When it comes to children’s products, safety is a key factor
that must be taken into account and numerous product design features must be
carefully considered to provide an item that is fully functional whilst
maintaining a safe and child-friendly character.
There are many products on the market these days with a
purpose to provide the user/child with “ease-of-use” and form of assistance to
their daily lifestyle. This could include walking apparatus, eating equipment,
toiletry items and educational products. Most of the items we see succeed well
in their primary intention, which is to assist and provide an “easy-to-use”
experience, however many of the products fall not only in the choices of
material used but in terms of size, meaning a higher consumption of raw
materials needed to make the product when not needed, impacting the
environment, and technically unsafe for the child. It all adds up, and safety
is a must.
Today I came across the Ba Baby Bottle Holder- a smart
contraption, aimed at children aged 0-3, with a sleek and abstract aesthetic.
When you first see the Ba Baby Bottle Holder, your initial
thoughts revolve around the product’s visual elements. The bottle holder has a
strikingly distinct design when first sighted, with a spherical body containing
multiple symmetrical cut-outs, creating a sort of distorted honey-comb aesthetic.
Whilst creating a eye-pleasing visual, the multiple cut-outs provide the
user/child with a form of handling assistance as the bottle holder can be “grabbed”
from all angles due to the variety of handles within the frame of the body. In
effect, this encourages to child to use the product him/herself, rather than
the parent needing to feed them. Furthermore, this promotes early
self-teaching. Not only does this offer the child ease of use and user friendly
design, the product uses a vast reduction of material use, making it more
environmentally friendly and helping to fall within the eco-friendly category.
The product is made entirely from food-safe silicone, making
the products extremely easily to clean which is a vital factor for a child’s
product in terms of safety and hygiene. Another positive factor about the use
of silicone is that the material has a very soft and friendly feel when
touched, creating a pleasant experience for the user as sharp edges and corners
are non- existent- only smooth curves and rounded edges. The natural texture of
silicone has a rubbery surface, which when touched, forms a frictional feel.
This provides the child with a further handling support as the rubbery feel
provides a grip. This texture is maintained even when in contact with water, so
spillages/leaks and dribbles will not affect the handling experience. Another
great thing about the Ba Baby Bottle Holder is that it can accommodate the
majority of bottles due to its ergonomic fitting shape. Even if bottles are too
big, the silicone can stretch slightly to fit.
