DESIGN FOR CHILDREN FROM VULNERABLE FAMILIES
in collaboration with AMKFSC (2017)

In Ang Mo Kio, there is the biggest number of rental blocks for families who are economically and socially vulnerable. Children from those families are scarce of learning opportunities and exposed to various hazards after the school time. This platform collaborated with AMKFSC Community Services  to design for new services, tools and activities for the children’s learning and social development. The students actively interacted with the children, families and social workers and designed prototypes that fulfill the needs of various stakeholders.

PLAY PIXEL

Play Pixel is created in collaboration with AMKFSC, targeted toward children from vulnerable families living in rental flats, whose void decks lack infrastructure for community activities.

Play Pixels are building blocks which can be spontaneously used to create physical play-spaces at the void deck. They can also be used to facilitate community events, while serving as functional furniture at home. It can be collapsed and stored when not in use.

Each child is given their own Play Pixel and is encouraged to put their own hand into building the communal play space. The more children there are participating, the greater the possibilities for structuring the play space, underscoring the value of a collective effort.

Uploaded by Service Design Lab SG on 2017-04-26.

 

Project by Ng Tse Pei, Maggie Seah & Felicia Koh

SAFE HAVEN

Safe Haven serves as a low cost, intervention platform to aid children to better manage their emotions through recognition, expression and translation. The enclosed environment allows for expression without fear of judgement, providing emotional stability. When the child draws open the curtain, it signifies the willingness for interaction. Interactive mediums are provided to aid educators in understanding the child’s expression and translation of emotions, most of which are commonly carried out by child therapists.

This framework can be adopted by any agency or school, targeting children from a young age so that they will be emotionally independent in the future.

Project by Kelvin Siew, Milly Tan & Han Yuen Wei 

MEMOOD & POMPOM

Based on our observations at BASIC Centre, we realised that the children have a limited emotional vocabulary, which causes them to be unable to express their feelings accurately. Additionally, the current rewards system is individualistic - rewards are redeemed individually and thus does not motivate children who enjoy playing with their friends.

To target these two areas, Memood and Pompom were developed.

Memood is a weekly journal that teaches the children various different emotions and provides a platform for reflecting. Children circle the emotion/s they are feeling that day and write down their reasons, which serves as a record for staff to review later on. Memood thus also serves to be a communication channel for staff to understand the children’s inner feelings, as some children may not actively approach the staff when they are troubled and need help.

Pompom is a collective star points system that lets the children learn about working towards and enjoying rewards together. It is a source of motivation as they can visualise their progress, and develop a sense of pride from contributing to a greater whole.

Project by Poh Yunru, Natalie Mae Tan & Ng Zi Ning

SPACE MOD

SpaceMOD is a 2 part solution designed to help the children at Ang Mo Kio BASIC Centre during their study time. It includes a new spatial arrangement of the classroom, and an individual study module for each child.

The spatial arrangement shifts both furniture and seating arrangements around to create clear boundaries and helps segment the classroom into distinct work and play sections.

The 2nd part of the solution introduces Modi, the reliable study buddy. It serves as a visual cue to remind children that study time is in session and results in an overall decrease in distractions and noise level. Additionally, Modi also serves to motivate the children by instilling a sense of pride through the integrated achievement panel.

Project by Sheryl Teng, Grace Ng & Chan Shi Ming
*Images shown here have been blurred out to protect the identity of the children who assisted in our user testing session

MAP IT!

To facilitators and teachers, did the kids understand your lesson? Having trouble coming up with meaningful new activities? MAP IT! can help you with that!

MAP IT! is a fun and kinesthetic toolkit to:

-        Facilitate reflection on the lesson
-        And create space for creative expression for children
-        Such that it can provide means for facilitators to evaluate the activity
-        And inspire them to plan kids- centric activities!

MAP IT! comes equipped with Reflection and Expression modules, Prompt cards, Facilitator’s Inspire cards and a Base Module that doubles as packaging. With the new ideas for kids-centric activities, MAP IT! will lead up to an online ecosystem where facilitators from all centers can exchange ideas and the values attached with one another. MAP IT! will solve your idea blocks in no time.

Project by Mathilde Gaucher, Hansel Wong & Yong Zi Fong

BUILDING BLOCK 206A

The concept aims to strengthen the center's approach to community events, with children as the enablers of the community. The holistic design system engages parents more effectively by involving children as their sole motivation for participation. Building Block 206A instills a stronger sense of community and also encourages parents to voice their opinions on future programs. This in turn helps the center refine their services to better tailor to residents’ needs. Ultimately, the goal is to cultivate a more vibrant and warm neighborhood that is beneficial to children’s social and emotional development.

Uploaded by Service Design Lab SG on 2017-04-26.

Project by Yang Xinhui, Jacelyn Lau, Nghiem Si Phuoc & Melissa Shi

ASTRO

ASTRO is a fun and engaging educational tool to facilitate children’s continual application of skills and values beyond classroom lessons. Children will experience the wonders of discovery learning as they interact with their everyday environment through the activities. Through ASTRO, children will experience 3 unique learning phases weekly:

  1. REMEMBER
    Recalling newly acquired knowledge from classroom lessons

  2. APPLY
    Drawing relationships between daily surroundings/experiences and abstract ideas learnt

  3. REFLECT
    Sharing newfound experiences with peers to reinforce key lesson themes weekly

ASTRO ultimately aims to facilitate Continuous and Contextualised Learning among children in AMKFSC via a Connected System where learning is extended into a child’s week.

Project by Magdalene Huang, Winky Chan & Jonathan Tsang