Teach Green Toys
The goal of this exhibit is to provide the residents with enough power and maintain lower pollution in the city simultaneously. When kids put in power components, the LEDs in the city will turn on and become brighter as the power generation increases. Meanwhile, the pollution level in the city will be assessed. Kids will gain more smiling faces on the top of houses when the pollution level is lower. A city with brighter lights and more smiling faces indicates success and a higher score. When the power plant is working, imitated smoke will pervade the city to show the effect of pollution.
Design Sector: Product Design
Typology: Exhibit Design
Scope/Role: Production
Location: Berkeley, California, United States
Year: 2022
Status: Completed
Team: Megan Zhang, Amber Young, Peggy Tsao, Junkai Shao
The Solution
The Problem
How do we improve access and exposure to climate change for students at an early age through engaging and educational play, creating an educated and knowledgeable future society?
Social, Economic & Technological Factors
Identifying Product opportunity Gap
There is a need for creative storytelling through science toys
Open-ended toys are more desirable by parents
Rephrase “climate change” to sustainability during interviews
Increase accessibility of toys to kids regardless of socioeconomic status
User Research
Concept Generation & Selection
Low Fidelity Prototyping
1. Modular Sustainable City
a. Users race to build a city with a low carbon footprint (redesigning power and agricultural resources) before a disaster occurs (food desert/sea level rise/intense global warming).
b. Users build a city, and after that, water floods to see how much they can survive the disaster.
1. Save the polar bear (animals during the Ice Age)
a. Users must save the polar bears and penguins before the ice caps melt by modifying their carbon footprint (can be measured by blocks). Users can interact with polar bears/penguins to learn about climate change.
Final Concept & Prototype
Neel Shah
Product Design Engineer in Berkeley
I am a product design engineer who uses empathy and engineering to design products that are intuitive, meaningful, and inclusive, and simple.