Research on Parent-Child Product Design Based on Interaction

Theory

Ju Ning

1,*

, Sheng Li

, Chunli Zhang

1,*

and Chenchen Fan

Department of Graphic Design, Changchun University, Changchun 130022, China

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

Department of Visual Art, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

Keywords: Parent-Child Relationship, Parent-Child Product, Interaction Theory, Interaction Mode, Interaction Design.

Abstract: With the continuous change of educational concept, parents pay more and more attention to the relationship

between parents and children. Coupled with the impact of the epidemic, staying at home has become a new

life mode, which makes the contact between parents and children closer. The emergence of parent-child

products has become a bridge between them and their children. However, the existing parent-child products

still focus on the child and do not fully take into account the interactive experience of parents. Based on the

Interaction theory, this paper analyzes the current situation of parent-child products and combines it with the

Interaction theory explore an innovative two-way circular interaction mode, so as to provide reference for

improving the quality of parent-child products.

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, parent-child education has attracted

more and more attention from parents, and many

parent-child products have come into people's sight.

In the current epidemic stage, family members have

more communication opportunities and contact

space, which makes parent-child products favored by

parents. At present, there are many kinds of parent-

child products on the market, but their interaction

mode is relatively single, and most products can only

allow children to participate, while parents can not

integrate well, lack of interaction and communication

experience, resulting in narrow content of parent-

child interaction and unable to provide a good

communication platform between parents and

children (Su 2020). In view of this problem, this

paper makes an in-depth analysis of parent-child

products by using Interaction theory, makes an

innovative design of parent-child interaction

methods, and explores a two-way circular interaction

mode that meets the demand points of parent-child

products at the present stage, so as to effectively

improve the relationship between parents and

children.

2 OVERVIEW OF INTERACTION

THEORY

2.1 Concept of Interaction Theory

Interaction is the behavior of interaction and

connection between objects. This process needs two

or more objects to realize (Hu 2020). Life is full of

interaction everywhere. Through interaction, we can

better convey and exchange information, and better

enhance the emotion between people.

Interaction theory first appeared in social

psychology, and its research content is the

relationship between people's community and

psychology in society. Later, it was first applied to the

field of Industrial design in design, which is called

"Interaction Design" (Zhou 2021). When Interaction

theory is combined with design, it becomes

Interactive design. The key of Interactive design lies

in the interaction between people and products, which

aims to enhance users' experience of using products,

Good interactivity can give the product temperature,

make it more in line with people's emotional needs

and meet people's expectations.

Ning, J., Li, S., Zhang, C. and Fan, C.

Research on Parent-Child Product Design Based on Interaction Theory.

DOI: 10.5220/0011897500003613

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education (NMDME 2022), pages 26-31

ISBN: 978-989-758-630-9

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

2.2 Application of Interaction Theory

in Parent-Child Design

The main purpose of parent-child products is to

enable parents and children to communicate and

interact effectively (Meng, Li, 2019), so interaction is

particularly key in the whole product experience

process. When users use the product, they are actually

interacting with the product (Zhu, Liu, 2014), Parent-

child products are based on the interaction between

parents, children and products. In order to realize the

benign interaction between parents and children, it is

necessary to explore an appropriate way of

interaction. The determination of the way of

interaction is based on the daily living mode of

parents and children and the behavior characteristics

of children themselves. Different types of interaction

bring different physiological and psychological

feelings to parents and children, as shown in Tab.1.

