Summary & Conclusion
This project delved into solving a major issue for a first-time mother with a 6-month-old baby. Starting with the interview, the project entailed field research around the mother's wants, needs and desires, while the desk research was primarily focused on baby-specific questions relating to key skills, abilities and milestones faced at each stage of their growth as a baby. The result of this was a preliminary idea
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Next, co-design sessions conducted with the mother highlighted areas missed during the first phase, as well as specific requirements and preferences of the mother, which helped refine the preliminary idea. With the usage of both the extensive desk and field research, ideation was conducted, and several ideas were brainstormed until a final concept was concluded.
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Upon conclusion of the final concept, a working prototype was made of the proposed product to test its feasibility and account for any potential mistakes, and a viable business model was proposed.
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This project has provided all members with a new, structured approach to future projects that combines both desk and field research in a balanced manner and provides a clear guideline on ensuring that the product solves the needs of a specific participant while remaining usable for customers facing similar issues. The project has necessitated the learning of many new skills, concepts and frameworks that will be added to the toolbox of all members and used to amplify the results of future projects in the field of Industrial Design Engineering
Reflection
Although the 3 phases were completed successfully, and the prototype made was functional and usable, it is irrefutable that a few aspects of the project were worthy of reflection, and it is undeniable that blunders were made. It is important to however acknowledge, reflect and take into consideration these blunders made in subsequent projects. Therefore, below is a list of the most important reflections made in the project and what could be done in the future to prevent these blunders from being repeated:
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1. Reflection 1: Tests with the baby
It had been desired to have completed the prototype in a shorter period and test the prototype and the toys with the baby to see how it engaged with the toys and whether or not their engagement was extensive and educational concerning time and value respectively. However, due to conflicting schedules with the participant, the mother stated that she would be absent from the country in the final 2 weeks of the project and hence testing would be unfeasible. Furthermore, it would have been desired to make a greater amount of toys with the baby to A/B test different toys and see which toys provided the baby with the most engagement time.
To solve this in the future, it would be wise to consider planning the user testing at the beginning of the project and ensure that the participant is fully aware and capable of facilitating this phase. Furthermore, the phase of prototype making should be done slightly earlier to ensure that ample time is left for not only creating additional toys for testing but also to ensure that user testing can be done in sufficient time and adjustments can be made accordingly.
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2. Reflection 2: Alternative “grow-with-baby” toy
The group decided that the most feasible method of making a toy that grows with the baby would be a connectible train that would be able to have new carts added and removed from it based on the growth stage of the baby. However, it is important to note that this is not the only solution that could be implemented, and other solutions could have been explored, such as a more mobile activity cube. By doing so, the participant could have been offered several "grow-with-baby" toys that could be evaluated and chosen based on her and her baby's preferences and likes. To prevent this from happening in the future, it could have been beneficial to create low-fidelity prototypes of the "grow-with-baby" toys using techniques like the Wizard-of-Oz or other relevant techniques to garner the reaction, engagement and value it provided the mother and baby.
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2. Reflection 3: Better solutions for dealing with the mother's guilt
Throughout the interview and co-design sessions, the mother expressed a sense of guilt experienced when she was not engaged with the baby and felt uneasy about not spending enough time with the baby. However, the group concluded that it would be unfeasible to create a solution that facilitates independent play with the baby but also allows for the baby to engage with the mother and eradicate the mother's feeling of guilt, as the solution targets two contradicting issues. Hence, it was decided that the proposed solution would focus solely on engaging and providing educational value to the baby over extended periods to allow for self-entertainment and allow the mother to focus on her tasks, allowing her to finish her work quicker and more efficiently, which in turn would provide her with increased capacity to engage with the baby and reduce her feelings of guilt. However, it is worth mentioning that perhaps this is not the most optimal solution, and there could be a solution that finds a way to keep the mother and baby connected even when the baby is engaged in self-play or a solution that allows the play kit to be used for both independent play with the baby or connected play with the baby or mother by offering additional features or services that enable it to be dynamic and suit the mother's needs depending on her time availability and preference to engage with the baby or focus on work. Like before, it could have been wise to ideate upon this more extensively and provide some sketches of ideas to the mother, followed by low-fidelity prototypes to test the feasibility of said ideas.