who am i designing for?

The first decision matters. Think about who you want to design for and why? The ‘why’ should be about the opportunities for you as a designer and for the target user. 

I am wanting to design a lamp for younger children as I have always loved kids and how their minds work. I love looking at how they interact with a design vs an adult. they always have fresh ideas and a need to explore and be creative! Children often have a different viewpoint and like to interact with everyday objects in such a different way. they have an inquisitive mind where there is no limit to their creativity. Over the summer I worked in the popular kid's stationery shop called Smiggle. From this, I always admired how they designed their stationery and toys to be unique and personalised towards a child. The key things I picked up on why they always created successful products that every child wanted was: - they reduced cognitive load by designing self-explanatory interfaces to prevent possible errors - designs were sturdy and not delicate with lots of pieces. Was meant to dropped! - super fun! always had multiple 'points of sales' and 'functions' e.g. it wasn't just an eraser. It was shaped like a rabbit and smelt nice. Kids could, therefore, use it as a toy to play with and a rubber. As I begin this process I want to make sure the design I create at the end captures the imagination of kids. It is unique and parents are drawn also to the product. From my design, I want to inspire kids while filling out their needs and wants from the interview stage from their parent. From my interests, I knew I wanted my target user to be my aunty Vicki who has a young boy that is 7. She is a primary school teacher as well as a mum so I can ask questions and get answers from a teachers perspective as well as a mum. She is a big role model in my life. I know my cousin very well and know his interests! I am very excited to interview my aunty and carry out this design process to hopefully create a lamp that they can use every day that excites them!

A picture of my Aunty Vicky Nelson and my little cousin Luke Nelson!