Table 1 Comparative analysis table of different types of interaction

Interaction type Parental observation type Parental guidance type

Parent-child co-participation

type

Interactive mode

Children interact with

products and parents watch

Interaction between children

and products and guidance

from parents

Parents and children use the

product together

Physiological and

psychological

analysis

Physiology: exercise the

children's own operation

ability

Psychology: only children

communicate with the

product, and parents fail to

feel the interaction

Physiology: when children

interact, they learn more

knowledge through the

guidance of their parents

Psychology: when children

interact with products, they

also communicate with their

parents

Physiology: children operate

with their parents and cooperate

with each other

Psychology: both parties fully

feel each other's company and

communication through the

joint use of products

Functional

analysis

Improve children's learning

ability without considering

parents' feelings

After parents' guidance,

children learn knowledge and

increase their feelings with

their parents

The joint participation of the

two sides has greatly deepened

the emotional exchanges

between parents and children

Characteristic Only children participate

Children's participation and

parents' guidance

Children, parents and products

form a two-way circular

interaction among the three

According to the above analysis, it can be found

that the joint participation of parents and children can

bring the best interactive experience. Based on the

concept of Interaction theory and guided by the joint

participation of parents and children, parent-child

products can be divided into three two-way

interaction modes of mutual circulation and mutual

influence, as shown in Fig.1. The three interact and

influence each other, in which parent-child products

act as a bridge to assist the cultivation of family

relationship between parents and children. In this

interactive way, we can maximize the role of the

product for parent-child users, so that both parents

and children can get the best sense of experience.

Figure 1 Interactive cycle process diagram

Research on Parent-Child Product Design Based on Interaction Theory

3 RESEARCH STATUS OF

PARENT-CHILD PRODUCTS

3.1 Definition of Parent-Child

Products

Parent-child products refer to products based on

parent-child relationship, in which parents and

children participate together and interact through

language, behavior and emotional communication

(Zhang 2018). The users of parent-child products are

both parents and children. Children are the main users

of parent-child products. The identity of parents is the

participant who can communicate with children.

Through the communication and interaction between

parents and children, children can feel the love from

parents, so as to improve their feelings. Parent-child

products take parent-child relationship as a bridge

and interaction as a means to make parents and

children better understand each other's needs in the

process of interaction, so as to achieve the common

development of parents and children (Fan 2016).

3.2 Current Situation of Parent-Child

Products at Home and Abroad

With the continuous improvement of social level,

parent-child education has been paid more and more

attention by parents, so a variety of parent-child

products with different styles have sprung up into our

lives (Sun, Wang, 2015). In the epidemic stage,

people's home time has been increased accordingly,

which also increases the heat of parent-child

products.

The development of parent-child products abroad

is more mature, the market development is relatively

perfect, and more attention is paid to the concept of

parent-child education. For example, a series of

parent-child Board Games launched by Orchard Toy,

a famous early childhood educational toy brand in the

UK, not only enrich and fun parent-child time, but

also play a very good role in early childhood

education, as shown in Fig.2.

Compared with foreign countries, the

development of domestic parent-child products is

relatively late. In the early stage, the main research

direction is to focus on the role of parents on their

children. Most parent-child products still focus on the

mode of "children first and parents second". The

quality of products is also mixed, and the significance

and influence of two-way interaction and two-way

communication between parents and children are not

really taken into account. Now it is gradually

changing to the direction of parent-child interaction

and cooperation based on two-way interaction (Pan

2021), and the design angle is biased towards the

aspects of interest, interaction and security, especially

the common experience of parents and children has

been greatly improved, For example, the product

design of N · FUN parent-child interactive furniture

furniture and interesting games, and realizes the

common sense of use experience and interest of

parents and children. As shown in Fig.3.

Figure 2 Orchard Toy early childhood Toy brand

Figure 3 N·FUN parent-child interactive furniture

3.3 Category of Parent-Child Products

In recent years, the popularity of parent-child

products has been rising, and there are countless

product types in the market. In the face of different

types of parent-child products, they can be divided

into the following four categories according to their

nature of use, Parent-child daily necessities products

include: parent-child furniture, parent-child parenting

back bags, etc.; Parent-child education products

include: early education toys, parent-child

identification cards, etc; Parent-child toy products

include: parent-child building blocks, parent-child

board games, parent-child puzzles, etc; The most

common products of parent-child outdoor products

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are baby carriages, as well as parent-child tents,

parent-child bicycles, parent-child outdoor facilities,

etc.

4 INTERACTION THEORY IN

PARENT-CHILD PRODUCTS

4.1 The Importance of Interaction

Theory in Parent-Child Products

Good interaction is the key to the communication

between people and products. Through the

Interaction theory, two-way interaction is introduced

into parent-child products to truly achieve a good

interactive environment suitable for both parents and

children. Based on the research of Interaction theory,

it is necessary to add some actions that need the

cooperation of parents and children in the way of

interaction, so as to increase the degree of interaction

between parents and children. At the same time, it is

also necessary to consider the experience of the form

of interaction for parents and children and improve

the participation of parents and children (Cai 2019).

