Dot Dot | 2008 | Wood
Designed as part of a team: Andy Chen, Dirk Wright, Dian Kusuma, Sarah Clement, Victoria Hart; I was the only Industrial Designer in the team. It was developed with help of two 3rd grade co-creators to gain user feedback. Dot Dot is a modular kid’s furniture that can be arranged in various ways. Its minimal design promotes imaginative play for the kids to help them complete Dot Dot. With 2 bent pieces and 4 flat squares, the kids can easily transform Dot Dot from a rocket ship to a rocking horse. They become curious on what else they can make.
During developmental stage, I read some books on child psychology and found out how important imagination is for children in this market. But in today's modern world, children use less and less imagination as their toys are no longer figurative representations of objects but rather often complete replicas of objects; a car toy looks like a real car, a dinosaur toy always looks like a dinosaur. Wanting to bring back imagination to interactive play, minimally designed parts were created that can interlock with each other to form larger parts.
Prototypes in various forms were created. Full scale cardboard mockups were used for early tests used by our young co-creators. Various size changes were changed before the final prototype was fabricated using wood-bending techniques. The final model is strong enough to support the full weight of a full-sized adult in its various forms during testing.
As seen on Design Spotter.com
Exhibited in the Interior Design Show West (IDS West) in the Vancouver Convention Center October 14-17, 2010 as part of the Future Masters
