Design Process

This section of the phase describes the design process and highlights the various ideas developed during the creation of the final product. Subsequent sections describe the ideation process more extensively

Ideation Focus

In the previous sections, a plethora of kits was described, and, as per our requirement, it was necessary to include at least 7 toys in each kit. However, due to the limited amount of time provided in this project, it was quickly concluded that designing toys for each kit would prove to be an unfeasible task.

Therefore, it was decided that ideation would solely focus on the 2 kits in between the 6-12 month age range, as the baby in question would be in this age range and it could be possible to test the prototype's efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction with the participant's baby.

Collage-based Ideation.

As the focus of the ideation had been decided to be around toys built for children ranging between 6-12 months, it was decided that to ensure that the ideation would be relevant, collages would be created and used alongside ideation to serve as a starting point for ideas, from which modifications and enhancements could be made to improve the ideas. The collages used can be found below:

6-9 month baby toys collage

10-12 month baby toys collage

12 month baby toys collage

Grow-with-baby toys collage

Ideation Sketches

Using the collages and previous research, a plethora of ideation sketches were completed, combined and evaluated based on their suitability. The images below are the complete set of sketches concerning toy ideation.

Grow-with-baby toy ideas

Throughout this ideation process, a major challenge that was identified was developing a "grow-with-baby" toy, in other words, a toy that would develop alongside the baby and allow the baby to use the same toy in different ways as it grew and developed.

While many ideas were proposed, the 2 ideas that stood out from the rest were the following:

1. Activity Cube

As the name suggests, this toy is a cube that consists of a variety of activities on each side of it, ranging from cause-and-effect, sensory, haptic feedback and auditory toys that engage tha develop the baby in multiple facets through multi-sensory learning.

While the idea is promising, it lacks several flaws. Firstly, the idea is not unique, as many different competitors produce activity cubes with extensive customization options. Secondly, while the activity cube is engaging for the baby for hours, it will get more accustomed to the cube with all the toys on it quicker than if each toy on the cube was offered separately, as the baby's happiness will quickly return to baseline levels after no intrigue or excitement is offered past the initial delight [1]. Therefore, if the toy was to "grow" with the baby, then there is a strong likelihood of the baby getting too accustomed and uninterested by the toy, which in turn defeats the purpose of offering the product for this use case

2. Connectable train with carts

To address the 2 points of concern prevalent with the previous idea, a new idea was concocted: a connectable train. Essentially, the first kit that the baby receives will be a train with carts, and each cart would contain a developmentally appropriate toy on it to allow the baby to engage, allowing the baby to engage with both the cart, the train, and both at the same time, which increases the number of ways that the baby can play with the toy and decreases the time to boredom.

Furthermore, for each subsequent kit that they receive as they grow older, there will be new carts that contain new developmentally appropriate toys, allowing the baby to attach new carts to the existing train and build the train in many different ways. Not only is this a unique solution that did not show up in previous research on existing toys on the market, but this also ensures that the same toy(train) can be used repeatedly for the baby's development, allowing the baby to create an emotional attachment to the train and reduce the likelihood of boredom. Taking all of this into account, it was ultimately decided that the unique selling proposition, namely the "grow with the baby" toy, would be the connectable train.

References

[1] E. Scott, “How Hedonic Adaptation Robs You of Happiness—and How to Change That,” Verywell Mind, 2019. https://www.verywellmind.com/hedonic-adaptation-4156926