Project Timeline: 8 weeks - Sophomore Year - 1st semester studio
Solo Project: Annie Roo
Project Objective: To design a socially-responsible toy for a non-governmental student organization
instructed by: Dr. Hazal Gumus Ciftci
A SMART FIDGET TOY
Mental health is a crucial aspect of the overall health of every living being. As the world moves to address the negative stigma surrounding mental health, there is a pressing need to educate and assist people in this field to overall promote a culture of positivity, hope, and awareness of this issue.
The selected NGO for this project is the ADAA, which is dedicated to the prevention, treatment, and cure of anxiety, depression, and other co-occurring disorders through education, practice, and research.
Unlike other fidget toys, the Stress Management Toy (SMT) aims to assist in the goal of the ADAA through education and assistance of stress management techniques for generalized anxiety.
DESIGN CRITERIA
EXPLANATORY SKETCH
CAD MODELING
PHYSICAL MODEL
TOY USE INSTRUCTIONS
USE SCENARIO
MAJOR TAKEAWAYS
I'm very passionate regarding the topic of mental health and this toy was able to also let me bring in aspects of industrial design and electrical engineering that I strive to do with my background in both disciplines.
This was one of my favorite design processes and I'm happy with the resulting idea that stemmed from it. As a sophomore-year project, there are a lot of things that I had not learned yet and need to work on in the refinement of this project later on. One such thing is CAD modeling. While I highly enjoy CAD modeling in Solidworks, this project was done at a time when I mostly knew how to work with basic extrudes and nothing complex such as surfacing. The result of this is a more blocky toy form than what I had intended for the final result.
Overall, this was one of my favorite projects in my online sophomore year studio class which happened during the pandemic, and it embodies a lot of my passions of what I strive to do as a designer.