Parents of multiple young children, your help is needed!

[Sian1989]

Hi,

Just a quick introduction, my name is Sian and I am a final year design student at Loughborough University. A large part of the final year consists of a major design project. The idea for my design is based around stairgates and this is where your help is required.

My initial thoughts, after observing a family friend with 3 children under 3 years, is that a stairgate is very fiddly when you've got your hands ful, whether that be with children, washing, bags etc. One that requires no hands to open would be very helpful in this situation. At the moment, the design is in very early stages and I need to gain a little bit of an insight into users needs.

Is this something that you feel would be helpful?

Do you find that you have to make more trips up and down the stairs as you cannot operate the stair gate without leaving a hand free?

Would it be something that you would pay for?

What is important to you when choosing a stairgate?

Is there anything would change about your current stairgate?

I would appreciate as much help and input as possible, any comments are helpful!

Many thanks in advance,

Sian

Sounds good - I would have loved one when my kids were small, however, wouldn't one that requires no hands to open be able to be opened by a small child? Stairgates have to be difficult to open as toddlers are amazing ingenius and will work out how to do things quite quickly.

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Is this something that you feel would be helpful?

Do you find that you have to make more trips up and down the stairs as you cannot operate the stair gate without leaving a hand free?

Sian, most people may have 2 gates,top and bottom, so if they and their kids all go upstairs they leave the down one open.So they don't need to keep going up and down to close gates

Would it be something that you would pay for?

we have 3 gates (top bottom and kitchen) so we bought cheap ones

What is important to you when choosing a stairgate?

We had no choice, only one brand fitted

Is there anything would change about your current stairgate?

It is dangerous and clangy when left open

I would appreciate as much help and input as possible, any comments are helpful!

Great idea for a project! Good luck!

they need to be quiet, i have 3, and the one on the bottom of stairs is a self closing and it is really loud when it shuts, would be useless on ds bedroom.
it is such a pain when you have to balance everything on one knee to free a hand to open a gate, i suppose it would have to be something with your foot, maybe like press a botton down and then flick some catch to release it but they would need to be quite resistant so that only an adults weight would open it?

Thank you all so much for your help =]
If you could point other friends in the direction of my post I'd really appreciate it!

Have to be toddler proof... mine has just figured out how to open 2 of ours (have 3 different designs around the house) and we now have to rope them shut and adults jump over them( tall DH) struggle over whilst carrying washing baskets etc (me).

How about one that works on the premise of those cat flaps? ie ones where the cat has a microchip (or something) in its collar so that only that cat can gain entry to the flap.

Could a stairgate have that in it ?- parent could carry a chip/whatever in a pocket or have it hanging on hook high up nearby.

thinking perhaps my idea is crap/unworkable....

Good luck with your project though. Must be improvements to be made.

Hello,

Just a quick update, I am now developing my stair gate concept and would be very much appreciative if you could fill in my questionnaire below. It won't take more than a few minutes and it would benefit me greatly in the next stage of my project.

Many thanks

Sian

FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=mjj7c0fwknuv5pl847866

I have been informed that this link doesn't work, please try this one:

mjj7c0fwknuv5pl847866

It's still not working for me. Would be happy to help though.

Apparently, the problem is that MN is putting a space in the address...I'm going to try again!

FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=mjj7c0fwknuv5pl847866

Right, as I see it in my text box at this very moment is without any spaces...if there are any spaces, please delete when pasting into your browser.

Sorry for all the hassle, I'm a bit new to these forums!

Hmmph. They've put a space between ?sid= and mjj7c0fwknuv5pl847866

:(

there already is a foot operated stairgate on the market BTW!

but will see if i can make the survey work anyway :)

no, i cna't make it work, even without spaces

oh hang on, got it

anyone else... if you copy and paste the link then remove the %20 it will work