An unusual design concept

This is my take on how the pen should look...

The pen as you can see features a very short body, together with an unusual placement of the screen. The thinking behind this design is as follows:·

• The short design will help children grasp the pen in the right way. Some children often find it difficult to hold a pen or pencil in the right way. They tend to grab it too far away from the tip or too close to the tip. This design constrains in a way the children from holding the pen too far away from the tip. Also a non-slippery surface “marks” the ideal place to grab the pen and also provides a rough surface to prevent the pen from slipping from sweaty hands.

• The main (and only) button is placed in the middle of the non-slippery surface. The button is slightly recessed so that it cannot be pressed by mistake. The button provides the following functionality: when pressed for a few seconds it turns the pen on or off. When the pen is turned on and the button is pressed once, it enters into the “listening” mode. When pressed again when in “listening” or “guide” mode, it exists from that mode and goes to standby.
• The top part of the pen extends outwards from the main body of the pen and widens. This gives a bigger area for accommodating both the enlarged screen and the speaker/microphone. It also positions the screen towards the face of the user when being held correctly. This is crucial as the user seeking advice from the screen will not have to turn the pen sideways to look at a screen embedded in the pen’s body. In this way the user can write and look at the screen at the same time. It also positions the speaker towards the user’s face so that the commands and/or advices can be heard and/or recorded clearly.

As you can see the pen is quite simple both to use and look at. This is essential if we want children to be able to use it. If we overload the product with features that children cannot understand and operate, then we distant the product from the age group we were targeting and into another group that may find little or no interest to the product.

The pen’s colour may vary from pastel colours to decorated cartoonish designs around the body. The aim is to make the pen feel like a toy and not like a piece of technology. Also the pen must “reward” the children with tunes and funny animations when they have correctly written a word.

The diagram below describes how the screen is going to function when it goes into “guide” mode.

1. When the user speaks a word, the screen will display the word recognised. Then the whole word will move to the upper part of the screen and the font size will decrease.

2. Then the first letter will be displayed in large and bold font in the centre of the screen. When the user write down that letter correctly, the letter will flash for a while and then the corresponding font of the letter in the whole world will go bold, indicating that that letter has been written correctly.

3. If for some reason the letter is not written correctly, the whole process will start from the beginning. A sad face maybe displayed to encourage children to start again.

4. Steps 2-3 will be repeated until every letter in the word is written correctly.

5. At the end the whole world will flash on the screen followed by happy catchy tunes and a small animation rewarding the user for writing down the word correctly.

Rewarding the child is essential if we want him/her to continue using the product. It also makes learning more fun and satisfying.