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Rimmo is an exciting project connecting physical toy products and screen-based applications. The big idea for this project is to advocate play for kids' childhood. Because in children's growth, education has always been something that people value. Especially in today's highly competitive society, parents value the learning part far more than the play part. We want to use some screen-based technology to enhance the experience of playing while preserving the hands-on experience of the real world.
2022 Spring
UX research; Ideation;
Storyboarding; Wireframe
Yizhen Guo;
Weide Zhang
Figma;
C4D
In November 1977, International Play Association (IPA) produced a Declaration on the Child’s Rights to Play, which stood in accordance with UNCRC’s Article 31
Play is nature’s way of ensuring that children will learn the skills they need to survive and thrive in adulthood.
When we talk about Play Advocacy, what comes to mind is education. In the growth of children, education has always been something that people value. Especially in today's highly competitive society, parents value the learning part far more than the play part. As a result, children in many families almost lose the right to play.
So if we want to advocate for play, we think education is a good place to start. Enable children to learn through play. This will not only increase the acceptance of parents but also meet the educational needs for children's growth.
Rimmo is a brand new digital solution that advocate play in schools and education. With the help of the physical toy and AR technology, our system will bring more engagement and FUN into classes.
Our mission is to advocate children's right to play by creating systems that allow them to play and learn at the same time. Our goal is not to help them pass school exams, but to arouse their interest in STEAM subjects.
We want to use some screen-based technology to enhance the experience of playing while preserving the hands-on experience of the real world.
**We take science subject as an example to demonstrate our concept**
When the camera detects the toy, the mascot Rimmo will appear on the screen and interacts with the toy, surrendering environments and users.
I also use Lens Studio to make a simple AR prototype to demonstrate the concept. It can detect the toy objects and have some simple interation when you tap or drag the AR Rimmo.
Kids related to cartoon characters
Children, whether studying at school or at home, will have a certain emotional connection to a character and they will learn much by themselves.
Using augmented reality in childhood education increase the class interactivity and engagement
AR technology is effective in maintaining a high level of motivation and engagement among preschool children. With AR technologies students can manipulate and interact with their surroundings in a whole new way not replacing traditional teaching methodologies but rather enhancing them.
The toy figure acts as a container, and loose blocks act as different chemical elements. Users can hands-on explore different combinations of chemical elements by putting blocks into the toy figure. Through the AR camera, users can see its miracle reaction on the screen. (In the scenario, we take H2O as an example)
By putting the assembled toy figure in the specific area on the board, users can intuitively see how the chemical element (H2O) will affect our environment on the screen.
Free play is important
Free Play is important to for healthy brain development, allowing children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, cognitive and physical abilities.
Make lesson ‘relevant’ to kids’ lives
Relevant, meaningful activities that both engage students emotionally and connect with what they already know are what help build neural connections and long-term memory storage.
Here is the collection of all your discoveries, where you get to know more about each element.
Get decoration rewards when you finish with each review & learning.
Kids enjoy the process of collecting, and getting reward
Collecting things fits in with children's growing intellectual abilities. The process of collecting and getting reward satisfies their curiosity, and motivates them to keep trying.
Here users can give full play to their creativity and imagination. Using the decoration materials they get to build their own land.
After finishing, users can go back to the home page to view their land immersively from the AR camera.
Creative activities help children's intellectual and cognitive development.
Creative activities help your child to develop many thinking skills. These skills include- problem-solving, developing their imagination, concentration and critical thinking.
Kids’ right of digital environment
Glad to know digital play is a Right to kids
Child population by age group in the US,2020[1]
According to a research from 2020, kids around 5 to 11 years old take the most place in kids below 18 in the U.S.
We also did some primary research to gain more insights from experts and parents. We conduct a research plan that focus around the attitude of play in general and when play applies into school.
1. Kids do not have enough play time at school
2. Digital Play is common nowadays and parents do not like it
3. Parents always put education at the first place
4. Not enough Personalized learning in school
5. Teachers in primary school do not always like to spend time with kids
“Most parents want their kids to have the best education.”
“Not about digital, it’s about the content.”
“With digital assistant, you can adjust based on the make-up of the group.”
There are already many toys on the market that revolve around the subject of chemistry. Most of them are designed around the direction of chemical experiments, but many of them lack the education and integration of chemical knowledge. A few educational toys are too serious to be playable.
Most products are either not playable enough or not educational enough. So we want to position our system in the top right corner, to make a product that will be educational and playful at the same time.
We started thinking about the form of our products, the function, and the connections between the different modules. We define our goal for this product is not only about science education but to make it fun and enjoyable and arouse kids' interest in STEAM subjects.
Based on our research and objective, we want the hands-on activity to be the primary experience. ( maybe it could be building block & chemical elements personification) Then on the virtual side, the AR technology will bring more playful, diverse, and intuitive information supplement.
Based on our previous research insights in mind, we made our primary persona - primary school students, and secondary persona - teacher in primary school.
And with the help of the persona, we came up with our first version of the system. We first wanted to create a home kit toy that the kid can play by themselves after school. But based on the feedbacks, this ecosystem might not be the best solution. Because if we want to advocate for play around education, we really shouldn’t take over the free time of the kids. Instead we should bring more play into the school.
And because of that, We also change our primary devices from phone to tablet, because now instead of the kid playing at home by themselves, they will be playing together in the classroom
As we moved it to the school system, instead of parents and kids, schools and teachers are now the biggest stakeholders right next to the kids. And also in this chart you can see that how the digital part is working with the toy part
Our business model will be B2B. Because our system will mainly be designed for schools, our main source of customers will be school-liked organizations. Children can access our products through these organizations. We can also promote our products to places with activities for children, such as children's museums.
After settling down all the structures for the product, we started to find the visual style that could convey our value and goal.
And here comes to our Hi-Fi wireframe and 3D mockup for the physical toy. We believe it isn't our end point, there are always things can push forward.
