Toy Product Design - PDES 3711/5711
Instructor: Barry Kudrowitz, PhD,
barryk [at] umn.edu, 37 Rapson
Class TA - Jesse Purvey purv0022 [at] umn.edu
Lab Instructors
Alex Hambrock,
hambr007 [at] umn.edu (pink team)
Arya Aidiartha,
adia0001 [at] umn.edu (red team)
Cory Schaffhausen, schaf390 [at] umn.edu (yellow team)
David Brajkovic, brajk001 [at] umn.edu (blue team)
Jared Schmidt, jared.schmidt [at] yahoo.com (purple team)
Justin Swartz, justindswartz [at] gmail.com (green team)
Krystianna Johnson, joh09014 [at] umn.edu (green team)
Michael.Habig, michael.habig [at] target.com (pink team)
Monica Rush, monica.rush [at]
gmail.com (red team)
Nina Johnson, joh04971[at] umn.edu (yellow team)
Rory Alt, altxx045 [at] umn.edu (orange team)
Sarah Sheber, sarah.sheber [at] target.com (blue team)
Stephanie Hornung, shornung1 [at] gmail.com (purple team)
Taylor Hill, hill0810 [at] umn.edu (orange team)
Lecture: M W 4-530, Rapson 45
Lab: Thursday 6-9 PM, Rapson 56
Office Hours: Thursday 1-3, Rapson 37
Credits: 4.0, A-F only
Overview . Readings/Materials . Instructors . Shop/Lab . Purchases . Play Testing . Grading . Schedule
Course Overview
Toy Product Design is an introduction to a product design process with
a focus on creativity and designing for play. It is a project-centric
class. Students work in small teams of 5-6 members to design and prototype
new toys with the help of local industry and children. This class is also required for the product design undergraduate minor.
Technical Elective Credit for Mechanical Engineers
It is possible to get technical elective credit if you register for PDES 5711 instead of PDES 3711, have taken both ME 3222 and ME 3281, and petition for it before the class starts. For petition information, see Jeanne Sitzmann in the Mechanical Engineering Student Advising Office, MechE 1120.
Materials
A Portable design notebook with a robust cover ideally the Maker's Notebook
Fineline pen and marker- to be discussed in lecture
Required Readings
Scott McCloud - Understanding
Comics
Donald Norman - Emotional
Design
Mike Ashby - Materials
and Design (available at umn bookstore)
Suggested Readings
Bjarki Hallgrimsson - Prototyping and Modelmaking for Product Design
Kevin Henry - Drawing for Product Designers
Simon Monk - Programming Arduino
Charles Platt - Make: Electronics
Karl Ulrich and Steven Eppinger - Product
Design and Development
Michael Michalko - Thinkertoys
Kritina Holden - Universal
Principles of Design
Scott McCloud - Making
Comics
Donald Norman - The
Design of Everyday Things
Nancy Duarte - Slide:ology
Johan Huizinga - Homo
Ludens
Brian Sutton-Smith - Toys
as Culture
Instructors
There will be two lab instructors assigned to each team. One lab instructor is a former toy product design student and the other is an industry representative. Both
have experience in product design and will be a part of your team during the labs.
Shop/Lab
The labs are taught near the shop as we believe it is best to have access to prototype facilities during your team lab time. The workshop website has a lot of helpful information including hours, tutorials, and material lists. Kevin Groenke [groen004] and Justin Kindelspire [kinde035] are two of the members of the shop staff that are familiar with the course. They will be assisting us during lab, but please keep in mind they are also supervising other students outside of this class.
Purchasing Materials
Each team will be given a budget for buying prototyping materials. This budget will be split between two cards: a prepaid credit card and a Gopher Gold card. The Gopher Gold card will be used to buy materials from the shop as well as for services such as printing, plotting, laser cutting, and 3D printing. One member on each team will be responsible for the cards, managing the budget and collecting receipts. This person must attend a 20 minute meeting after lecture on Feb 6th at 5:30 in Rapson 37. Receipts from purchases during the week must be submitted before the end of lab on Thursday to the TA. Submitting receipts is crucial so we know how much budget each team has left in their accounts. Teams that delay receipt submission are subject to grade deductions. You may use overnight or rush delivery as long as the materials are not easily accessible at local stores. If the item you wish to purchase is available on Amazon.com for Prime shipping you can ask Cheryl Johnson - johns194[at]umn.edu to purchase the item for your team. You will need to tell her what team color you are on and the amount will be deducted from your team budget. If you have other questions about purchasing, please contact the DHA assistant to the head - Julie Hillman - jhillman [at] umn.edu. Please remember to use the tax exempt form which can be downloaded from the materials page. It is not acceptable to use class/lab time to purchase materials off campus. You should come prepared to labs with materials.
Play Testing
Feedback is essential to the design process and when designing for children,
it is important to play test the ideas. Throughout the semester we have
arranged for several exciting off campus visits to Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul to present our work and get children
involved in the design process. These visits are optional as they are outside of class time, but they are strongly encouraged. We request that at least one team member attends each of the three play testing events. The play testings will be held on the following days 2/19 from 10-noon, 3/15 from 5:30-7:30pm, and 4/9 from 10-noon. There is also a scheduled visit on 2/1 from 5:30-7:30 PM for preliminary observation. You will be responsible for finding transportation to the museum and bringing your prototypes. For directions, a google map of the MCM is here. Please read the guidelines for museum visitors before your first visit. They are linked from the materials page.
