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Works

Wing.It

A Co-designed Play System that Reinforces Social Relationships Through Active Outdoor Play 

In collaboration with Funan Fina & Mamie Shi
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External Partners:
  • Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School
  • Health Design Lab
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Roles:
  • Researcher
  • Design Lead
  • Visual Designer

Wing.It is an interactive wearable that encourages kids to play outdoors and form connections with their peers. It is made up of wearable wings and whackers that attach to the wings through Velcro. Co-designed with children from Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School, a school for children with learning differences, the product system engages the kids to play outdoors to provide an alternative to digital games and connect them to their environment. There are no set rules to the game. The premise of the play system is to give agency to the kids to make up their own game, negotiate the rules and keep evolving as they play. The game encourages cooperation and initiative among the players and strengthens social bonds, especially among kids who may struggle with it. 

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The Wings 

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Fitted for young bodies, the wing is worn over the arms and legs, expanding their bodies to encompass the space between their arms and providing the opportunity for role-play. The wing is covered in a pattern of velcro as the interface for interaction with whackers held by other players. 

The Whackers

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The whackers, all wrapped in fuzzy velcro, are designed to be hand-held and easy to throw. They are lightly stuffed with stuffing to avoid painful accidents during rough play. 

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  • Research
    “I’m not sure, to be honest, I can’t say that I identify more to either side, because I still live with my parents so I speak a lot of Vietnamese and do Vietnamese family things, like I still feel connected to the Vietnamese culture, but not so strongly because I was born here. But I don’t identify as more Canadian either…” “To be quite honest, I’ve always felt a disconnect in which country is my home country, so don’t really know.” These are some of the responses, we received from initial research through a questionnaire about Identity. Drawing from this survey that we sent out to 1st and 2nd generation immigrant youths as well as mixed and third culture individuals, we mapped out their responses and drew common themes which are safe space, common ground and community.
  • Process
    We started out with the goal of connecting immigrants closer to their culture, but as the project evolved, we realized we had to look deeper than that. Through our primary research, internal questioning and reflection, conversations with peers and mentors, and the process of iteration, we arrived at the goal of lifting up youths so they feel belonging and acceptance. Eventually, we landed on two main activities that fulfills our core themes: a microaggression card game and a mask-mapping activity. We have iterated various versions of the workshop, what it would look like, and how it would play out with pandemic restrictions.
  • Prototyping
    We conducted material exploration for the mask-making activity, experimenting with felt, paper, plaster wrap, foil and other materials. The base had to be comfortable to use, be structured enough to provide participants with a framework but also lose enoughthat they could excercise their creativity. Eventually, we settled with papermache for its ease of use and low-skill engagement. For the card game, we mapped it out in Miro and created simple card prototypes to play with. We iterated several versions of the game, varying the prompts and responses to provide the smoothest and most genuine interaction while at it's core, educating participants and prompting conversation.
  • Engagement
    Through Miro and Zoom, as well as in-person, we conducted mini-workshops of the card game and the identity-mapping activity to test the outcome, facilitation and validate the impact of the workshop.
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