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Design Considerations for Therapeutic Devices - An Investigation of Pre-Schoolers’ Preferences for an Artefact’s Basic Characteristics

Part of: Design for Healthcare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Emanuel Balzan ,
Philip Farrugia ,
Owen Casha ,
Liberato Camilleri  and
Andrew Wodehouse
Emanuel Balzan*
Affiliation:
University of Malta;
Philip Farrugia
Affiliation:
University of Malta;
Owen Casha
Affiliation:
University of Malta;
Liberato Camilleri
Affiliation:
University of Malta;
Andrew Wodehouse
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde
*
Contact: Balzan, Emanuel, University of Malta, Dept. of Indus. and Manuf. Engineering, Malta, emanuel.balzan@um.edu.mt

Abstract

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Toys are children's first consumer products and while playing they acquire numerous skills, learn about their environment and socialise with other children and adults. Toys are adapted and used by clinicians as therapeutic devices because they allow them to create bonds and communicate with children. Aesthetical aspects should be considered early in the design process, especially since pre-schoolers’ views are still dominated by the appearance of artefacts, also known as, the perceptual salient characteristics. The study of emotions mediates the understanding of the relationships between a product, user and the process with which consumers set up preferences over products. Decisions taken in each design stage will influence whether therapeutic devices will be enjoyed by children. An experiment was carried out to test out pre-schoolers’ preferences on individual attributes: form, dimension, material (hardness and weight) and surface (appearance and texture). This study exposed dominant characteristic preferences and the fact that some are influenced by gender and age. Employing these findings in therapeutic devices will enable clinicians to better engage the children during therapy.

Keywords

Emotional designUser centred designEarly design phasesPerceptual salient characteristics
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 877 - 886
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

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