Design Case Study - Educational Toy

My Role: design inspiration, iterative sketch exploration, concept refinement, itertative prototyping, CAD development & visualization

Collaborating on this hands-on design and prototyping program for Learning Beautiful, the focus centered on developing a suite of minimalist, tactile educational tools inspired by Montessori learning methodologies. This fast-paced project relied heavily on physical prototyping, sensory ergonomics, and material exploration to refine how children interact with abstract concepts through physical form. Working primarily with natural materials, I engaged in rapid, iterative model-making and functional prototyping to perfect the weight, scale, and tactile feedback of each component. The result is an elegant, highly intuitive physical learning ecosystem that balances clean, honest aesthetics with durable, child-safe construction.

Kimberly Smith had the visionary idea to teach computer science at the earliest of ages (3-9+) using “building blocks” instead of computers. Partnering with MIT and montessori schools, Kimberly had spent over 5 years developing and testing tactile, natural material, children’s “toys” that create meaningful object lessons and representations for computational thinking, binary theory, logic problems, and systems. With a great foundational design intent and thorough research, Kimberly approached us at Empire Group to nail down the final design, form, fit, and assembly of the product-line to be manufacturing ready.

ORIGINAL DESIGN & INTENT

The “binary tree” toy introduces the child to the concept of a data tree structure. It also abstractly builds on the concepts of binary trees and exponential sequences. While the intent was there, the original design lacked strong fitting connections and nuanced form that would enable better play and aesthetic quality.

ITERATIVE PROTOTYPING

Working from the original design, we explored various branch profiles, fitting, and tolerances. The final result was a securely fitting asymmetric branch design with a new stable friction fit base.

FINAL DESIGN & SCALE STUDY

The final design was generated for the 18” tall scale. You could imagine the power of scale a 53” tall concept provides a teacher giving and object lesson.

PRODUCT IMAGERY