Child Development

Child Development

1. Market

   • Target Market - Obviously my product must be suitable for a child of a young age so I have to take this into consideration when designing. Also my product must be appealing to parents and relations of a child
   • Cost - raising a child can be very expensive. So my aim is to keep the price down to create a product suitable for all incomes. This means I will have to keep the cost of my materials low, without having poor quality (I will need to reaseach this futher)
   • Current Products - In the past few years educational toys have been low in sales. I think to improve this I need to look at taking the most selling products, which are normaly based on a TV programme or book, and turning them into an educational themed toy.

2. Types Of Possible Products

   • Educational Toys
     • • I think this product is very cleverly made for an educational toy. It covers all areas including, the alphabet, counting and it is also a colourful and fun looking toy. On the other hand it is quite a boring shape and also parts of it are made of plasitc which can contain toxins.
     • • This is my favourite product of all of them. It is educational, colourful, unique and isn't made of any toxic materials (plastics) which may be unsafe to children.
   • Classic Wooden Toys
     • • I think this toy could also fall under t he educational range because of the abacus. I like this element becasue fo course the first few years of a childs life are crucial for development and parents always look for this when buying toys. However, this toy could get quite boring for a child after a while so it really needs to include an extra function or game.
     • • I like the simplicity of this design, I think it really portays the vintage toy sort of feel. However I think this toy could maybe use some more colours and different designing techniques. Maybe they could use vinyl stickers or different coloured hand painted sections to make this product more unique.

3. Materials and Manufacture

   • Materials
     • Recylable Materials
       • Wood is a great option in terms of its safe for children (non-toxic), envriometally friendly and is very durable.
       • Paper which may be used as packaging, leaflets, instruction maunal
     • Non-Reclyclable
       • Plastics are although cheap and very easy to create a product with are dangerous to the envioment and do contain some toxins that are unsafe for kids
       • Styrofoam used in packaging or as handles/ small parts of my product
       • Soiled carboard used for packaging
     • Other Materials
       • Felts or other textured fabrics could help with the progression of the touch neurone
   • Manufacture
     • Batch Production Method
       • You lose the personal touch
       • Vacuum Forming, Laser Cutting, 3D Printer, Pewter Casting, Vinyl Cutter, Sublimation Printer
       • Cheaper (in terms of you can probably make more which means larger profit, quick way of producing large numbers. Also all your designs will look identical
     • Handmade
       • Makes it more personal and unique, time consuming but less money spent on big machinery
   • Colours
     • When researching colours I found that children can only a small section of our spectrum for the first few years of their lives. Their vision needs to expand and so taking this into consideration I will aim to use a wide variety of colours (not just primary colours) such as turqouise and violet to help develop eye sight

4. Issues

   • Social
     • The design/product must contribute to the improvement of human well being
     • The product should be acceptable within any society
   • Moral
     • The product must take into consideration any moral issues linked to the construction of the product
     • For example if leather is used within the product it may cause some concerns or difficulties amongst vegetarian customers
   • Cultural
     • The designer should aim to research a range of different cultures to ensure the design is apt for the buyer
     • The product should be suitable for all cultures without offending any of them
   • Legal
     • You have to ensure that the product you are creating has not already been made exactly the way you plan to design it
     • Contracts must be signed and any arguments or disputes amongst companies regarding copyrigh issues must be resolved
   • Enviromental
     • Any raw materials or energy used in the production of your product do have an impact on the environment
     • The designer should look at using biodegradebale, enviromentally friendly and even enviromentally benefitial materials