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Prompt
Auburn's College of Architecture, Design and Construction offers a study abroad studio in Taiwan. In the Spring of 2015, I traveled to Kiaoshung, Taiwan to collaborate with the students of Shu-Te University to design play ground equipment geared towards benefiting the educational, social, psychological, and physical developmental needs of a specific age group of children. The age group my team selected were children ages 3-5, or commonly referred to as "pre-schoolers."

Out of my Element
A quick word about the impact of submerging myself in an entirely different culture– to say that living in a completely foreign country for 2 months impacted my perspective on people would be quite an understatement.
As a designer I was able to witness and experience how humans can live in an entirely different culture. It opened my eyes to possibilities that seemed unconventional to me, but were obvious to the people of Taiwan.
Conducting Research
Our goal was to create a piece of play equipment that developed pre-schooler's basic life skills, independence, and knowledge that they will need before they enter more advanced levels of education.
In order to service these needs, we conducted in depth research on the educational, social, psychological, and physical developmental needs of pre-schoolers. We also compared the specific differences and ranges of developmental needs between 3, 4, and 5 year olds. Our research also covered existing competitor products, ergonomic considerations, design criteria, safety features, possible misuses/injuries, stakeholder considerations, production materials, manufacturing process, mind maps, and storyboards.
You can review the details of our research and findings in the powerpoint below.
Final Design Criteria & Ideation
We decided to focus on very specific goals that are appropriate yet still challenging for a child of age 3-5 to engage.
The goal was that after a continual play with our play equipment design, a pre-schooler would find themselves improving their fine motor skills which would benefit their typical development.
Our research showed us that a typical pre-schooler's development for their fine motor skills involved learning to use eating utensils, brush their teeth, and make their bed. So we focused on designing pieces within our equipment that would exercise the dexterity needed to accomplish these tasks. As far as their gross motor skill development, we found that children ages 3-5 began to master the exercises of climbing stairs, lifting themselves upwards, and the ability to cycle.
We decided it would be necessary to service these developmental needs as well in order to produce a design that maximized the children's physical developmental needs.














Design Constraints & Scale Models
In order to fulfill our design criteria, we decided to focus on designing a large play "palace" that serviced the large motor functions. In order to service their fine motor skills, we decided to focus on incorporating play "stations" within the large play palace.
However, we needed to consider the possibility of predatory humans or homeless people using the equipment to sleep in or hide in to attack a child. We addressed this by making sure we did not design a structure that was capable of fully obstructing the playing child or children from view.
Also there were safety features to consider. We followed Playcorp's published safety requirements of their products in order to ensure child user's safety. Such constraints included not having a gap or opening that was smaller than 1/4" or larger than 24". A gap smaller than 1/4" would be susceptible for a finger to snag and break in. A circular gap with a diameter larger than 24" could provide a space for a child aged 3-5 to fall through or get stuck in. This is only one example of the safety design constraints.



Adding Features & Full Scale Model
We decided to incorporate the pre-schoolers need to learn basic shapes and colors. We also wanted to design teh stations in a way that encouraged collaboration and teamwork–a very important developmental milestone for children of this age group.
We built our full scale model out of cardboard in order to have a better understanding of our dimensions and the structure of our design.



3D Modeling
We built our model using Solidworks, which helped us apply our carefully researched dimensions and ergonomics. Our skills with the software also allowed us to explore the finer details of the model which we were unable to efficiently sketch.





Refinement and Control Drawings
Our ability to 3D model really brought the design to life, especially seeing as our skills with Solidworks were much more advanced than our skills with cardboard and hot glue.




Final 3D Printed Prototype
Our ability to 3D model really brought the design to life, especially seeing as our skills with Solidworks were much more advanced than our skills with cardboard and hot glue.



The Dream Team
Working through the language barrier was tough. But my team and I were very excited to learn and work together. We were also very engaged and dedicated to this project. Each teammate brought a unique aspect or skill to the table and we all gave 100% to this project.

Final Deliverables
For our final deliverables, we made a poster explaining our product. We also wrote a detailed report to go along with our final 3D printed model.

To read our written report click the PDF button below.
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