Harmoni

harmoni lear ning t hrough play Mallory Young Spring 2015

harmoni lear ning t hrough play Mallory Young Spring 2015

table of contents research 4 5 6 7 8

Stakeholders Initial Insights Music Therapy Problem Statement Opportunity Statement

ideation 10 Initial Concepts 11 Down selecting 12 Manufacturing Considerations

iteration 14 15 17 18 19 21 22

First Prototypes Midterm Musical Component Sketches Prototyping Digital Renderings Final Prototype

implementation 26 27 28 29

Packaging Business Model Touch points Manufacturing

research

Stakeholders

We teamed up with the Kauri Sue Hamilton school to create a toy designed to help kids with atypical development. Kauri Sue Hamilton is a school designated for children aged 5-22, all of which who have atypical development. They requested toys that will help their students achieve new things and even more importantly, feel like they are a typical child and no different than the kids they see elsewhere.

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Initial Insights

1 We toured the school and I had a lot of interesting insights. The first insight I had was about the music room. While talking to the teachers, I learned that the music room was generally loved by all students and their time there was full of fun.

2 The second major insight was a teacher talking about grasping and releasing. Fine motor skills of these students were often times very limited and they had an especially hard time releasing and using those small muscles in their hand.

3 Another insight I had was about play stages. Through some outside research I found out that play is divided through three stages. The first is sensory exploration, which is mainly banging on things. The second is cause and effect. And the third is imagination, figuring out what an object can be.

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Music Therapy

As I continued my research into music and music therapy, I found some really interesting things. Music therapy has the ability to create new pathways in the brain and strengthen old pathways. There are many stories about people who are unable to talk, but through music can gain back language skills. This interested me because I could create a toy that could help these kids with physical development as well as mental development.

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Problem Statement

There aren’t many toys that combine a musical aspect with the goal of increasing developmental skills. There also aren’t very many toys that try to develop motor and cognitive skills, especially through a fun engaging way.

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Opportunity Statement

Create a toy that uses music to help increase fine motor skills specifically grasping and releasing. Make the toy engaging so the child will want to play with the toy, and enjoy their time playing. Have that toy also include all three play stages so kids of all skills and ages can play and the toy can grow with them.

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ideation

Initial Concepts

As I started my ideation process, I was trying to focus on having a toy that encouraged fine motor skills, specifically through grasping and releasing, and having the toy have a musical function. I started out with over 50 ideas, and through concept scoring and talking it over with people, that was narrowed down to three and then to one.

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Down selecting

The down selection process was first getting rid of those ideas that wouldn’t work. Either it would be unsafe for kids to play with, the technology doesn’t exist, or it simply would just be too expensive to plausibly work through the problem and make multiple iterations. I then talked to other designers and multidisciplinary colleagues to narrow it down to some of the best designs I had come up with.

11

Manufacturing Considerations

After narrowing my ideas down to about 10, I made a list of manufacturing considerations that included safety, cost, if it related to fine motor skills, grasping and releasing, had more than one play stage, etc. After narrowing that down, I made simple prototypes of the top three and after discussing it further, decided on an idea called Windmill, which eventually turned into harmoni.

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iteration

Playing with music

My first steps were figuring out how the musical aspect would work.

In my initial sketches I had the musical bars mounted on the walls and hanging so when the ball was dropped down the ramp they would hit the bars and create the music. This quickly became a problem because of the force that was required to hit all the bars would make the ball be too large to be a children’s toy. I then toyed around with making the ramp itself become the notes. This eliminated the force problem, and made the toy much more conceivable. The notes needed to be made out of a hardwood in order for the notes to vibrate enough to create noise. I stuck with red oak because it was a hard enough wood, and also cheaper to help with overall costs.

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Midterm

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After doing my midterm, the one insight that I wanted to fix the most was that this prototype doesn’t address the third play stage, which is imagination. You are able to bang things for the sensory exploration, and the musical notes give feedback for a cause and effect, but to make the imagination prevalent, I needed to make the keys removable. By making the keys removable, a child could rearrange them and create their own songs and stories. The materials also needed to be fine tuned and be sturdier to work as a children’s toy.

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Musical Component

I had to come up with a way for the notes to still vibrate, but not be suspended so you could move them around. The wood frame deadened the notes too much, so I had to find a material that would let the note ring out. I tried a number of different materials, and found that leather let the note vibrate the most.

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Sketches

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Prototype #2

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This prototype was the first one with adjustable musical notes. The leather was used to dampen the notes, and handmade dowels were used to keep the leather in place. This prototype used many different leather shapes to find the most visually pleasing shape. The first thing I noticed was that the ball would sometimes get stuck because the notes were completely parallel to the ground, and the weight on the ball would tilt the note back and cause it to get stuck. Another thing was wasted space, especially in the back. This prototype was very similar to the final, and helped nail down the nitty gritty designs.

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Digital Rendering

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Final Prototype

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For my final prototype the major changes were addressing the relationships between each part of the toy. I wanted to really hone in on the parts of the toy that are curved, and the parts that are straight. If you look at the toy from elevation view, everything is curved, but if you look at it from birds eye, everything is rigid and straight. I also needed to angle the notes downward slightly because there was a problem with the wooden ball being stuck if it wasn’t pushed hard enough. Overall, each of these problems were fixed to create a beautifully designed toy that can be enjoyed by children of all developmental levels.

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implementation

Packaging

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Business Model

Key Partners

Key Activities

Value Proposition

Customer Relationships

Customer Segments

Lumber mill-getting scrap wood

Manufacturing

Increases fine motor skills

Reach out to schools-offer discount for buying multiple

Parents

Royalties for recommendations

Pediatric physical therapists

Branding CNC machine Therapists and schools

Learn about the world around them

Key Resources Manufacturing Teacher/therapist recommendations

Employs sensory exploration, cause and effect, and imagination

Channels Sold onlineharmoni.com and etsy

Cost Structures

Revenue Streams

Manufacturing and supplies

Online sales

Advertising

Recommendations

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Teachers

2-5 year old kids

Touch points

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Manufacturing

CNC the Baltic birch and red oak

Buy pre-cut dowels

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Die-cut leather

Assemble

Branding

Typography

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Color Palette

Logo 30

thank you