A-MAZE!- THE PROCESS
A systematic design approach to a social problem.
A-maze! is a result of a systematic approach to a social problem that resulted in a 3 fold design solution, namely:
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Spatial Design
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Game Design
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Educational Design
You can view the final deliverable here.
PROCESS
Since the inception of the concept took place during the pandemic Covid19 and the final output is quite large scale I haven't been able to make a physical prototype and test it yet, although the various verticals of it have been tested a during my research process. Hopefully, I will be able to test it in the near future. Will update the page when I do.
PROJECT BRIEF AND DESIGN CHALLENGE
While I started with trying to understand gender identities in early age to wanting to create gender neutral space for children my research quickly lead me to understand that it is not JUST gender that needs to be recognized in a child to make them feel safe.
As I begun to explore the notion of a safe space for children (a space where they can be who they are and express themselves freely), I further understood that a safe space is very loaded word indeed.
The Pandemic broke out and I began to question what trust is going to look like in the future. In terms of-
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Behavior
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Social Norms
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Space
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Methods of Communication
I constructed a post pandemic world based on the information I gathered and formulated the ideal values I'd like to see in the future.
VERTICALS RESEARCHED
PRIMARY RESEARCH
As part of my initial primary research I visited 3 schools in Ahmedabad
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Ropda Primary School, Ropda Village, Vatva
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Mahatma Gandhi Primary School, Kuber Nagar
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Satellite School for Children, Thaltej
The methods of primary research adopted:
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Interviews and interaction with stakeholders (Children, Parents, Teachers, School administration, School Staff)
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Non participatory observation
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Participatory observation
It was around this time that the Pandemic broke out and everyone headed back home. Once things started settling down I wondered what the new normal will be and whether I need to design for the now or the future and what of the research of the past would still be relevant. Some of my thoughts are below:
THE PANDEMIC DIGRESSION
BACK ON TRACK
Still confused about where I was headed I decided to visit my research again and started to connect the dots. I revisited what I wanted to achieve through this project while my primary research continued at home. I already had an idea of the target age group and my evaluation of child development, spaces and the types of intelligence lead me to Active Interactive spaces. Once I had finalized this, I then went about re-imagining what these spaces might be like once they open up post pandemic.
By this time we had our first online discussion which lead to the following thoughts:
Dissection of the kinds of equipment in the play area and the kind of physical/ social/emotional development they help with:
IDEATION
FINAL CONCEPT AND DETAILING
Discussions and feedback lead to the finalization of Concept 7- the DIY Sensory Maze. I then went about detailing it.
However one of the most crucial insights I received was that although the concept was on point in terms of children's physical and mental development it needed a bit more in terms of socio-emotional development, something that will make the children interact each other in a positive manner. I needed to add an element of play in it. I needed to gamify it.
Looking at the activities that my nephews enjoy as well as the games that I have played in the past:
Looking at
non competitive games as well as games used by therapists with children:
Dissecting verticals that need to be visited.
Revisiting terms and ideas from the research so far:
Material Board:
Panel Explorations:
Space Explorations:
FINAL DELIVERABLES:
Unfortunately I could not physically prototype the elements of the concept due to the lockdown.
Since the final output is multilayered it was important that even the intangible elements of it are listed out along with the tangibles. Therefore I designed an instruction booklet that the product would be delivered with. It's basic how to's that the stakeholders would need to know for the best output of the concept.
You can view the final deliverable here.