement method which makes content or object visible at Level AAA standard (the highest level of visibility). The colors pop out to the vision-impaired to compensate for their loss in vision contrast. Also, a specially-designed outline system is developed to provide the furniture with shape and identifies the function to its user. Combined with color-contrast design, the design system brings what was barely visible back into full vision. 7:1 Furniture Collection visually erases impairment at home for the visually impaired, while still appealing to people with normal vision, allowing everyone at home to fully live.

Describe the expectations/outcome

7:1 Furniture provides a better homelife experience for the first time to vision-impaired people. The furniture provides not only a clearer vision but also reduce household accidents caused by vision impairment. 7:1 Furniture collection strengthens HomePro's mission to provide a full living experience for everyone in their own home no matter who you are. - 150K people visited exhibition (during 15-24 March 2019) - Over 5000 units sold within 3 months - More than 1,000,000 USD earned media - 98% positive feedback in an after-purchase survey - 84% reported less difficulty in everyday household functions, including accidents - Available now at HomePro nationwide