Brush Buddy
Project Brief
The goal for this project was to create a new and innovative design for the Native brand focusing in the areas of self care and hygiene. My focus for this project was specifically in children’s dental hygiene.
Research
Market Research
The first step of the process was to understand what products are being offered to children for dental hygiene
“We noticed in our initial research phase that the design for children’s dental care products heavily featured characters in the design.”
User Interview
“I don’t have much fun with my toothbrush but I deal with it.”Interview participant 5
After understanding what was available on the market, the next step was to conduct user interviews. 20 users between the ages of 5-11 were interviewed for the project. above is an excerpt from that conversation.
Persona
From the user interviews I was able to generate a persona that captured similar habits seen in the user interviews.
Timmy Age: 11 Timmy is a young child that is starting to experience the negative effects of poor dental hygiene. His dentist recently told him that he is starting to develop cavities. When asked about his dental routine Timmy reveals that he tries to brush twice a day…but sometimes only before bed, he almost never flosses and hasn’t used mouth wash since his last dentist visit.
“Young children have low participation in the extended steps of oral hygiene due to lack of interest and availability of options. Our opportunity is to create solutions that increase interest in hygiene and establishes good habits.”
Design
References
during the design phase I was inspired by the aesthetic and functionality of robot dog toys from the early 2000s, such as the i-dog from Sega.
Design Concept
This is a caption to a left sided Image, use this space to add context to the image.
To the left is a sketch of the final concept: Brush Buddy. Brush Buddy is an appliance intended to help children develop strong dental hygiene habits. These habits are built through interacting with the character that provides encouragement the child.
Above is a scenario outlining how the brush buddy will be used in daily life.
Outcome
The brush buddy design proposal has not yet been user tested
Brush Buddy by Sebastian Alessio Peyton (2022)