We Are All Designers of Play (Rethinking Toy Design)

1 © 2009 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary.

Re-thinking Roles: We Are All Designers of Play By Laura Seargeant Richardson

Toycon's Sandbox Summit

May 2009


SPEAKER NOTES

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This SEVEN-MINUTE presentation was given as part of a panel at Toycon 2009 for the Sandbox Summit. Find out more about Sandbox here: http://www.sandboxsummit.org

Title Slide: When the market crashed, frog reached out to 50 of our clients. And the word on the street was that the companies that stopped innovating in the last recession don't exist anymore. We can increase play value by rethinking the roles of consumers in our process. We all want to "make play" and the sooner you can provide the tools to enable mass participation, the more mindshare and market share you'll reap.

Slide 4: For those of you who aren't familiar with frog, we just celebrated our 40th year of great design. we are more than an industrial design firm, offering innovation workshops, research, strategy, branding, technology, design and engineering.

Slide 5: We are also a global firm, with our most recent office opening in Shanghai. Ni-hao Barbie.

Slide 6: I have a question for the audience. How many of you…have children provide your toy reviews? A few years ago, I was compelled to write an article for Interactions Magazine called Design from the Inside Out. You might recall Lord of the Rings when Golem cried, "The Precious, I must have the Precious.” You can see that a lot of time has been spent on packaging the Precious. But, true reinvention is not about character slapping.

Slide 7: When Disney turned to frog as a partner to design its first consumer electronics line, we knew we needed to create products that emotionally resonated with kids, and had features that convinced parents to buy the product.

Slide 8: How did we do it? We made the potential buyers of these products active participants at the beginning of the design process. This is an example of what we call participatory design – making consumers our co-creators and not just evaluators at the end.

Slide 9: Another question: How many of you are concerned about age compression? What if you weren’t? This is a recent concept from frog called ECOBlocks. It is a refresh on a classic sorting toy. The goal of this product is to instill green thinking in a child's early learning. It is also meant to get a dialogue started between parents and their children - to bring the parents into the game.

Slide 10: Why is it so important to bring not only parents into the game, but more adults? The theme of rejuvenation isn’t just about refreshing a product for kids, it’s about recasting it for rejuveniles – people who have tastes that are traditionally associated with someone younger. A lot of companies have been slow to recognize and capture this market, yet its an antidote to age compression.

Slide 11: How many of you…Consider your product leaving the shelf as its “end of life”? What if it wasn’t? Beyond the idea of reinvention or rejuvenation is reflection. Next Gen toys will better reflect what people want and need and thus, will be more meaningful. First, I think we all know that genders are becoming irrelevant. We are now in a time of play without borders.


SPEAKER NOTES

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Slide 12: Small businesses are cashing in on the Do-It-Yourself crowd and idea of re-use. Consider the toy lab in Cincinati OH – for $14, kids get seven parts to create their new, one-of-a-kind toy. The three-headed Barbies, according to the “designer” who is four, “breathe fire and know karate.”

BIG TAKEAWAY: There is a real desire for Hasbro Hacks and Mattel Mashups – will your companies be the ones leading the charge?

Slide 13: The ICAN Barbie came out about three years ago - and not from Mattel. Instead, it came from a non-profit, the Intl. Canopy Network that wanted to tweak a pop icon and make it an ambassador for female scientists.

This is niche novelty, but with a purpose.

Slide 14: Companies are learning how to tap into social networking. [read michael dell quote] Have direct conversations with your consumers. Give your fans the tools to gift you their ideas.

Slide 15: There is something at frog we call Freaks, Geeks and Cowboys – that is looking outside your core demographic for new thinking. According to Nintendo, if they had looked to their gaming fanbase for inspiration, they would never have created the Wii. BIG TAKEAWAY: Look at subculture, embrace it and seek to emulate it. And if you can’t do that, partner with big name designers to do one of a kind custom runs.

Slide 16: So, what does the Transformer of tomorrow look like? Using the themes of of reinvention, rejuvenation and reflection, here are a few ideas.


o!erings Innovation Strategy

Global Design Research, Market/Product Strategy, Organizational Governance

Media Design & Development Mobile, Software, Web, Environmental, Print, Packaging, Brand

Industrial Design & Mechanical Engineering Consumer Electronics, Lifestyle, Media, Healthcare


WE ARE ONE GLOBAL TEAM 460 PEOPLE / 32 NATIONALITIES / 40 YEARS OF GLOBAL EXPERIENCE

New York, NY Milan, Italy

frog design o!ces

Austin, TX

Seattle, WA

Shanghai, China

San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA

Aricent o!ces

Stuttgart, Germany Amsterdam, The Netherlands


RE-invent



Rhinestones and flashing lights

Moving Flames

Shapes that reflect a child’s interests

Virtual reality, wrap-around screen


RE-juvenate



RE-flect




"These conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not. Well, do you want to be part of that? My argument is you absolutely do. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation.”

Michael Dell



Take inspiration from subculture Designer Vinyl elements – “blank” transformers for color customization.

Cater to collectors – provide extremes and purposefully tier the product lines

Transformers spread the “go green” message – from “trash” to transformer or add solar panels for extra “power”

Transformers as art, limited edition or are co-created by subculture “artists”

Release blind box toys - toys that are sold with their contents enshrouded in secrecy

Note: young kids are the fastest growing consumers of blind box toys

Enable entrepreneurs, creators, hacks and DIY

Sponsor Hasbro Hacks and Mattel Mashups

Build Your Own Transformer – create online for custom experience

Create Transformer “kits” where I can build it myself

Partner with Edison Nation for new ideas from inventors of all ages

Like Disney, partner with Zazzle for on-demand character clothing and accessories and get unprecedented agility

Online and o!ine as one

Smart transformers that sense proximity (tamagotchi style)

Transformer has an online life without you – plays while you sleep

Transformers with GPS tracking. Register your Transformer, personalize it and it becomes your real world avatar to communicate to other Transformer owners.

Transformers partner with Nike for the ultimate exercise game of movement – the shoe transforms the child and the mini-transformer inside is the conduit between the online and o"ine world for tracking activity.

Transformers of Tomorrow


Think of a “system” of toys

Transformers with Lego-like interchangeable parts

Transformers that are practically purposeful (transforms into a child’s table or a bed)

Transformers that are more cohesive – the di#erent sizes work together to form a larger experience.

Design for Rejuveniles and Play without Borders

Transformers for girls

Bring back old Transformer lines – rejuveniles fall in love all over again and children discover why they were special in the first place.

Transformers desk objects – Give the transformers a third purpose, such as: media player, calendar, alarm clock, speakers, radio, mouse, usb flash drive

Design for a “lifetime” of play – like the Stokke chair, that literally grows with you.

Transformers of Tomorrow


Transformers for girls, ribbit!

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