PIECEMAKER
PieceMaker's Factory allowed children to access 3D printing via a kiosk experience, located in select locations in Pittsburgh.
(Note: This company is no longer active. My time with them was the summer of 2015).
Users could choose from a variety of 3D printed products, customize them, and watch it print live. The customization options included color, text, symbols, and special parts. In my time with the company our team earned a license with Nickelodeon to create 3D printed toys for popular children's TV shows, including SpongeBob and Dora the Explorer.
As a Product Design intern with PieceMaker I designed and prototyped customizable consumer products for 3D printing, with a focus on toys, collectibles and jewelry. I had the technical challenge of modeling the pieces such that they could be printed in 30 minutes or less on PieceMaker's automated printers. This role required me to rapidly prototype, quickly iterate and test designs, and work within the strict requirements of an external companies’ license.
I completed user research and competitive research to reinvent the product catalog and improve the entire retail kiosk experience. This included interviews with children and their parents, in which we would test the “fun-ness” of the toys as well as the accessibility of the kiosk system. I created the information architecture and visual language for the kiosk system, that ensured that all of our product and customization options were easy to find and clear to children.
To the right are examples of PieceMaker toys that I designed for children aged 6 - 12. I mainly used Autodesk Fusion360 for modeling.
Many of the toys have moveable parts, and all can be printed in 30 minutes or less, with no supports and no cleanup required. All of the 3D printed toys can be customized with a child's initials, full name or an emoji.
