Feedback from finalised design presentation:
- Include in context photos of children and the products - Have product comparison of existing products to back up the term "children's furniture is often underdeveloped" - Show the scale and dimensions with anthropometric and ergonomic analysis (talked about it but didn't show it) - Include renders and visual details of the products, to show context and details (otherwise feels more like a concept) - Presentation too text heavy - Would you buy the products as a set or individually? - Set up a sense of a brand for this product - Add the joinery and smaller details to the manufacturing processes - Storage of the furniture...how? - Movement, will these be heavy? will the children be able to "drag" it around? - Show interaction between the products and children
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Gave my presentation of the research and beginning design process of my project, the feedback is listed blow
From the class: - Explanation on terms that are specialised (Gross and fine motor skills etc) - Went quickly through your design criteria. Pick 3 or 4 main points thats worth focusing on. - Make sure all text is big enough to be read - Include where the furniture will be placed...in the home...in day cares etc - Try include some sketches with children in them - Look into the safety into the corners and be clear about the safety precautions being taken From Lyn: - Good at getting through the information - Show how children would use the furniture - Add things to suggestions where kids set or stand (footprints on the balance board) - Talked about colour, hoping to add more colour - Maybe make the furniture it’s whole self a colour - Maybe don’t use wood adults value it not kids. - Make more of the quotes, they’re helpful and find a good balance - More images - playing - Currently showing abstract if you show kids “putting a face to the kid” - Very interesting starting shapes, try make another version of all 3 Have been looking into different materials for the production of the pieces of furniture. For the wood frame of the pieces it will be made of laminated flexiply moulded over polystyrene . Looking into heavy duty bonded foam for the interior "squishy" pillow to have the opportunity to have either the firmness and durability of the wooden furniture or the softer more comfortable squishy option. For the covering for both the squishy interior and the edging of the wooden furniture (to protect it from the surrounding areas as well as protecting the flooring of the home) I have been looking at wools, brushed wools and merinos. These have the benefits of being a natural fibre, sustainable, biodegradable, naturally resists mould or mildew (important for the mess children can leave) and it is durable and hardwearing. Week 6 State of Play exhibition. Have put out 3 half scale models showing potential forms, there are three more models but they were not dry enough to put out yet. Today has been spent practising bending wood. 3mm flexi ply was glued together in 3 layers and wrapped around a mould made of polystyrene, this was then tightly gad wrapped to hold the wood to the mould and will be left for 24 hours for the glue to completely dry. I have tested this method on rather simple shapes to get a hold of how bending the wood like this will work. Once the wood has been taken off the moulds tomorrow, I will assess how this method works and the changes that will need to be made, then I will be able to explore more complex and interesting forms that will help stimulate the child's developmental skills. UPDATE 16.08.19 Bending the wood using glad wrap has worked really well, the shapes held to the form they were wrapped in and the wood is sturdy and rigid. Next things to work on with this is: - Figuring out how to make the corners and joins more flush and seamless. - Testing in full scale models - Testing with more complex and interesting shapes. After some assessment, talking to Emma and development of the idea of multiple pieces that could all stack together. I have made the decision to minimise the amount of pieces to 3, these will not necessarily all stack together but will follow the same design aesthetic and form to give them the sense of belonging to one another.
The shells of the furniture will be make out of laminated timber, using vacuum bagging and a mould to create the shapes. Sharp edges and corners will be covered in some form of natural, soft material to protect the child, the furniture and also the flooring that it will be on. At the moment I am looking into woven and brushed wool for these edges as per Emmas suggestion. This will also give a range of textures for the children to touch - the smoothness of the wood and the softness of the wool. Further development will be done on the forms of the 3 shapes, (keeping them non prescriptive) research into the softer material to cover the sharp edges, and whether there should be a soft interior to the wooden shell (eg. a pillow sort of object) Practise needs to be done with vacuum bagging and laminating wood, have spoken to the workshop staff and they have the equipment needed. Through the concept review there was some important factors to look into when moving forward with this project; - Form and shape exploration (3D and complex surfaces, making the shapes less abstract and more obvious for their primary use, explore the idea of geometric shapes) - Look into different possible materials (Soft and squishy materials) - Look into giving the product and furniture meaning past childhood - Explore and explain the mental aspects of the puzzle and making it mentally challenging - Possibility of team work (making it a group or parent & child activity) By the week 6 check point of the State of Play exhibition; - Have the 3D forms - Have the material and material samples - Define the location (not for both schooling and home, just for the home) As the critique was happening of this project, the participants were playing with the models and different pieces, laying them out in different ways and trying to get different pieces to all fit together. This showed that the idea and playfullness of the furniture is apparent and inviting, there just needs to be more development on the form, materiality, ergonomics and making the furniture a more complex design. Looking into exploring the form and layout of the pieces of furniture.
