The goal for this project is to create a interactive object for children 4-8 years old. The object is to be made up of repetitive elements (shapes and profiles) using technical and theoretical principals of semi-automated wood manufacturing, such as using a pin router. The project will be made primarily out of Baltic Birch plywood. Our team will explores different methods and solutions of connecting the repetitive elements together to form structures that a 4-8 year old child can actively engage with, with limited adult supervision. Importance will be placed on the dynamic relationships (for example inside/outside, positive/negative, opaque/translucent, rigid/flexible, etc.) and the inter-relationship of the visible form and the desired interaction, using the principals of product semantics.
For this project we enlisted the help of our co-designer, 5 year old Hudson.
His interests include
science space dinosaurs cars maps magnets building experiments exploration Earth volcano
learning Candy Crush Angry Birds Legos NASA robots puzzles board games chess weather jellyfish
DESIGN PROCESS
FINAL DESIGN
With the use of notches around the outside of the pieces, the user is able to interlock them to create a three dimensional form that abstractly mimics planets and their orbits. The purpose of this set is to allow the user not only to explore space but also suspension and balance
