TYPE

Personal project

Product design

DURATION

6/2017-8/2017

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Children sleep aid pillow is a product that helps children fall asleep. It solves the problem that 4 to 6-year-old children typically have when learning to sleep on their own, and rely too much on parents. *This product helps children ages 4 to 6 learn to sleep on their own.

The product can provide the functions of telling stories and calling parents in an emergency. It creates an environment where the child does not feels alone and gives them a sense of security that helps them fall asleep.

Problem Statement and Background

In most Chinese families, children ages four to six years old will have parents guide them to sleep independently. Both children and parents will face a series of problems.

Meanwhile, with the promotion of good economic conditions and other factors, the children’s consumer market is high at $70 billion and continuously grows.

According to National Data, there are more than 77,400,000 children in this stage in China and the number increases by 800,000 every year.

With the increase of population and implementation of the second child policy, there will be more and more children in the stage of sleeping alone.

Observation

After defining the problems, I conducted a series of investigations. First, I observed and collected children’s various responses and states during the process of soothing to sleep.

Top three features to help children sleep alone:

1. They were used to hearing stories before going to sleep.

2. They felt much safer if the light was turned on.

3. The right lateral position was the children’s favorite sleeping posture.

Interview

I made further interviews with users and communicated with parents about the specific problems and corresponding solutions in this stage.

Empathy map

Through the active participation of the children, I further understand the mentality of children who entered the stage of sleeping alone.

Children’s requirements:

· The sense of companionship with parents around them

· The sense of security in a bright environment

· Distracting attention from stories

· Finding one’s own favorite sleeping posture

Children’s fear:

· Unwilling to sleep alone

· Afraid of the dark

· Feeling scared and upset

· The fidget and helplessness caused by the failure of falling asleep

Design Concept

The shape of the pillow should give children a warm and safe feeling.

Through the button on the pillow, children can quickly turn on the light in the dark environment, which eliminates their fear.

Story telling is children’s favorite function.

Calling parents function can give children more sense of security.

Simulate the feeling of being embraced and surrounded to increase children’s sense of security.

The cartoon image design of giraffes, elephants, and pandas, etc. can bring more warm and security to children.

A cute pillow helps children sleep alone with functions of light control and telling stories.

Initial idea

Research from the perspective of ergonomics

The best sleep posture of children is right lateral position. It allows the heart to be at a high position without oppression and liver at a low position, with good blood supply.

sketches & Specification

I created the pillow under the theme of animals for children's preference.

The shape of the pillow was designed according to children’s right lateral position. For children’s demands for the sense of company, the embrace arms were added.

I chose panda as my first choice.

Final Product

The pillow is designed for children from 4 to 6 years old. The length of the pillow: 130 cm.

The length of the pillow arm: 30 cm.

The arc of pillow body: 140 degrees

Interaction Mode

Product Details

Other Type

Prototype

The fabric has good stretchability and elasticity, which is convenient for tailoring and filling. Children can also knead it randomly. The silk cotton of AAA level was adopted, which was soft and elastic. Its compressibility and sense of fluffy could satisfy my demands.