March 2010
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Rounding up
Diploma Project
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My diploma project has come to end, and i have graduated in December 2009 with a diploma in Visual communication Design. To round up my project, we had to put together a printed documentation of our entire project. The presentation above rounds up the entire design process i followed, from idea to final prototype.
I am hoping that in due...
September 2009
7 posts
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The art of deception →
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Vince frost: Easy as ABC →
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Project Plan for the coming month
I have narrowed down on my idea, my final deliverable and the process i will follow in the time left for project completion. Make or break situation. :/
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Summary of 4th Review Panel Meeting: 1st...
Panel: Anders Sandell, Sudipto and Ramesh
Ideas:
All your ideas are interesting and have potential to be developed into concepts and products. But they all now seem to need in various degrees a generation of the content for the game or toy.
You can choose to mould you idea as something that is more instinctive or more instruction driven. Work out your area of focus: is it going to be material,...
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Ideation
This is a bunch of ideas i had come up with for the design of my toy. Prior to this, i had listed a bunch of insights and opportunities as part of my research findings. I have summed up and chunked my opportunities into categories, to become idea starters. I am currently working on the details of the ideas to bring more clarity and tangibility to the table.
August 2009
16 posts
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Paperbots →
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Summary of 3rd Review Panel Meeting: 18th August,...
Panel: Geetha Narayanan, Sudipto and Ramesh Research:
Research:
Segmenting the market and working with different sections of the market is important, so no one can attack you once you have chosen to design for a certain section of people. The personas you have made are still a little generalized.
Look at the market itself for the price range that you are targeting at, and construct a mood board...
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“The best way to a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”
– —Linus Pauling
This I found quoted on my friend’s blog who is also pursuing his dip project and i thought it was apt for me now that I’m in the third phase of my project: the actual ideation and creation of my toy! phew! I’m excited and nervous as hell… Meanwhile, do check...
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Research Analysis
Research Analysis
This is just a sum up for the review panel, to show what ive been attempting to do with my research. I have tried to define my user group profile a little more in detail, and map out people using quadrants. Alongside, I have also picked up certain interesting points from my interviews, and saw how i could turn those insights into opportunities for the design and function of...
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A chat with Dheeraj
Dheeraj,father of 4 year old and 11 month old daughters
Dheeraj has 2 daughters, who are 4 years and 11 months old. Both he and his wife are working and have a hectic schedule during the week. This gives the both of them a maximum time of 1 hour in the morning, and two hours in the evening to spend with their children. Sometimes, both of them have to carry work back home. The children have the...
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A chat with Jatin
Father of 11 year old daughter and 3 year old son
Jatin has two children - Adithya (8 Years old) Avani (3.5 years old). Both he and his wife are working. Jatin works at an IT company, while his wife works as a teacher. Since both of them have very hectic schedules, they have employed a full time nanny to care for their children. They stay in an apartment very close to Jatin’s office.
The...
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Mother of only 4 year old son
Kavita has a 4 year old son who studies at the euro kids play home very close to her apartment. Thought very close, being a highway, he travels by the school bus.
Kavita earlier had the chance to work from home but then shifted to a flexi plan option and slowly returned to her work schedule. The child has very little time with his parents and very little attention...
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A chat with Kavita
Father of 3 year old son
Georgie has a son who is 3 years old.
Georgie’s wife is a stay at home mother, who cares for her child. She used to work earlier, but gave up her job when she was in the delivery stages.
Georgie works Monday to Friday, from 9 to 7. He gets to spend very little time with his child, usually for 2 hours in the evening and on weekends.
Georgie and his family stay in an...
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“Children are the messages we send in the future.”
– Marshall McLuhan
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July 2009
30 posts
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Review Panel Meeting 2 (24th July)
Now that you have become closer to defining you user age group, study the needs of this age group. Children at the age of 4-6 years old are very active, and they have a lot of energy in their bodies. They are constantly exploring the physical world: inside-outside, open-close, things like these are fascinating for these children. Every day is a new day for them, and they play and learn with...
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A visit to Oasis Homeschooling Centre
Marianne runs a social organization called the oasis learning centre, which follows alternative methods of education. She runs this for a group of children, whose parents have gotten together and chosen the curriculums for the children themselves.
