Exploring Closed Umbrella Designs for Reducing the Number of Near-miss Incidents

─Investigations on how to carry a closed umbrella and design improvements

Abstract

Though government agencies have often reported near-miss accidents caused by holding a closed umbrella during walking, there are few measures against dangerous ways of holding the umbrella. In this paper, we conducted two investigations on how people hold umbrellas, proposed three prototypes based on the knowledge, and had hearings for them about their usability. The investigations showed that subjects tend to prioritize the way of holding the umbrella that does not touch the ground or the way that is comfortable for themselves when they judge that it does not cause inconvenience to others around them. In the hearing of the prototypes made based on this knowledge, the respondents tended to prefer the prototype according to their own comfortable way of holding the umbrella.