"Children's culture has become a boom industry, generating tons of accoutrements from toys to school supplies to interactive computer programs. To be successful, such materials must be designed in a way that speaks directly to a young audience yet pleases - and doesn't alienate - adults. That said, what is good design for children? What criteria does a designer follow in creating products that will appeal to kids without compromising on quality or aesthetics? Steven Heller and Steven Guarnaccia address these and many other related questions in Designing for Children, the first and only book devoted to an increasingly important subject." "Heller and Guarnaccia analyze and celebrate recent advances in child-oriented design and show examples of new work that represent the growing sophistication in this arena. The authors look at hundreds of case studies in which graphics play a major role, specifically in the realms of television, video, and radio; museums and environments; novelties and gifts; toys and games; newspapers and magazines; computers and electronics; theater and performances; and books and posters. Packaging and promotional materials for the various products and activities are also discussed." "In response to the burgeoning children's market, clients like Sony, Nickelodeon, Esprit/Kids, Hasbro, Stride Rite, Levi Strauss, Hallmark, Pentech, The Nature Company, Mattel, Milton Bradley, Broderbund, and numerous publishers are increasingly employing the talents of innovative designers with an eye toward reaching a young audience. Today among their ranks are such well-known and highly respected graphic artists as Seymour Chwast, Maira Kalman, April Greiman, Paula Scher, and Richard McGuire, many of whose designs for children are featured here." "Designing for Children is an important book for designers of all kinds, but it's also of interest to parents seeking well-made, thoughtfully designed alternatives to standard mass-market toys, books, and other childhood fare for their kids."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A comprehensive, genre-defining survey of children's product and furniture design from Bauhaus to today Design for Children, a must-have book for all style-conscious and design-savvy readers, documents the evolution of design for babies, toddlers, and beyond. The book spotlights more than 450 beautiful, creative, stylish, and clever examples of designs created exclusively for kids - from toys, furniture, and tableware, to textiles, lights, and vehicles. Contemporary superstars and twentieth-century masters, including Philippe Starck, Nendo, Marc Newson, Piero Lissoni, Kengo Kuma, and Marcel Wanders, are showcased.

Designers, especially design students, rarely have access to children or their worlds when creating products, images, experiences and environments for them. Therefore, fine distinctions between age transitions and the day-to-day experiences of children are often overlooked. Designing for Kids brings together all a designer needs to know about developmental stages, play patterns, age transitions, playtesting, safety standards, materials and the daily lives of kids, providing a primer on the differences in designing for kids versus designing for adults. Research and interviews with designers, social scientists and industry experts are included, highlighting theories and terms used in the fields of design, developmental psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology and education. This textbook includes more than 150 color images, helpful discussion questions and clearly formatted chapters, making it relevant to a wide range of readers. It is a useful tool for students in industrial design, interaction design, environmental design and graphic design with children as the main audience for their creations.

When making games for kids, it’s tempting to simply wing-it on the design. We were all children once, right? The reality is that adults are far removed from the cognitive changes and the motor skill challenges that are the hallmark of the developing child. Designing Games for Children, helps you understand these developmental needs of children and how to effectively apply them to games. Whether you’re a seasoned game designer, a children's media professional, or an instructor teaching the next generation of game designers, Designing Games for Children is the first book dedicated to service the specific needs of children's game designers. This is a hands-on manual of child psychology as it relates to game design and the common challenges designers face. Designing Games for Children is the definitive, comprehensive guide to making great games for kids, featuring: Guidelines and recommendations divided by the most common target audiences – babies and toddlers (0-2), preschoolers (3-5), early elementary students (6-8), and tweens (9-12). Approachable and actionable breakdown of child developmental psychology, including cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development, as it applies to game design Game design insights and guidelines for all aspects of game production, from ideation to marketing

Why attractive things work better and other crucial insights into human-centered design Emotions are inseparable from how we humans think, choose, and act. In Emotional Design, cognitive scientist Don Norman shows how the principles of human psychology apply to the invention and design of new technologies and products. In The Design of Everyday Things, Norman made the definitive case for human-centered design, showing that good design demanded that the user's must take precedence over a designer's aesthetic if anything, from light switches to airplanes, was going to work as the user needed. In this book, he takes his thinking several steps farther, showing that successful design must incorporate not just what users need, but must address our minds by attending to our visceral reactions, to our behavioral choices, and to the stories we want the things in our lives to tell others about ourselves. Good human-centered design isn't just about making effective tools that are straightforward to use; it's about making affective tools that mesh well with our emotions and help us express our identities and support our social lives. From roller coasters to robots, sports cars to smart phones, attractive things work better. Whether designer or consumer, user or inventor, this book is the definitive guide to making Norman's insights work for you.

Meeting children as equals, on their own level, is not only a question of educational theory. Räume für Kinder shows how architecture and interior design can promote childhood development. Based on historical and current concepts of progressive education, the book sketches design principles for building daycare centers that can also be transferred to other spaces, such as pediatric clinics. Rooms can invite discovery; they can promote communication and social interaction, strengthen self-confidence, and be places of retreat or landscapes for play. For years, the Berlin architectural firm baukind has been creatively balancing the strict legal requirements and architectural possibilities of architecture suitable for children--always with a view to children's needs. The book presents realized projects, such as the kindergarten Weltenbummler in Berlin, and aims to foster the equal involvement of children in the design of our environment.

Designing Cities with Children and Young People focuses on promoting better outcomes in the built environment for children and young people in cities across the world. This book presents the experience of practitioners and researchers who actively advocate for and participate with children and youth in planning and designing urban environments. It aims to cultivate champions for children and young people among urban development professionals, to ensure that their rights and needs are fully acknowledged and accommodated. With international and interdisciplinary contributors, this book sets out to build bridges and provide resources for policy makers, social planners, design practitioners and students. The content moves from how we conceptualize children in the built environment, what we have discovered through research, how we frame the task and legislate for it, and how we design for and with children. Designing Cities with Children and Young People ultimately aims to bring about change to planning and design policies and practice for the benefit of children and young people in cities everywhere.