The quzzle
For this project, I worked in a team to create a toy for Reach Services. Reach Services is a local therapy center that focuses on helping kids with disabilities stay on the same developmental timeline as their peers. Each team selected a target disability to focus on with their toy. For our target disability we chose dysgraphia because one of my teammates has dysgraphia. Dysgraphia is similar to dyslexia but while kids with dyslexia have difficulties reading, kids with dysgraphia have difficulties writing.
My team and I made the quzzle. The quzzle is an alphanumeric puzzle is specifically designed for children with dysgraphia to help them practice recognizing and making proper letter forms. We decided to call this puzzle The quzzle because children with dysgraphia often confuse their p’s and q’s. The quzzle is a wooden puzzle made up of 40 unique pieces for the entire alphabet, numbers 0 through 9, and 4 common symbols: ? ! % $.
Manufacturing Process
To create this toy there were 6 main steps.
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Planning: drawing a schematic of the puzzle joints and deciding the easiest manufacturing method is to create 40 top pieces with the letters cut all the way through and 40 bottom pieces and sandwiching them together. (photo 1)
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CAD: creating the CAD models of all 80 pieces to laser cut (photos 2 & 3)
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Sanding: sanding the pieces to make them smooth before painting
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Painting: Spray painting the tops white and the bottoms colors. Also Madeleine painting all for the animals. (photo 4)
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Gluing: Gluing together our tops and bottoms (photo 5)
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Sealing: water resistant sealer because these pieces are going to be slobbered on by little children and need to be easily cleanable. (photo 6)
Big Takeaways
During this project I learned:
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Time management and meeting deadlines
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Good team communication
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How to work with and communicate to client
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How to prototype effectively
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How to test product to see if it meets the ASME standards for toys
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How to write technical descriptions of my product
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How to present my product and process to and audience with a varying levels of technical knowledge
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How to use assertive evidence slides to present my product