Improving Children’s Play Experience
Consumer Insight
Published on: 
2011
Research
  • Improving Children’s Play Experience:
    Consumer Insight

    The Opportunity & Journey
    A Canadian-based toy company sought to better understand the inconveniently high return rates affecting their flagship product. A large proportion of the returns were made by “unsatisfied consumers” reporting no apparent product defect. This project sought to understand why consumers were dissatisfied, and to develop design principles for improving the product experience. The following issues were identified as needing improvement:
    • Charge time is too long; play time is comparably short and unsatisfying.
    • The toy fails to connect with boys; it lacks a cohesive narrative or any opportunity to customize.
    • The toy is very fragile and prone to breakage. Frequent breakages decrease the child and parents' opinion of the toy and overall brand quality.
    • The toy is difficult to control; a steep learning curve frustrates boys.

    Selected Insights & Design Implications
    • Toys and games that offer a progressive challenge keep boys' interest for long periods of time, require effort to play, and provide a sense of reward and accomplishment. Implication: Integrate an element of progressive challenge.
    • Boys like toys that can be built, re-configured and fixed. Modular toys allow the child to be creative; to customize their toy and test and learn through building. Implication: Build-in modularity to promote imagination, creativity and learning.
    • Boys like toys that are part of an overall story or larger "world". A narrative overlay gives the toy more imaginative depth and meaning; concepts of character, environment, and conflict are highly popular. A narrative overlay also encourages the child to interact with friends who may represent different characters of pieces. Implication: Weave the toy into a larger narrative to impart meaning and stimulate social interaction.
    • Play is the "work" of children, and parents expect children to learn and succeed through play. Toys should offer a challenge, but toys that are overly frustrating lead to product dissatisfaction. While parents do enjoy teaching and helping their child initially with a toy, in time the toy should be self-entertaining and manageable for the child. Implication: Build skills and confidence through play.

    The Results
    Cooler’s ethnographic research and design helped gain a deeper understanding of how their current and future consumers interact, relate and enjoy RC toys. Cooler articulated the pain points around user experience, which resulted in a set of design principles for improving product experience. These principles serve as repeatable guidelines when designing both products and experiences.




    Design Principles to Improve RC Toys for Boys
     
    The Opportunity & Journey
    A Canadian-based toy company sought to better understand the inconveniently high return rates affecting their flagship product. A large proportion of the returns were made by “unsatisfied consumers” reporting no apparent product defect. This project sought to understand why consumers were dissatisfied, and to develop design principles for improving the product experience. The following issues were identified as needing improvement:
    • Charge time is too long; play time is comparably short and unsatisfying.
    • The toy fails to connect with boys; it lacks a cohesive narrative or any opportunity to customize.
    • The toy is very fragile and prone to breakage. Frequent breakages decrease the child and parents' opinion of the toy and overall brand quality.
    • The toy is difficult to control; a steep learning curve frustrates boys.
     
    Selected Insights & Design Implications
    • Toys and games that offer a progressive challenge keep boys' interest for long periods of time, require effort to play, and provide a sense of reward and accomplishment. Implication: Integrate an element of progressive challenge. 
    • Boys like toys that can be built, re-configured and fixed. Modular toys allow the child to be creative; to customize their toy and test and learn through building. Implication: Build-in modularity to promote imagination, creativity and learning.
    • Boys like toys that are part of an overall story or larger "world". A narrative overlay gives the toy more imaginative depth and meaning; concepts of character, environment, and conflict are highly popular. A narrative overlay also encourages the child to interact with friends who may represent different characters of pieces. Implication: Weave the toy into a larger narrative to impart meaning and stimulate social interaction.
    • Play is the "work" of children, and parents expect children to learn and succeed through play. Toys should offer a challenge, but toys that are overly frustrating lead to product dissatisfaction. While parents do enjoy teaching and helping their child initially with a toy, in time the toy should be self-entertaining and manageable for the child. Implication: Build skills and confidence through play. 

    The Results
    Cooler’s ethnographic research and design helped gain a deeper understanding of how their current and future consumers interact, relate and enjoy RC toys. Cooler articulated the pain points around user experience, which resulted in a set of design principles for improving product experience. These principles serve as repeatable guidelines when designing both products and experiences.
     


  • Understanding how children play