The goal of this project was to create a family of mini games for a work environment. In any work environment you need some elements to relieve stress in order to work more efficiently.
PLAYFUL STATIONARY
playful products for work environment
What is a family of products?
A group of products that are relatable to one another can be called a product family. They can have similar/sharing appearance, similar function or symbiosis of function.
Initial Explorations
Strengths
The vanishing aspects of the products when not playing
Basic Forms
Use of existing stationary products
Weaknesses
What’s the purpose of each object when not in use?
Not all stationary are what majority of people use
Idea Transformation
After doing a study of the existing desktop and stationary products out in the market and the strong ideas from my initial explorations, I picked a few products which were simple and existing yet had potential for successful outcome as games.
Balancing Pen Stand
Mastermind Clipboard
Grid Organizer
Balancing Pen Stand
My earlier idea of just a block with holes transforms into a simple geometric shape with holes acts as a hinge for balancing stuff. And when not in use vanishes in the work environment as a pen stand
Trying out different forms with different types of slots to see which works the best. I chose to the first one in the picture.
Trying out different sizes for the ruler. I chose to the 8 inches ruler
Materials Used
Pen Stand - Soapstone
Ruler - Brass
Mastermind Clipboard
An off the shelf picture frame is converted into a folding clipboard which has a game housed inside clipboard. The idea of a flat surface being used as game interested me the most.
One side of the picture frame is a placement for pictures but the other side can a target board. Also, just by flipping it, it can be used as a ski ball. But I was not so interested in the idea of a picture frame as it is not really a stationary product.
So I decided to make a clip board where the outer surface is a place to hold paper but the inner surface houses a board game (Mastermind).
It is a 2 player game where one player makes a sequence of colors and the other player has to guess the sequence.
Materials Used
Clipboard - Walnut Veneer Plywood
Game Pegs - Acrylic
Grid Organizer
Taking an off the shelf one piece grid organizer and converting into a playable set of mini grids. The strength of the product is that a simple grid structure is able to function as an organizer. So, I decided to use it in the entire process and then try to figure out what game it could be.
I broke down the individual pegs of the original organizer trying to figure out what game can be made out of it and then remodeled it into a new one where the pegs come out from the base structure. But since it has many individual components, there’s high possibility of loosing them.
I broke them down further into individual units to add to its playfulness but landed into a bigger trouble of loosing parts.
So, I decided to make smaller units of the grid which can intertwine into each other. You can play around with it making different structures and also customize it’s arrangements.
Materials Used
Base - Cherry Hardwood
Pegs - Black Oxide Carbon Steel
