When we think about creative toys, musical toys comes in mind for most of the parents. But some challenges we face in instrumental toys is that, kids cannot stay focused on playing with a single musical toy for a longer period of time, since it is considered a “loud sound making toy”. So our focus was to create a toy that can be something more than just noise making toy.
Musical toys consists of playing a single note of a wide range of instruments,
but it should also be important to explore the different notes within the same instruments to broaden the sense of tones.
Do Re Fa
Dorefa is a timeless, hands-on toy that's stimulating for kids. Assemble different pieces to create and explore new sounds. The unique shapes of each piece has added the feature for kids to imagine something more than a instrumental toy.
During the time of testing, the kids were not informed on how to use the toys. Their imagination led them to the instructions and was able to find many ways to enjoy the toy. So seems very obvious on the usage, but some ways were not thought of. Letting the kids to explore new easy to play with the toy was a success.
The way we’re going to solve them is by being creative. The best toys show kids to hold information in their mind, think flexibly as things change, and to use self-control.
User Testing
Creative Minds
Toys that encourage creativity do much more than prepare young learners to draw, sculpt, or star in the school play. They teach children to experiment and problem solve.
The focus for making a instrumental toy was to understand the function of a musical toy, and explore that way we can form and shape the instruments for kids to explore in new ways, but at the same time easy for kids to understand. Also trying to add the multi-functional features of make believe.
The prototype was starting with understanding how to make a functional piece. Starting with the basic making of a recorder. That slowly evolved in shaping the recorder into separate pieces, and testing whether a sound would come out.
Concept Sketch
Prototype
Each prototype has shown, there were many ways sounds can be produced, but the precision in each pieces must be very accurate. Further testing must be made in order create a toy that is fully functional when many pieces are added.