In-class activity

Yesterday, I had an in-class activity with a group of 3. During this time, we talked about our current thesis topics, and we brainstormed some ideas. I grouped with Elushika Weerakoon and Shane Strassberg. And thankfully, thesis advisor Tina Ye participated in the workshop, too.

This is how I implemented the activity as per the following image below.

In-Class Activity

My topic area is Toddlers and food. The following is what my group discussed during this hour.

Problem

First of all, we spent time on clarifying problem space. Here are things we discussed:

Toddler’s food preferences, Nutrition, Target audiences, Cultural context, Responsibilities between mom and dad, Solution(Tech?Non-Tech?), Behavior of toddler(Why they cry, why they hit the table), Common themes between children

Objectives

In this step, my group discussed what will be the eventual goal of this project. This activity helped me think differently through various point of view. I’ve been mainly focusing on solving the problem so far, but I have also been thinking about the end goal of this project, which is creating bonds between parents and children. These are a list of objectives

Getting kids to eat, Having fun, Bonding with your kid, Balancing nutrition, responsibility

Things talked about during the workshop

Idea Brainstorming “Blue Sky”

I’ve been thinking about solutions using tech. But through this, I could also think about other approaches.

1. Food = Coloring book (By Tina)

Just like color pallete, this toddler will picture a tray with the food from the food pallete. Many times I’ve seen children playing with their foods, so I liked this idea in terms of using their behavior and making them more used to foods. Also, it seems that it could help them be responsible for what they chose.

Food = Coloring book

2. Baby tray - Self-Discovery experience (By Shane)

With this, the toddler needs to find the food hidden in the tray. During the workshop, Shane also mentioned that children have their own taste and preferences. In that sense, I think this idea is good in terms of letting them discover food by themselves.

Self-Discovery experience

3.Turning a feeding experience into a game (By Elushika)

This idea is about giving points when their children become happy with the food. This idea made me keep in mind that building bonds is the eventual goal of this project.

Gamifying feeding experience

4. Food tracking tray (By Uijun)

This last idea is a tray that can scan food before and after the toddler eats the food. This will track and save data into an app. This is a very futuristic idea but I think it can be a good solution without using smartphone or other device for tracking food.

Scannable Tray

Important Qualities

With activities done so far, the following elements were extracted as important qualities.

Bonding, Empathy for babies’ taste buds, Reassurance, Fun, Allowing parents to remember child vulnerability

Thoughts

This activity helped me think more comprehensively on the subject I am researching. Again, I was thinking not only about solving the problem but also considered all of the other problems in this area.

(Updated 26 Jan 2017)