Our Final Concept
Process:
I worked in a group with Jason Dionisio and Katie Bush.
We started off brainstorming with different types of play. The stared ideas are ones we decided to sketch and take a little further.
Next we chose our location near Weiland Park in Columbus, Ohio.
This is the corner of 8th and 4th street in Columbus, Ohio.
We chose this location because it was near to a community garden and near to Weiland Elementary School- which later leads into our final concept.
We were able to talk to two people from this area, and through these interviews we discovered kids often walk through this alley way coming home from school. Parents believe the alley to be safer for the kids than the man streets/sidewalks.
After several unsuccessful ideas we finally were able to settle on a concept that nudged play and community cohesion. This concept will be explained throughout the rest of this post. The broad overview of the concept includes a stop light that acts as a racing light for kids in the alleyway.
We had the idea of a button being placed on the top of the light for the kids to press and activate the racing light.
Here are multiple iterations of the button. This is where we decided on the bar form that resembles a TNT level often used in cartoons such as Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. This helps to nudge play and results in an exciting and satisfying button
We explored the form of the light and what shape it would reside in. We also considered the idea of assisting the kids in the race by including a path. We then decided that we wanted the kids to be able to decide how they want to use the racing light. This allows for freedom and creativity in play.
Here we broke down our concept by the place analysis. This helped us decide what our concept was missing and how it related to play and social cohesion.
This is what the inside of the light looked like. You can see all the electronics and the pump mechanism.