{ Designing for
Children. A Process - Oriented Approach
}
Every child born in this world is a
gift of god. There is a saying in Tamil, "kuzhandiyum deivamum gunathal
ondru" that means children have an attitude similar to god. They have
their own imaginary world bereft of hatred, bias and dogmas.
Hence,
designing for children is not something very easy as you cannot thrust upon
them your ideologies. They're pretty black and white about what they like and
don't like. It is better to leave it to their choice and solicit their opinions
on what toys they would prefer to play with. An important aspect for children's
use of objects is that they are more interested in the process of using than
achieving an end result like adults do.
THE LEARNERS
A
newborn baby enters the world with enormous inherent capabilities! Within four
years she will have developed into a person who will run, jump, ask questions
all day long, play princesses or superman and twist you round her little
finger!
A baby comes into the world with a
powerful urge to learn, to explore, to relate, to participate in and contribute
to the buzz of activity going on around her. It is incredibly interesting to
see how easy and natural it is for them to interact with technology, and at the
same time, remember the many challenges we had to face when we started using
computers or technology in general. Young children may have little knowledge or
experience, but they have truly amazing talents as learners. Their abilities to
self-improve are endless!
“One
thing about designing for children - You can convince an adult about your
design and make them buy it. But a child, if he doesn't like the toy he'll
throw it right away!!”
-Kanaka Ananth, Toy designer, Faculty at D J Academy of design.
They're
pretty black and white about what they like and don't like. One of the ways to
increase the shelf life of a toy in the kid’s wardrobe is by making the toy as
versatile as possible. A toy that can transform into another toy and involves a
certain kind of complexity tends to have a longer time of attention than the
toys that do the same monotonous actions or repeat the same lines over and over
again.
This is one reason why board games
like monopoly, life, snake &ladder etc., are still in great popularity over
the dancing doll. Toys like train where the child gets to design its track, add
multiple landmarks and construct a whole city, grow with the child. The toy
matches itself with the mental maturity of the child’s brain and hence never
lets the child get bored of it. The children who played with such toys remember
it even when they are adults.
BOREDOM
Children
become bored when there's a mismatch between what they have the ability to do
and what they are expected or want to do. They enjoy themselves when their
skills match the task at hand. If they're challenged beyond their capability,
they become anxious and often claim boredom as a defence. If not challenged
enough, they're bored. In either case, a bored child will find ways to be
challenged by climbing, running or other behaviours that match their abilities.
Children prefer and are most drawn to
play with high degrees of challenge, diversity, novelty and complexity. The
type, quality and diversity of children's play equipment directly affect the
type, quality and diversity of their play. Since children's developmental tasks
and skill levels change constantly as they age, the point where boredom sets in
is a moving target.
Children's physical (fine and gross
motor), intellectual and social skills are constantly advancing. This means
that children's environments must offer what is known as “graduated challenges”.
This not only helps when a child moves on from a certain competency level but
also facilitates adaptation to the same age children with different levels of
skills.
The ability children possess to
interact with, explore, control and to transform their toys is very important
to them. Toys that include loose parts that children can manipulate, move and
construct with are immensely more engaging than static equipment.
There's the issue of children's
attention spans, which can be much shorter than that of adults. So something
that at first interests a child can 10 minutes later become boring. To overcome
this challenge, the products must offer a wide variety of options to explore.
Too little a variety limits children's play options and leads to increased
levels of boredom and aggression.
“Just
because you were a child once doesn't give you the eligibility to design for
them.”
-Anita Sen, Children's book illustrator, Graphic Designer at
Foley Designs.
Some
people might just have a knack with children and their ways. But to design for
them, involves a great deal more than having a knack of being friendly with
them. To be able to design for children, one should be able to get into their
shoes and look at things from their point of view and at the same time be able
to have their thoughts up high to match the needs of their growth pattern at
that certain milestone of the child’s life.
“Children's
illustration is a different field itself because of the responsibility
involved. You just might be designing someone's first ever memory”
-Shiva Nallaperumal, Student - Graphic design, D J Academy of
design.
Not
just children’s illustration but the whole area of children’s design for the
matter plays a very sensitive role in design industry. I personally think that
children’s design should be included in every design school’s design program
alongside Inclusive design and sustainability. It is nothing but another
variant of “responsible design”.
Read the Part - 2 and Part - 3.
Read the Part - 2 and Part - 3.
Categories:
design,
reality,
serious stuff