First looking at the layouts of the products in a flatlay formation, which then after the models are made, will be evaluated and developed to investigate how these pieces of furniture could be made into a 3D formation. I have been looking into the exploration of different ways in which the form can develop while keeping all the important aspects from the latest version of the design criteria.
I have done some research into the measurements and correct sizing for furniture that is made for children and this has changed the form of the chair slightly. Next steps will be to have a broader exploration of the form of the pieces of furniture, trying to find the best design to create a well developed product. Feedback from semester one: - Work on visual analysis of data - Have a clearer set of criteria to better construct the concepts as a set and explore a wider range of ideas - stronger integration of findings around the senses into the concepts themselves - Stronger integration of biophilia look back on concepts and how they connect to the wide range of things touched on in the research -Development of personas Next....
Working on the development of initial ideas and concepts to fit the critique given from last semester. This will be done through taking the main ideas that the concepts had, and taking them further by integrating the different areas touched on in the research in a stronger way. Exploring a larger range of concepts and initial ideas to come to one refined, strong concept. We had a 3 concept presentation and feedback session. This was helpful to see what the other students thought of my concepts, both those who were aware of my research and those who hadn't seen it before. The feedback that was the most helpful was the idea to merge my first and second concepts. The first one integrates play and manoeuvrability, the second focuses on organic forms and exposing the children to natural living and materials. Moving forward I will look into how these two ideas can cohesively be in one concept as well as looking at specific stimuli that could be added as extras. Concept One: Concept Two:Looking into a range of areas the concepts could stem from, these concepts all have focus on the form and the feedback given from the surveys and experts advice of sustainability, incorporation into play, adaptability and encouragement of bodily movements.
(From left to right, top to bottom) First: Wooden chair that can be flipped any way and sat on, depending on what the child feels like/enjoys. Focusing on sustainability through materiality, biophilic design through the natural forms and shapes and incorporation into play as it can easily be moved around and used however the child wants. There is no "correct" way of using it. Second: Looking into how animal forms and shapes can be incorporated into furniture and products. Keeping the shapes relatively obvious and making them able to be incorporated in various types of play. Third: Designing around a chair that is adaptable in size for a range of ages and sizes from child through to adolescence or adulthood and finding a way to design a chair thats style would also survive this amount of time. Fourth: Rocking and moving designs that allow the child to move and fidget as the focus on tasks or also to be a play item. Fifth: A range of stools that can clip into one another to create a range of sizes of chairs, or be left separate to create a range of sizes of stools, smaller sizes can be used as footstools, also used as tunnels or steps to climb up. Can all slot and stack together which was a point that the educators made about storage of furniture. Sixth: Material cocoon type of chair that is soothing and comforting to the child as one of the main sensory furniture on the market are bean bag type of chairs the engulf the child, this is the same kind of idea but designed in a way that is more aesthetically pleasing for parents to want to keep and have on display. Find a way to create the backing to rock like in a rocking chair. The plan for these concepts is to finalise three that incorporate the above points, and then through the development period will have the chance to add sensory and more focused stimuli, as the stimuli can be incorporated into any design yet creating a well developed base product is just as important as the stimuli. Working through concept generation and the different areas I could chose to design in.
According to the survey with parents, chairs and seating are the more desired piece of furniture they would purchase for their children. When speaking with educators, their product of choice was tables. Concepts will be generated for both areas of products and potentially even mixing together the two. Looking into the different opportunity areas and designing concepts under those titles, once there is a range of concepts, I will then look at all of the concepts as a whole and figure out what areas of each concepts work and don't work, what can be combined to create one cohesive design and what areas are going to be the most beneficial for my project aim. From the report the following feedback was given:
- Structure the report in more of a bullet point format as opposed to fully narrative, means that the readers can skim over the report and understand what is being said without reading the report in its entirety. - Restructure the last part of the report with the experts advice. Instead of having all of their advice put together and split into sections of areas, split the advice up into categories of each expert. 1. Advice and knowledge from the teachers at Play school 2. Advice and knowledge from the teachers at the 2 primary schools 3. Advice and knowledge from parents Second Part of the report is completed and submitted,
I am happy with the responses I got from the products given to the playschool as this gave me the opinions of both the educators at the facility and the children who interacted with it (approx. 20 children). I was able to interview and have open communication with both the educators at the childcare facility who had extensive knowledge in this area as well as talking to the sensory room NZ where their knowledge was extensive and extremely helpful. There is still a few things I would like to add to the report such as finding out more about what parents look for in child friendly products as they are the more likely to be the consumers for these products. They will help more with the physical form and design of the product, they will also have a few important perspectives on the function of the product that may differ to the opinions of the experts and educators. Have been struggling to find ways to get a broad range of opinions from parents, the parents opinions are just as valid and important as those of educators and professionals. With the lining up of the school and public holidays, I haven't really found ways to successfully gain the opinions of a range of parents.
