Presenting The Accessory Approach: A Start-up’s Journey Towards Designing An Engaging Fall Detection Device

This paper explores a design experiment concerning the development of a personalised and engaging wearable fall detection device customised for care home residents. The design experiment focuses on a start-up company’s design process, which utilises a new design approach, which I name the accessory approach, to accommodate given cultural fit purposes of a wearer. Influenced by accessory design, that belong neither to fashion nor jewellery, the accessory approach is a way of designing wearables that involve both functional and expressive qualities including the wearer’s physical, psychological and social needs. The accessory approach is proven to enable first hand insight of the wearer’s preferences, leading to in-depth knowledge and enhanced iterative processes, which support the design of a customised device. This type of knowledge is important for the HCI community as it brings accessory design disciplines into play when wanting to understand and design for individual needs, creating engaging wearables design.