A USER-CENTRED DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPEUTIC TOYS

Therapy in early childhood is facilitated through toys and play. While mainstream toys are designed for children, therapeutic toys need to satisfy requirements from clinicians, caregivers, and children. The study presented in this paper investigated the challenges that 22 international toy designers encounter during the design process and whether support is required when developing products for speech and language therapy, through a mixed-method approach. Results show that considerable challenges are encountered during the early design stages. Nonetheless, the toy design process remains unsupported, while no support is available for designers to consider therapeutic needs. Based on the feedback received, eleven requirements were identified upon which a user-centred design support framework was proposed to assist toy designers during the task clarification stage, taking into account the affordances that therapeutic toys should have without inhibiting the creative process.

PIVOT FOR THE PANDEMIC: COMPARISON OF TOY AND SCIENCE DEMO DESIGN PROJECTS IN A FIRST YEAR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING COURSE

The first year course, “ME 100: Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Practice, 1”, was redesignedfor the Fall 2017-2019 offerings. The goals of the redesign were to include: a major design project, opportunities for individual communication assessments, and opportunities for development of professional skills. A toy design project was piloted in Fall 2017 as a unifying course theme. In thisproject, industrial partners come to discuss the engineering and design that happens in the toy industry. They also help critique student work as they design a toy of their choosing. With the impacts of COVID 19 the decision was made to pivot to a challenge to design new classroomphysics demonstrations. The course redesign has generally been successful. Both projects have been well received by students, faculty, and industry partners, with students reporting on an end-of-term survey that it was engaging and doable, and that it helped develop their confidence andunderstanding of design, and mechanical engineering. The demo project was generally slightly better received, with 2-8% more students agreeing to statements about the usefulness and appeal of the project. Both projects, the toy project especially, serve as a vehicle to discuss differentaspects of design and professionalism. Challenges exist with giving students guidance at the start and throughout the project to ensure that all student teams have suitably scoped projects. There is also the challenge of helping students develop a design mindset, as several groups struggle with performing the justified decision making necessary to actual design a toy.

Smart design of intelligent companion toys for preschool children

Early childhood education has long-lasting influences on people, and an appropriate companion toy can play an essential role in children's brain development. This paper establishes a complete framework to guide the design of intelligent companion toys for preschool children from 2 to 6 years old, which is child-centered and environment-oriented. The design process is divided into three steps: requirement confirmation, the smart design before the sale, and the iterative update after the sale. This framework considers the characteristics of children and highlights the integration of human and artificial intelligence in design. A case study is provided to prove the superiority of the new framework. In addition to enriching the research on intelligent toy design, this paper also guides for practitioners to design smart toys and helps in children's cognitive development.

The Other Side of Play: Fear and Frustration in the Design, Consumption and Use of Construction Sets

Play is typically considered to be a highly pleasurable and stress-free activity; nevertheless, there is a strong but neglected connection between toy design and the fear of a technological future. The production and promotion of technology-inspired toys for middle-class children in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reflected both the great fascination of adults with new technology and their anxiety about its impact. Different types of technical toys were meant not only as playthings, but also as tools for coming to terms with a changing social and technological milieu. For children themselves, playing with construction sets could be a source not only of pleasure, but also of frustration. This essay discusses a range of negative emotions related to construction toys and offers insights into this hitherto under-researched aspect of play. We argue that toys of a technical nature offered a small-scale and safe environment for testing out practices and mentalities related to the tensions and contradictions of modernity.

Digital Sketching Applications for Design of Multicultural Toys Based on Himavanta Creatures from Thai, Laos, and Myanmar Fine Arts

<p>The research focuses on digital sketching aspect through a depiction of Himavanta creatures and characters from Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, where the details of paintings, sculptures, and architectural features as well as multicultural aspiration and imaginations are considered main variables. The research analyzed Himavanta creatures’cultural identities, sculptural forms and patterns, colors, and characteristic structures and implemented these identities into a design process, which then initiated a digital sketching process to transfer the artwork into designing multicultural toys. The evaluation processes comprised of eight design aspects including 1) concepts and theories of toy design, 2) contents connectedness, 3) discretion to communities, 4) suitability of Himavanta creature, 5) numbers of character sets in basic level, 6) numbers of character sets in experienced level, 7) content management for toy design process, and 8) digitize design procedures.The research results show that the Himavanta creatures including Singha, Chinese lion, Kochasri, Garuda and Swan that based on the digital sketch from paintings, sculptures, architectural features, as well as artisan’s imaginations in the multicultural societies were significantly similar.By testing and applyingthe concepts and theories of multicultural toy design processes from digital sketches, each final design found to be practical and displayed effective cultural means that remains true to its mood and tonality of its cultural interpretation. Consequently, the level of satisfactory evaluation on the process of the design samples, the awareness effectiveness, and the toy’s interpretation shows the value of x̄ = 4.46 and the value of 0.58 standard deviation. The satisfaction on the design worksshows that awareness and interpretation consistency indicate x̄ =3.84 and the standard deviation was at 0.65. </p><p> </p>