4.2 User Demand Analysis of Parent-

Child Products

As the core element of parent-child interaction,

children's user characteristics are of great

significance to the development of design. 3 to 6

years old is the pre-school or early childhood of

children's development. This period is the key period

of children's physical and mental development.

Therefore, it is mainly analyzed for children in this

period (Wu 2014), At this stage, children's

intellectual development is very fast. At the same

time, they will be full of curiosity and interest in new

things. Their language and action abilities will also be

greatly improved, and their plasticity is very strong.

Therefore, pre-school children are the best period for

parent-child training. This period can cultivate

children's learning interests and hobbies with the

fastest and best quality.

Another user group of parent-child products is

parents. The characteristics of parents are different

from children. They have perfect senses, independent

thinking and can well accept the new things produced

by social development. At the same time, parents are

facing some pressure from work, and parent-child

products can be used as a good tool and means for

them to relax.

Therefore, in the process of parent-child design,

while fully considering the needs of children and

allowing them to get a full interactive experience, the

needs of parents should also be considered

accordingly. The product should have a certain

decompression ability and be able to use it for

interactive communication between parents and

children for a long time.

5 PARENT-CHILD PRODUCT

DESIGN PRACTICE BASED ON

INTERACTION THEORY

5.1 Using the Design Concept of

Interaction Theory

Combine the basic elements of Interaction theory

with the needs of parent-child products, take two-way

interaction and parent-child joint participation as the

starting point, adhere to the product design principle

of "people-oriented", exchange more roles in the

design, give parents and children the opportunity and

space to play together from the perspective of users,

and integrate them into parent-child products in the

form of interactive games by adding some interesting

and educational elements, Simplify the rules of the

game in the product and let parents and children

cooperate to complete an interactive mode in which

game, interest and education coexist, so as to achieve

the role of teaching in fun and comprehensively

enhance the emotional relationship between the two

sides.

5.2 Product Design Scheme

Using the interactive design principle, the design

scheme adopts the well-known form of "Whack-a-

mole game", the overall shape is the image of

"elephant", and the upper end is 8 openings; The

elephant's tail is a manual handle; The mouth is a

drawer that can be opened and closed, in which a

small wooden hammer for beating moles can be

placed; The ear part has two sound outlets. As shown

in Fig.4 and Fig.5.

Research on Parent-Child Product Design Based on Interaction Theory

Figure 4 Final renderings

Figure 5 Product detail drawing

5.3 Instructions for Use of Design

Scheme

Different from the traditional form of Whack-a-mole

game, it adopts the way of manual out of the mole.

When used, one of the parents controls the mole out

of the hole by shaking the handle. The faster the

rotation speed of the handle is, the faster the mole out

of the hole is. Children hit the mole with a small

wooden hammer, and both sides can fully participate.

Similarly, parents and children can exchange

positions for games. In addition, each gopher has

different colors, and each mole has different animal

patterns, which can enable children to recognize

colors and learn the knowledge of various animals in

preschool. This parent-child product provides two

ways for parents and children to interact, so that

parents and children can enhance each other's

feelings and shorten the distance between them in the

process of playing games. As shown in Fig.6 and

Fig.7.

Figure 6 Man machine relationship diagram

Figure 7 Usage scenario diagram

Wooden

hammer

The stereo

The mole toys

Shake the handle

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6 CONCLUSION

Parent-child product design based on Interaction

theory has very important practical significance in

today's parent-child education and parent-child

relationship training. With the development of

modern life, a variety of parent-child products have

spread to the daily life of every family. Using this

innovative two-way interaction in parent-child

products can effectively and accurately grasp the

needs of users, design parent-child products that can

really cultivate emotions, give parents and children

the best interactive experience, and meet the needs of

modern parent-child relations, and make parents and

children meet their spiritual needs.

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Research on Parent-Child Product Design Based on Interaction Theory