Overview
Tackling concentration problems with a playful experience
When children in the dutch education system start learning to read and write, they begin by getting used to lowercase letters and their writing posture. It takes a lot of practice. Because a lot of children have difficulties concentrating, especially with repetitive and unimaginative tasks, they often develop a learning deficit.
Interactive design can help to bring play and imagination into learning and can interest children and stimulate their curiosity to learn. With this project, I tried to bring interactivity to reading and writing.
Doing research on primary education and the target group, I created personas that helped me understand the challenges of these children while learning. I experimented with different ways to familiarize children with lowercase letters and their writing patterns by inciting them to play with them. To combine these interactions into one package, I tried out different ways of binding the pages into a form that would give it an extra dimension. After numerous iterations, I landed on a zigzag book that could be unfolded into both a wall panel (as often seen in classrooms) and a poster board to display on a desk or table.
In addition to the main interaction, the backside of each letter features a training sheet with a tear-off transparent overlay made of vellum paper. The overlay features engraved lines to give both a visual and physical indication of the baseline of each letter. When finished, the sheet can be torn off and hung up on the wall or fridge as an achievement, while keeping the book clear.
The final proof-of-concept is an achievement that has already turned a few heads in both the worlds of printing and education, as its novel and innovative mechanics could lead to notable improvements in reading and writing skills for children with concentration problems or learning deficiencies.