Project 2 Proposal- Lena Hong

FUZZY MAGNET

Visual Representation of concept

I came up with my concept when I brought my toy to class as an exercise 6. The toy I brought was a rubber doll that can stretch and etc. This gave me an idea that the toy is going to be fun when you attract with sense of touch. I came up with six ideas for the concept sketches, and most of them had to do with sense of touch with interesting texture. First concept was an appeal with springs, second one was a fuzzy gloves with faces on them, third one was a caterpillar with magnets, fourth one was a throwing game, fifth one was a board game that was related to drinking, sixth one was a toy for younger kids with moving blocks in a shape of superheros.

Written description of why my toy is fun

My toy is fun because it attracts to main senses. It is designed with colourful colours of fabric, which attracts to the sense of sight. Also the pulling of magnets attracts to the sense of touch. These two main factors combined together and made my toy really fun. Also I used characteristic of magnets, which opposite sides do not attract to each other, and positive sides do. So I made a caterpillar in different body parts, and attached two magnets on each side. The user has to, then find the parts of magnets that goes together and make the complete caterpillar.

Incorporate improvements derived from user testing

From user testing in class, many users enjoyed my game. They said that the strange characteristics of magnets were used well enough in this toy. One of the user, Kay, said that "Personally I'd like to play with this toy because the magnet itself has such an addictive characteristic; the strong magnetism that attracts each other and the strange pleasure when I compulsively draw them apart".
Some of the improvements that I can make would be using bigger and stronger magnets, because it was hard for the users to actually attach them together, because the magnets were too small compare to the body size of the caterpillar.

Why should I buy this toy design?

As a result of my user testing, it was pretty successful. Many of the users were first attracted to the colourful colour of the toy, and second, attracted to the 'strange addiction' of magnets and third, they seemed to had fun finding the right magnets, an pulling them around.

The users should buy my toy because in this computer-based society all age groups can play this game; kids can play pulling magnets, students can play and/or use it as memo clipper as one of the tester suggested. Also the texture of the toy is really soft and since it has a puffy feeling to it, it is easier for the younger users to play with.