Wheeled Toys For 2-Year-Olds

The prompt of the project is to design a wheeled toy for 2-year-olds.

The process begin with interviewing parents of young kids about wheeled toys and researching about what the market offers. 

In the interview conversation, the parents answered about what they are most concerned with the wheeled toys of their children's, what do they think of the wheeled toys they currently have, and what do they take into consideration when buying new toys. 

On the other hand, the toys available in the market were plotted into a map with axis of ready-made to user-construct, such as blocks, and the specificity or abstraction of the form. 

Most parents I talked to spoke about educational values of toys, since playing with toys is a great way to help young children learning about using their senses and hands to understand the world and train their way of thinking to cultivate creativity and imagination.

On the other hand, the market of traditional wheeled toys, such as toy cars and pulled toys with car or animal, appeared saturated. Yet there are very few wheeled toys that combine other functions that help kids play and learn. While other educational toys are generally a static object or box for kids to interact with.

For young kids that are around 2 years old, parents or other adults have to be around constantly. Therefore, the wheeled toy targets families instead of young kids only. Through family activity, the parents can spend time with their children, while the young kids play and learn.

The following images are the persona board of the target consumer, and a form map of what is currently available in the market.

During the research, I found a some interesting toys that became my inspiration. 

The first is a set of blocks that uses abstract shapes for user to combine and imagine what they are. Since it is a balancing game with very flexible connection, young kids with less accurate control of hand would not be able to engage in the game.

The other is an interesting set of  wooden blocks with minimal details in its material choice suggesting what animal they represent. Since most toys are about the image of the shape, such as cartoon cars or animals with specific features,  or colors, the representation through material instead of visual suggestion is very inspiring.

The last one is a parent combining toy car with sharpies to create a drawing tool for children. The combination of wheeled toy and drawing tool is certainly a fun activity for young kids.

From these three ideas I developed my first set of sketches. My definition of a wheeled toy is a toy that naturally involves motion in the interaction, instead of a static object to only be held  or looked at.  Combining the motion of wheeled toy and other functions, such as the self-create aspect of blocks, creates more ways to interact with the toy.

The following images are the sources of inspiration and the first fifteen ideas. The sketches in blue rectangles are the ones used to develope further.

The image below is some sketch models based on the first set of drawing. The background is sketches from brainstorming ideas to push further.

From three sketches, I developed ten different sketches for each, exploring different formal and functional possibilities.

Finalized on two ideas, the design went into the process of model making.

The first idea is a drawing toy with crayon blocks as wheels. The blocks are in different shapes, so young kids can understand different shapes and how the corners and edges affect the motion of the blockthrough the interaction. Upon further development there are additions of a main body for kids to hold and push, the design of a paper holder and a storage space for the blocks.

The second idea is a set of wheeled toys in the most simple egg shape, made of different materials. The egg shape is easy to hold and give a sense of direction that could be used for character-building, if the children want to use them to make up stories. At the same time, the shape is not specific to any animal or other forms, so the focus is on the touch of the material.

For the models, since materiality is the core of the concept, a sample material board was created in addition to the clay models.