I have created a survey that I am trying to spread around to a broad range of parents. The responses I have received so far is very helpful and also quite similar to the responses I got from the teachers/educators. From the survey responses I will create visual analysis to back up the points of the teachers and experts. The following advice was given from both a local childcare facility and the experts at The Sensory Room NZ:
After the pack had been given to the playschool, this was the findings given to me from the range of teachers.
Play dough: The kids didn't care about the colour of the play dough, the play dough itself was exciting enough that the colour didn't play a role in preference. Sensory Boards: A few of the objects on the sensory boards were clear favourites. The light switch that tuned on some bright lights, and the love hearts filled with bells had the most interaction from the children. They also enjoyed the wheels that they could spin. This shows me that anything the kids are able to move and physically play with is more intriguing to them as opposed to things that were stationary yet still playful. I think that this also shows that they enjoy objects that have a cause and effect sense, items that they could interact with and visually see they consequences of how that object will act after. For our primary research we need 2 methods. One for the function, the other for the experience.
After talking with Lyn we decided that my experience research will come first and the function will follow suit. For the experience research, I have made a pack of different items to be given to a play school in order to get first hand knowledge of the things that children enjoy/dislike and also test if the colour culture of blue for boys and pink for girls is still as strong as it once had been. I have made 2 batches of Play-dough, one pink and one blue, with the advice from one of the teachers to put in some vanilla essence for scent as this makes the kids more drawn to the play-dough. I have asked them to keep an eye on whether the boys automatically go for the blue play-dough and if the same goes for the girls. Along with the play-dough i have made 2 sensory boards, one painted yellow and one painted green. these boars have an array of objects and tasks glued to them for the kids to interpret and play with however they want. These boards and play-dough will be given to the playschool and feedback will be given to me through me going and talking to the teachers and asking questions. I included some prompts in with the boards and dough so that they have some idea of the kind of things i am interested in hearing about. Through writing the report I will address the titles of:
- Users - Products on the market - The Senses - Developmental Stages - Importance of sensory development - Sensory processing disorder - Sensory Play - Sensory Diet - Biophilic design - Colour psychology This leaves the following titles to be explored in the second part of the report and my primary research: - Potential Environments - Lifecycle of children furniture - Materiality - Ergonomics - Design preferences. Through looking at different areas of children development, the idea of biophilic design became very apparent. By exposing children to the natural world, natural forms and colours, it can help them grow to appreciate the world with the care that it needs. Biophilic design greatly improves the over all health and wellbeing of humans as it draws us back to our roots. Biophilic design has been greatly explored in office and healthcare environments and the results are great. I will need to do some more research into how children react and evolve with this type of design practises.
After some secondary research into sensory processing, sensory processing disorder and therefore the design and sensory "diet" that comes along with it, it has become clear that there are many playful activities and tasks that children can complete in order to aid the development of a range of life skills. Schools, parents and day cares are increasingly encouraging sensory play to help children learn through doing and experiencing a range of things, however this tends to be in the form of toys and craft activities. This leaves an opportunity point to find ways to incorporate these things into furniture for children.
After a talk with Lyn, it was suggested that i look into the developmental stages of children as these things may change as a child grows older and bigger. I also mentioned colour psychology, Lyn mentioned also looking into colour culture and colour physiology. My chosen topic for my honours project is looking into furniture for children and how furniture can better suit their needs and wants by incorporating playfulness and skill development into the objects and products they interact with.
My main path that I have found my research leading me is into sensory development and how certain activities can help children develop their sensory skills which consequently helps them develop appropriate behavioural skills, learn gross and fine motor skills, hold attention better and for longer. There is not a lot of furniture on the market that offers the chance for kids to develop their sensory skills. This is something I will look further into by looking at how children can develop these skills and also what furniture is offering to children at this time. |
Tayla AnstissFourth year industrial design student at Massey University in Wellington |