teacher's pet

junior level studio challenge to design a project dedicated to a specified situation that is impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. i knew i wanted to focus on ways to alleviate stress on elementary teachers as we began returning back to in-person teaching.

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understanding the environment

what illnesses are commonly contracted at school?

respiratory syncytial virus

coxsackievirus

influenza

conjunctivitis

coronavirus

gastroenteritis

what are the biggest concerns in regard to returning to in-person teaching during the pandemic?

hand hygiene

social distancing

masks

shared supplies

temperatures

what else needs to be considered while designing?

pricing

personalized

versatility

item storage

continual use

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developing the vision

beginning stages

for my initial sketches, i wanted to try to come up with at least one concept per concern stated above, in hopes to maximize coverage of problem areas

one concept that fought hard until the end, where it was not chosen, was the concept of a social distancing dot. this dot was interactive to motivate kids to stay in place but also had uses outside of the pandemic.

however, one concept held strong the entire journey and was ultimately influenced by observing teachers in the classroom and identifying the need.

design refinement

i realized that creating one simple product for each student that would handle sanitation was not going to be as fruitful. not only would it increase costs, it would also run the risk of being lost or broken by the kids. that's when i began to take note of what teachers used multiple times during the day and realized that was the key to alleviating their stress.

for the developing teacher's pet, i knew i wanted it to have some sort of pull-out drawer storage that could sanitize the contents to maximize capabilities for shared supplies (which is an inevitable beast in the classroom), adjustable writing surface for assignment modeling or display of information, and be mobile to accomodate various teaching styles and uses.