Play and The Act of Play

In this assignment, we're required to create a toy based on the body part assigned to us and to only use the materials from the following categories : recycled materials, found objects and daily objects.

PROGRESS

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Week 9-10 (empathy)

I started out by conducting a case study on the act of play, types of toys and my target users. Although there seemed to be a lot of information out there, I managed to summarize them and included them in my slides.

In addition, I came up with my own survey to obtain additional information that are not available online. However, since the body part I'm assigned to is head and shoulders, I was pretty worried that I couldn't come up with a toy to make.

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Week 10-11 (define & ideate)

During the define stage, i analyzed my information and came up three initial ideas which will be developed in the ideate stage. Moreover, I also did some research on the materials that I found at home in order to make full use of them in my prototype later.

During the ideation stage, I further enhanced my idea and add some features to some of the toys. Some of the ideas include string koala, robotic arms and dinosaur puppet. I felt glad that I was able to come up with ideas and further develop them in the prototype stage.

Week 12-13 (prototype )

During the prototype stage, I made a mock up of my toy, which was inspired by a string climbing toy. To my surprise, it's actually harder than I expected as I made a lot of mistakes along the way.

Fortunately, after a few amendments, I was able to create a working mock up and proceeded to create the actual prototype.

Followed by, I created my prototype according to my sketches, which mainly consists of two koalas and a vest.

Week 14 (presentation)

After I'm finally done and satisfied with my toy, I filmed myself playing with the toy and also made a poster about my toy.

OUTCOME

REFLECTION

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the outcome and also glad that it was a successful project. I've made several mistakes during the process of making it but nevertheless, it was a good learning experience.

In addition, I also gained in-depth understanding about the act of play especially the different aspects of it such as the benefits, types and so on through case studies, surveys and videos.Thus, I had to conduct a survey to understand my target users' needs in order to complement the information that I've gathered.

While I was looking for inspiration, the most surprising thing I've learnt is how the act of play leaves an impact on youth and childhood development. Before this assignment, I wasn't aware how important play is for children as I was an academically driven person even as a child and rarely spent time on the act of play especially during my early teens. According to my observation, children who spent more time playing and exploring tend to have well developed motor skills and cognitive skills.

My most absurd brainstorm idea was definitely the dinosaur puppet as it looks pretty silly and hilarious even by just imagining playing with it. My initial concept of it was to enable younger children who tend to be shy and timid to engage with their peers actively with the waving movements of the dinosaur. It looks pretty cute too, right?

The most challenging part of the assignment was the mock-up trial and error part. This is due to the fact that I have to experiment with different types of materials, measurements and the methods of assembling them. I've improvised the mock-up countless times and luckily it turned out the way I expected it to be. The most rewarding part was when I could transfer the koala concept into my mock-up and make it work like an actual toy.

I believe that this assignment has taught me to persevere and never give up no matter how tough the situation may get.

Throughout the first semester, I have enjoyed this module as the outcome was often rewarding and worth all the effort that I have invested in. Although It has been a rocky journey, I’m grateful to have my tutors, lecturers and friends alongside to guide me and pave the way for every single one of my assignments.

This module as a whole has introduced and developed my design thinking skills which is primarily broken down into five stages, namely empathy, define, ideate, prototype and presentation. Therefore, learning how to engage with our target users and putting away our own assumptions have taught me to create practical and impactful designs that could solve their problems or satisfy their needs. I often recalled in one of the lectures that we had, a successful design must have the perfect balance of form, aesthetic and function in order to create value to the society.

Significantly, this module has in a way inspired me to approach matters with different perspectives and explore the possibilities of an idea instead of restraining ourselves to our initial assumptions.

Moreover, I’ve also realised the importance of teamwork and effective communication through one of the group assignments. I was really amazed by the outcome and I think that everyone played an important role in making it a success.

In a nutshell, this module has definitely pushed me to my limits and inspired me to strive for the best no matter what.