My recent interview with Natacha had felt like the jackpot of interviews (in my experience). As I have expected, many (if not most) of my previous reasonings have been overthrown, but nevertheless it was still a gold mine of valuable information. Natacha had been so helpful that I ended up dedicating a entire section in my design brief to this particular interview:

In an interview with Natacha V. Beim, founder and C.E.O. of Cefa Systems for preschool education and a mother of 2 boys, she explains that teaching children the responsibility of tidiness does not have to rely on tactics, punishments or briberies. “ What really works is a system that is easy to understand and efficient to use for children”, says Beim, “if your furniture is too heavy to be moved around or your system is too hard to understand, they get discouraged at the thought of cleaning up, so they don’t”.

According to Beim, there are several rules one should consider when putting together a storage set for their children:

1) Labels of words or pictures that your child can easily understand or recognize.

2) Transparent storage containers allow children to see what is inside the container and reminds them that there are toys for them to play with.

3) Light and removable drawers, trays or containers on casters gives children the freedom to move their playthings to their desired play area, (wherever it might be on that particular day). Beim explains that one of the reasons why toys may always litter the floor is because children are not allowed to pick their play areas. Kids often like to follow their parents around in the house, but if their designated play area is isolated from the more trafficked areas of the home, they end up leaving a trail of toys from their playrooms to the kitchen (for example). So an easily transportable drawer or container allows children to easily carry their toys or crayons to anywhere they desire.

4) Smaller module containers also allow easier mobility, but as well it can store smaller things or toys that the child may like to play more often. Children may also be discouraged to retrieve or replace their toys if the container used is too big, often they can’t find the desired toy because it is buried too deep in the bottom.

Beim reveals that small modules are particularly important because one can add on to their collection as time passes. “It promotes the longevity of you furniture, which is a great money saving and sustainable method”, says Beim, “I have been building mine for nine years now and have not thrown away a single one”.

Because Beim has been an abed user of plastic drawers and Rubber Maid containers, she comments that “they are durable and easy to clean, but they are very ugly looking. I’d like to have a storage system in my living room so my kids can play beside me while I work, but I can’t deny that these drawers just don’t look very good.”

Co-creators

In my quick realization that my previous questions had been far too vague to obtain any substantial information, I turned my attention to befriending co-creators in hope that a deeper understanding of the clutter phenomenon could be established. Luckily a women with two toddlers had responded to my desperate plea on craigslist and had generously agreed to be my collaborator. Due to the distance between our homes, however, I have been resorting to email conversations for the time being.

My quest to seek out a retailer had not proved to be total failure, the owner of Inhabit Shop had also agreed to review my ideas and sketches from time to time for any marketing and retail faux pas.

From these interviews, (and the little insight obtained beforehand), I started compiling lists of key words and phrases that could help kick-start the beginning of my idea refinement criteria.

According to the comments and answers collected, regarding toys children are drawn to/enticed by these interactive properties:

Lights, sound, movement, color, and texture.

...and when shopping for children's products most Parents would generally abide by these criteria:

Inexpensive, durable, easy to clean, easy to stow, and somewhat decent looking.

From here I was able to produce some sketches.

Questionnaire #2

My previous questionnaire focused on the opinions of parents and their experiences with clutter. Now, I wish to understand this issue with help from my primary users: the children. Below is another simple set of questions that I believe can help me formulate a useful and engaging design that is intuitive and fun for children to use:

1) How old is your child? Children?

2)What is your child's favorite game?

3) Favorite TV show?

4) Favorite Book?

5) Favorite toy?

6) What is your child's oldest toy that he/she still plays with?

7) If possible, please ask your child to draw a picture of their ideal "cleanup helper". In other words: who or what would they like to have with them to help them clean up their toys? (could be fictitious, let their imagination work.)
Please scan or photograph the drawn picture and send it to sandywang@eciad.ca.

If time permits, please take a moment to answer these questions, this will help tremendously in the design of the project, thank you!

Theory: re-evaluating storage systems and the significance of possessions

photographer unknown

It seems that the current prevailing methods of efficient storage are large multipurpose plastic bins with removable lids. These bins are successful in its accommodation of the growing number of toys whilst allowing parents the option of categorization. "Systems" of storage are thus almost defaults to the way in which clutter should be encountered. In other words: common conceptions deem systems as what is needed to efficiently and successfully cure clutter in child's play. It is however quite evident that a large number of children still despise the notion of cleaning up after play. This may partly be due to the problem that these storage bins are in fact most often adopted for ease of use by parents, and not at all suitable for small children.

Though it may be purely semantics, but the idea of "systems" seem far to do with the act of play, especially in the context of children, (which alludes more to a sense of spontaneity rather than a organized chronicle of events). Systems are in place to organize things in large quantities, so to discard the habit of systems we first should re-evaluate the things in which we need systems for.

It has occurred to me that issues concerning clutter stems deeper than that the methods used to organize. I was reminded to question the accumulation of artifacts as a necessary means to satisfy a child's need for enjoyment. We purchase different toys because each of them serves a different purpose; we purchase many toys because we wish for our children a variety of enjoyment. Furniture (that functions as tools for systems) are thus designed to be considerate of the many things that we need organize in result of our children's wealth of choices in toys.

What if we are to re-evaluate possessions and its inherent meaning as a personal artifact? A child's safety blanket or a particular stuffed animal, for whatever reason, is irreplaceable (and in many cases inseparable from the child) when compared with the rest of their possessions. Their "favorite" dolls or toy trucks or puzzles often provide more learning outcomes then a series of toys combined simply because the child is most familiar and comfortable with that specific toy. If we are to recognize this behavior of favoring, there wouldn't be any need for the collecting of related things. We can thus conclude that ideally the only way the cure clutter is to not have the excess of items to begin with.

Although an ideal theory, this favoritism of a selected few toys may be utilized to inspire the orientation of a child's stored possessions. If the design of a storage device takes in consideration not the amount of toys it would have to accommodate, but the importance of the toys that is to be stored, would then the approach to organization be different? It would, I believe, be less of a systematic way to organizing; instead it would offer a intuitive method to which a child can categorize his or her own belongings. Would this not be a more efficient way to tackle the inevitable mess created during acts of play?

The above is just a theory, literary support is in progress.