"what if we held baby cribs to the same standard as the rest of our furniture?"
CURRENT PROBLEM 01: SAFETY
Babies get limbs stuck in crib bars while they sleep and are unable to get themselves out.
Baby items are one of the most highly regulated items, yet there are still quite a few glaring issues which remain unadressed.
CURRENT PROBLEM 02: ACCESSIBILITY
Especially at the lowest position, parents have trouble bending over the crib railing to set their child on the mattress.
Some parents were incapable of doing so altogether.
CURRENT PROBLEM 03: AESTHETICS
The majority of available and affordable cribs on the market have not kept up with current home trends. The forms are familiar, but user feedback indicated that people are interested in seeing something new.
Less important than the prior two problems, yet still a key area of focus for this project.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
My research planning for this project was split between three primary methods: secondary internet research, in-person user observation and role-playing, and consulting with industry professionals in the field.
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Identifying Issues with Primary Users
OBSERVATION
Utilized "fly on the wall" method and observed my cousin and her husband with their baby son, Wells, to better understand the needs of first-time parents and their child.
Gathered information for a full week to allow points of friction to reveal themselves.
mesh playpen walls are safe, breathable and prevent him from throwing his pacifier far away
After a week of observation. Matt and Mary had me take over Wells' routine for a day. This built another level of empathy, I'd say. Caring for a child is exhausting.
Wells would often get his feet stuck in crib bars and wail, or wake up from a nap at
the slightest jostle- meaning I had to run back through the full bedtime process, from the beginning.
EXPERIENCE
no moving parts, silence is key
changing bed height is too complicated
keep silhouette simple
bending over rail is difficult, if not impossible
ROUND TWO: MIDJOURNEY
While I was on the research trip, I fed the thumbnails into Midjourney AI along with early data collected from the participants. Stand out concepts were used as underlays later in the process.
This strategy allowed me to constantly generate new aesthetic concepts and get immediate user feedback.
ROUND ONE: THUMBNAIL
Prior to staying with Matt and Mary, I sketched out early ideation on what the crib might look like, what features might be included, etc.
ROUND THREE:
AGAIN, BUT (SLIGHTLY) BETTER
I returned to quick hand sketching, but this time with far more insight.
Storage concepts kept coming up, so that was something I tried to incorporate. At this point, I had also been doing some early prototyping.
February, 2024
INDUSTRY CRITIQUE
I had the privilege of working with a mentor, Eduardo over at Eaton Studio Blue, for this project. About halfway through the project, I was able to present some of my research and concepts to his team- which included two former 4moms employees who had a little bit of extra insight into baby products.
HUMAN VALIDATION
With the final scale prototype, something I was very keen on doing was getting people using the model to make sure the theory was showing up in practice.
I had people role-play with heavy objects like backpack, test pulling out the drawer, adjusting the height of the front gate and drawer system, and even sit in the prototype to validate durability.
PROTOTYPING R1
The first iterations were 1/3rd scale, blocky, and quite interesting with add-ons.
Storage solutions were cut during this stage.
PROTOTYPING R2
This model was 1/7th scale and much higher fidelity. I had a solid direction to move forward at this point; not much changed when I moved to full scale.
I did consider proportion much more here and the final crib is a good bit longer.
PROTOTYPING R3
The full scale model was made from a combination of 2x4s and MDF board, resulting in a crib that was much heavier than intended. The final forms were based on a rough CAD drawing, and specific heights and measurements were sourced from the secondary research.
OUTCOMES
My final object for this project was a "looks like, works like" prototype in the full final scale, so that I would be able to test and validate the form factors.
NOTABLE FEATURES
The front wall of the crib drops all the way down. Both side walls are mesh, as a response to my research findings. The tray that the mattress sits in slides all the way out on a double action, industrial strength slider path.
For the final prototype, I had to use spring loaded gate latches in the place of cast / molded handles.
VISUALIZATION
While the primary scope of this project was research and construction, I chose to do an in-context render to better see the form in the space it would exist.