Day 1 of Studio 1 Main Project - Making Prototypes and Answering the Prompt Questions
Today my group and I got together to finalize our idea for our presentation tomorrow.
We started by looking at the prompt questions for the assignment.
This asked us to consider why the project is important, what the idea is, who it’s for, and where/when it would be implemented.
To save repeating myself, below is a copy of our answers to these questions.
Why is the project important?
Helps people relieve stress
People who fidget tend to wreck things over time
Fidget toys can also become fads (like fidget spinners) and get discarded
Contributes to a circular economy. Using what can be considered as waste as a resource.
People who are neurodivergent actually focus better when fidgeting, thus the creation of fidget toys. Helps both in class and workplaces where lots of being still is required (such as offices)
FIdgeting can also be an anxiety and stress response.
Fidgeting lowers cortisol which causes stress interferes with learning → fidgeting helps with learning and memory
What is the idea?
Using recycled materials to create fidget toys that, if broken, could be recycled again. Contributes to a circular economy.
Who is the idea meant to help?
People who are neurodivergent
People who are prone to fidgeting
Students
Where/When is the idea going to be implemented/take place?
Schools
Offices
Universities
Places where concentration is required for long periods of time, and people may be prone to fidgeting.
Planes, due to limited ability to move, and a consequential urge to fidget.
This was a useful exercise as it got us to critically think about our idea and its wider impact, allowing us to accurately assess its viability.
Once we had answered the questions to a decent extent and prepared some presentation slides, we got to work creating some prototypes to show off as a proof of concept.
The idea is to make use of either recycled materials or materials that would otherwise be thrown away, in keeping with the circular economy theory the project is based around
Thus, our first prototype consisted of a nut enclosed in some green off-cut material, as a very primitive fidget toy prototype.
We liked the idea of concealing an object in some material, but found the shape of the nut to be somewhat restrictive when moving it about in the fabric, and decided that a sphere would more easily slide around.
Thus, we went for a walk into town to purchase a few marbles to use in our second line of prototypes.
We also experimented with different types of fabric to sew the marble into, as well as varying the number of marbles in each prototype.
This resulted in two more prototypes pictured below
We liked the idea of having a range of different fidget toy models, with differing materials and number of marbles. This allows the user to choose what's best for them. The significance of this became apparent to us when different members of the group preferred different prototypes models. For example, I really liked the squishy texture of the dark netting prototype on the left, while Connor preferred the smooth texture of the prototype on the right. So, using our four person team as a miniscule focus group, we realized this is likely to be the case with eventual users. One size fidget toy does not fit all.
Fortunately, two of the group members are already proficient in sewing, making this stage possible. I tried to observe and learn from them throughout this creation process, and plan to do so more going forward as this will prove to be a valuable skill.
In keeping with the theme of reusing materials, we played around with weaving strips of old plastic to create strings that could be used as a strap for the fidget toy which connects to the user's wrist, preventing accidental drops, breakages, and consequential unnecessary waste.
Overall today was a pretty productive first day working on this project. We thought critically about our end goals and created some decent prototypes. One of the key lessons I’ve learned throughout the four prior studio projects and our Intro to Creative Tech class is the importance of prototyping at every stage, so I’m glad we’ve already made some models at the very beginning.
It’s still early days and I’m sure that certain things will change over time, especially after our pitch tomorrow. But for what it’s worth, today was a good start.


