About Homeschooling:
The concept of homeschooling arose from the idea that schools in northern America, moved slowly away from traditional values, and...
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Visit to the Kidzee Daycare Centre
Kidzee is a daycare centre that caters to children from infants to 6 year old children.
It usually gets all its reading and playing material from their head office in New Delhi. The teachers don’t have too much say in what is taught in these centres.
There are some children who come from early morning to late evening and spend the entire day in the day care centre.
The toys are usually split...
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A chat with Geetha
Geetha Subramanian, mother of 5 year old Saarang
Geetha was another working woman, who quit her job to look after her child.
Her son Saarang goes to Sisugruha nursery school.
Geetha is insistent that Saarang spends quality time with family, and hence he visits his grandparents and cousins every weekend.
Initially he was in Poorna Pragna School, but the parents felt that it was too...
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A chat with Harini
Harini: mother of 9 year old Kriti and 4 year old Kyati
Harini was born and brought up in Vishakhapatnam. After studying engineering, she worked for a good number of years, travelling between the USA and India. Being a conscientious mother, she gave up her job after her children were born.
She is very systematic and insists on inculcating discipline in her children. Hence homework time, eating...
“I would prefer a toy from say a Maya Organic or Sutradhar as compared to a toy...”
– Harini, housewife and mother of two daughters, 5 and 9 years old
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A chat with Anu
Anu: housewife with two daughters, 7 and 4 years old.
Anu was a working woman, but gave up her job, when she was pregnant with her first child. She was very clear that she wanted to give her undivided attention in raising her children.
Her mother and father stay close to her home, and her mother helped her a great deal in bringing up the children initially. The children still spend a lot of...
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Piotr Naskrecki's Photostream →
Piotr Naskrecki is the Director of the Invertebrate Diversity Initiative of Conservation International and Research Associate with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. He is also an amazing photographer. His book The Smaller Majority, got me out of my fear for insects.
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Lego Reboot Britain →
Interesting idea of using lego to express social messages. A good toy opens itself to a lot more possibilities than what it was intended for.
Check out the message of a 5 year old…
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Pencil Sculptures →
“A lot of children in my class don’t know what an ant looks like. They’ve seen...”
– Mrs Bhagya, Science and math teacher, class 1, Mallya Aditi international school
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Readings
This is just a list of readings and books to start me off. More will be added with time. Recommendations are welcome.
The smaller majority, Piotr Mascrecki
Last child in the woods, Richard Louv
Animal fables of India, Narayana
*The end of nature, Bill McKibben
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A chat with Mrs Bhagya
Mrs Bhagya, Science and math teacher, class 1, Mallya Aditi school
Curriculum is taught based on what we think needs to be introduced to the children, and their levels of understanding. There are no prescribed textbooks. They are taught usually with the aids of presentations, experiments etc, concept mapping etc.
Toys are usually required in a classroom space for mathematics and physical...
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Feedback sessions
Mr Ravindra What do you mean by ecosystem? The ecosystem for your toy will consist of the user group that you are targeting at, the material resources and production process and the marketing and distribution. Broadly there are three of four different ways the toys can be categorized based on their playing processes.
Toys that are construction based and require a certain pre-knowledge from the...
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Typographic sculptures →
Bug heads: Strengths and weaknesses
The toy’s intention to introduce natural environments to children is there, but hasn’t been reflected to the maximum.
The form of the toy has its advantages and disadvantages. Is it meant to be abstract so as to leave the form to the imagination of the child? Or is it meant to be more defined to make the child recognize and understand certain facts?
The ‘Indianess’ of this toy is superficial,...
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Astronomical Outreach →
Design Process: Bugheads
Design Process: Bug heads
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“Ecosystem: a localized group of interdependent organisms together with the...”
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Prototype
These were the prototypes made for the interactive toy design course.
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Review Panel Meeting (02nd July)
A summary of my first review panel meeting:
Go back to your original idea & prototype and deconstruct it: what was it intended for? What was its focus, outcome and drawbacks?
Focus on the process of Play and the ecosystem the toy is meant to exist in, rather than spending too much of effort trying to understand the mainstream market.
How are you going to bring about the toy’s...