"Nothing fires up the brain like play."
Stuart Brown, Ted Talk, 2008,
Timeline: 2011 -2012
About: This project is the result of my bachelor's thesis in Industrial Design and a deep passion from an old inquiry about adults’ need to play which motivated me to research on designing a public and active play for adults. I was wondering why there are not accessible playgrounds for us in our cities.
In this research project, the secondary and primary research were done to recognize the study area and its problems and opportunities. The research question shaped more detailed and specific after the initial stages of the research process. This led to a recognition about users’ behavior and their desires for a game.
Methods that I used in this research:
Secondary research, interview, online survey, sketch, human factors & ergonomics study, 2D visual communication, 3D CAD modeling, prototyping.
Research question
How to design a public play for adults by integrating the features of sport-games & board-games?
Problems + Opportunities
Survey Data
Ideation
The achieved data and information from my initial studies brought me a wisdom that helped setting up the fundamentals of the ideation phase.
selected ideas out of 100, are clustered into six groups
Analyzing types of movements and rules in sport-games such as squash and basketball were highly inspiring. On the other hand, the simplicity and familiar rules of the card games and board-games like Poker and Sequence were very popular among the research participants which had a great impact on developing the final idea.
The outcome is a combination of the features and concepts of board-games and sport-games. Through the game the player is simultaneously involved in doing mental and physical activities and responses. The Player chooses a spot to hit, throws the ball, jumps and runs like a basketball player and predicts the next mode. They also learn by experience how hard to throw the ball, and hit which point to get the desired color. This could be played either individually or in a group.
Prototype
I built a scaled size prototype to test the game rules and the product functionality. I used MDF sheets for the body, and plastic for the prisms. I utilized 32 bearings in the structure of the prisms in order to reduce the friction between the surfaces when the parts rotate.
