Goed Wijzer is a smart tangible-digital product for primary education that teaches children within the age range of 7-9 years old of group 4 to tell the time. However, Studio Tast wanted to research whether it is a feasible product for teaching multiple
arithmetic domains instead of teaching one, “telling time.” Therefore, my challenge within the Goed Wijzer project can be described as designing a proof of concept of the Goed Wijzer product that includes multiple arithmetic domains next to
“telling time.” For me, this implied the conceptual design of the expanded Goed Wijzer product, material research, user research and the investigation of the production and product implementation. All in all it must be concluded whether the proof of concept was feasible for production. The re-design and expansion of the Goed Wijzer product was carried out through four iterations, each ending up into an improved concept, building out to the final proof of concept.

​

In the first iteration an intuitive design process was carried out from my own perspective as designer with the focus on storytelling and creating an arithmetic learning experience around "telling time", "weight concepts" and "spatial awareness concepts" that was relatable to the children’s real-life situations. It was important to choose upon which arithmetic domains Goed Wijzer would offer; which physical learning tools were needed to design for that and how the interaction with those tools would be meaningful and motivational. Therefore, ideation played a big role. For me this meant ideation on how the physical tools together with the digital interface design could provide storytelling related to several chosen arithmetic domains. That is why the first concept includes arithmetic domains as directions, clock and weight. Furthermore storytelling was provided by the concept of 4 themes as pirates, jungle, woods and space that would be incorporated in the physical learning tools (e.g. “gold” to weigh on the base module) and as software themes. These storytelling thematic concepts were visualized and low fidelity prototypes of the physical arithmetic domain components were created. 

The second iteration was meant to deepen the didactic foundation of the re-design, and to create a tangible learning experience that could fit different personalities & learning needs within the target group. This iteration was based on a more research focused process including desk research about the user and his/her context, making personas, researching and applying didactic principles, a second ideation and conceptualization phase, user studies and analyzing study results. Which resulted into a second set of low-fidelity prototypes combined with basic didactic content.

The third iteration went in detail about the design for transition between multiple arithmetic domains. The third iteration included a small internal study with employees at Studio Tast to validate various low-fidelity tangible designs made for the
transitions between arithmetic domains. Furthermore, this iteration set a more specific didactic foundation for the arithmetic lessons Goed Wijzer could offer in its digital application. Because of the determination of various learning levels within the 3 chosen arithmetic domains based on didactic models (handelingsmodel, model Marieke refereren) Goed Wijzer’s didactic value was deepened. The choice for these focuses in iteration 3 were based upon the insights from the two user studies at
primary schools.

Finally, the fourth iteration was meant to finalize the expanded Goed Wijzer concept into a showcase model, meant to demonstrate the intended personal and intuitive product experience. During this iteration the focus was on creating a complete product. Therefore, all components of Goed Wijzer as hardware, software, lesson content and context, storytelling, physical tools and contextual tools needed to become a whole. Moreover, the model needed to demonstrate its future possibilities, e.g. its product experience when even more arithmetic domains will be added. That is why formgiving and coloring (of both physical components as the interface design); material and production research and product implementation (through implementation journey tools) were important elements in this process.

​

The outcome of the Goed Wijzer project is a low-fidelity tangible showcase model of the re-designed components to learn "telling time", and the newly designed components and transition sheets to learn about the concepts of "weights" and "spatial awareness". Moreover, a 3D rendered showcase model of the expanded Goed Wijzer design and its physical components, including the base module and 6 tactile tools, was made. These deliverables were supported by a user insights document; material and production research document for those physical components; and a business plan showing the feasibility of future production. However it could be concluded that more production and material research was needed as well as another iteration on the physical tools to make Goed Wijzer financially more attractive. Moreover I delivered a realized redesign of Tast Lab’s meeting space, evoking an interactive experience representing Studio Tast’s corporate identity and vision. Furthermore, the outcomes include an InDesign document containing the designed corporate identity of the BMV Hoensbroek Zuid information document in which all content could be placed easily.