Bananamobiles
A project to encourage children to consume more fruit through a unique designed interaction. Why does eating fruit and being healthy have to be boring and a chore? Let's make it a game...let's make it fun and easy!
This project would see me design a utensil specifically to aid the consumption of fruit. More importantly, this utensil should encourage us as a society to eat more fruit and vegetables. As we all know, obesity and health issues related to it have increased dramatically in recent years in the developed world. This is partly thanks to the way unhealthy foods are advertised, as well as how easily accessible they are. This utensil should be more than just a kitchen utensil; I hope that it entices the user, and creates a direct relationship between fruits and vegetables, and happiness.
As a way of focusing my designs and moving forward with the project, I elected children as my user group; after all, they are the future, and this is a long-term issue I am addressing. My approach to this was to initially think of common, easily accessible fruits that children are used to in their lives. This narrowed my focus slightly, until I had to think about how to encourage children to eat this fruit through a ‘utensil’. It was here when I realised that I wanted to design a utensil that turned fruits in to toys. . . .after all, children love playing with toys! This therefore creates that relationship between fruit and fun that I had aimed for from the start.
If I were to be creating toys around the banana, a key area for my design development would be the thick skin of the banana and designing to utilise it. It provided a usable surface, almost like a canvas, around which I wanted to design attaching pieces that literally turn the banana in to a usable toy.
The next challenge was designing a toy or range of toys that appealed to both boys and girls as much as possible, as well as to as wide an age group as possible. In the end, I elected to create a series of vehicle-toys; this affords the opportunity for movable parts which adds another dimension to the experience, and hopefully an experience any child could enjoy. I would create a small series of three toys revolving around the themes of sea, land and air respectively.
The outcome for the project was a series of illustrations and prototype models to communicate the intended experience. Once removed, the toys would create slits in the skin of the banana, making it easier to access for the child. This combination of fun and practicality gives the project unique value. Given time to develop it further, I feel the concept could have real-world potential and this future-thinking approach to the design process is something I enjoyed and will incorporate in to my practice.
