Connections - May 6, 2009: In this episode, Icon-o-Cast mom-to-be Lisa Leckie, new mom Gretchen Anderson and experienced mom Sandrine Lebas talk about the decisions new moms make as they struggle with seemingly infinite product choices and apply their personal values to the experience of motherhood.
Happy Mother's Day!
Resources:
- Me Too Chair
- Boon Toddler Cup
- Brest Friend Pillow
- HABA toys
- Kids Love Design (design trends for kids)
- MiLK magazine (lifestyle paper and online mag for modern parents, nicely done in French)
And here's more about the Holistic Feeding at nightime concept work we did (pdf).
Play audio:
The big problem with design for infants and parents is that it's not necessary. Babies don't need "sleep training" or gadgets or products. They need their parents and not objects to substitute for the care and love provided by skin-to-skin touch and their caregivers' voices. So being a mom and designer, I have to say none of these products are beneficial to a baby.
Posted by: K C S | May 11, 2009 at 07:47 PM
While it's true, babies thrive on the love of their parents, we're product designers! So we thought we'd talk about baby and parent products. We're no parenting experts, for sure!
So, if you're interested in hearing about our dilemmas about sorting out what we need, and what the world thinks we need, listen in. But by no means consider this to be parenting advice.
- Gretchen
Posted by: Gretchen Anderson | May 14, 2009 at 03:37 PM
Seems like the first commenter is picking the most limited view of "need" - an aesthetic need is a valid one, so is an ergonomic need, or an economic need, or a need to shift the work between multiple members of the household, or a need to multi-task (see economic, above). Denying that those needs exist is why products fail. And parents are not parents in a bubble, they live in homes, with other items and with other activities, and baby products will succeed better when they better integrate with those things.
You only have to take a look at the wide availability of KISS (etc.) logo onesies to acknowledge the large amount of projection that goes into children products. No, the infant doesn't know who KISS is, and doesn't necessarily like KISS, and didn't purchase the garment, but the parent did and does and uses it regularly and has their own emotional engagement with it.
Anyway, this is a great podcast, there's a lot of good info about the state of the art, and the situation that parents find themselves in, and how they approach the problem solving. Fascinating stuff, thanks!
Posted by: Account Deleted | May 27, 2009 at 01:12 PM