Grading
Approximately half of the total grade is based on individual work and the other half is based on teamwork. Class and lab participation grades are based on both attendance and quality of in-class activity. This is a hands-on, team-based class and so attendance is mandatory. Tardiness will also count against the attendance grade. Being on time is critical for the team-based nature of this class. If you are late you will be delaying your team’s progress. Only in certain circumstances as described in the Policies section will an absence or tardy not affect the grade. Late work is not acceptable or of use to the team. Unless resulting from an excused absence, late work will not be graded. Graduate students will be graded on a higher standard than undergraduate students.
You will be expected to put in an average of 12 hours a week outside of class time. Weeks approaching a milestone review will require more hours than other weeks during the semester.
| Class Participation | Individual | 15 |
| Lab Participation | Individual | 15 |
| Brainstorming Assignment | Individual | 5 |
| Idea Presentation | Individual | 5 |
| Individual Sketch Model | Individual | 5 |
| Team Sketch Models | Team | 10 |
| Final Presentation | Team | 15 |
| Final Prototype | Team | 20 |
| Design Journal | Individual | 10 |
Students understand that enrollment in this course grants consent for their work to be selected for inclusion in college or departmental publications (online or in print). Your instructor may select to use your work to represent her/his skills as an instructor in a teaching portfolio (online or in print) and for research studies.
| Date | Class/Lab Theme | Additional Info |
|
| Jan 23 | Wed | Course Overview | Introduction Assignment |
| Jan 24 | Thurs | Meet and Greet | Rapson 37 |
| Jan 28 | Mon | Play | |
| Jan 30 | Wed | Brainstorming and Innovation | |
| Jan 31 | Thurs | Field Trip and Ethnography Primer | Observation Assignment |
| Feb 1 | Fri | Observation (5:30-7:30) | Minnesota Children Museum |
| Feb 4 | Mon | Team Introduction and Improvisation* | Ideation Assignment |
| Feb 6 | Wed | Design Sketching (part 1) | Bring Drawing Supply |
| Feb 7 | Thurs | Team Brainstorm* | Rapson Courtyard |
| Feb 11 | Mon | Design Sketching (part 2) | Drawing Assignment |
| Feb 13 | Wed | Graphic Design and Visual Information | |
| Feb 14 | Thurs | Concept Selection and Poster Design* | Rapson Courtyard |
| Feb 18 | Mon | Finalizing Posters, Benchmarking, Market | |
| Feb 19 | Tues | Play Testing (10-12) | Minnesota Children Museum |
| Feb 20 | Wed | Idea Presentation* | Rapson 45 |
| Feb 21 | Thurs | Shop Intro and Safety* | |
| Feb 25 | Mon | Sketch Modeling (Foam) | |
| Feb 27 | Wed | Sketch Modeling (Arduino/Digifablab) | |
| Feb 28 | Thurs | Sketch Model Construction* | |
| Mar 4 | Mon | Estimation and Energy | |
| Mar 6 | Wed | Sketch Model Construction* | |
| Mar 7 | Thurs | Sketch Model Construction* | |
| Mar 11 | Mon | Sketch Model Construction* | |
| Mar 13 | Wed | Sketch Model Construction* | |
| Mar 14 | Thurs | Sketch Model Presentations* | Rapson Courtyard |
| Mar 15 | Fri | Play Testing (5:30-7:30) | Minnesota Children Museum |
| Mar 25 | Mon | Product Design Aesthetic | |
| Mar 27 | Wed | Concept Selection* | |
| Mar 28 | Thurs | Sketch Model 2.0 Construction* | |
| Apr 1 | Mon | Solid Modeling | |
| Apr 3 | Wed | Solid Modeling | |
| Apr 4 | Thurs | Sketch Model 2.0 Construction* | |
| Apr 8 | Mon | Design Consulting* | Rapson 109, 225, 35, 37 |
| Apr 9 | Tues | Play Testing (10-12) | Minnesota Children Museum |
| Apr 10 | Wed | Concept Selection* | |
| Apr 11 | Thurs | Prototyping* | |
| Apr 15 | Mon | Plastics and Manufacturing | |
| Apr 17 | Wed | Prototyping* | |
| Apr 18 | Thurs | Prototyping* | |
| Apr 22 | Mon | Presentations and Packaging | |
| Apr 24 | Wed | Prototyping and Marketing Consulting | |
| Apr 25 | Thurs | Prototyping* | |
| Apr 29 | Mon | Presentation Practice/Prototyping | team presentation help |
| May 1 | Wed | Presentation Practice/Prototyping | team presentation help |
| May 2 | Thurs | Prototyping* | |
| May 6 | Mon |
Dress Rehearsal* | Rapson 100 |
| May 8 | Wed | Playsentations* | 7PM, Rapson 100 |
| May 9 | Thurs | Class Wrap Up | Design Notebook Submission |