Allow children to discover water and swimming smoothly
Year :
2018
Missions :
Industrial Design
CMF
Branding
CGI
Tools :
Solidworks
Keyshot
Marvelous Designer
Water is an element that is familiar to us. Since we were children, we have loved going to the water, enjoying the sea, having fun in the pool or simply jumping into a puddle. It is one of the elements that make us up, and yet...
Even if the newborn child can manage very well in the water, it is not a fish for all that! When growing up, the fear of water often intervenes, or if it does not, a whole learning process must be put in place to prevent drowning. Unfortunately, in 2021, more than 1200 drownings took place (France). For more than half of them, they proved to be fatal.
In order to avoid these phenomena as much as possible, swimming should be learnt from a very young age. However, this learning is not simple and involves many processes. In response to this, Pool proposes to accompany the child in his or her adaptation to the aquatic environment, by dividing the learning process into stages, and by allowing the child to feel at ease and evolve in complete safety.
The problem
Traditionally, summer holidays are synonymous with beaches, swimming pools and aperitifs with friends. But unfortunately, this is the time of year when most drownings occur, especially among children. Incomplete learning, overconfidence, lack of supervision, it doesn't take long for a child to drown. During various interviews, I was able to understand that swimming required many steps and involved many gestures, often encumbered by current products.
564
drownings between June and August 2021 in France
131
of which resulted in death
22%
his is the increase in drowning between 2020 and 2021
26%
of drownings occur in swimming pools
63%
concern children under 6 years old
1
children out of 2 cannot swim before 12
Discovering swimming
Firts swims
First vertical position in the water
Adopting an oblique position
Foot-stomping training
Confortable in water
Problematic
How to allow children to be safe in the water while learning to swim ?
Pain Points
Learning to swim is done with known products, but trust is sometimes difficult. During my interviews, one child out of two admitted to having difficulty with armbands, while more than 70% of parents expressed a fear of them. Often inexpensive, affordable and easy to find, armbands do not replace parental vigilance, and tend to come off relatively easily. This is why my work is partly based on the desire to remedy this problem and to ensure foolproof safety.
1/2
children say they can't stand armbands
72%
of parents do not trust the reliability of armbands
100N
(Newtons) is the rollover standard for a child under 30kg
Understand
In order to understand why children no longer wish to keep the armbands, I took a closer look at the scenario for their use.
Explore
The research focused on the product's ability to be comfortable, simple to install for parents but complex to remove for the child.
Color, material & finishes
Formally, Pool adapts to the morphology of each child and has been designed to be comfortable. The use of high quality fabrics makes it a high quality and pleasant product.
The answer
Pool makes it possible to enable progressive and evolving learning. By offering three levels of buoyancy, the product evolves with the child's learning and accompanies him or her through the process. The more he progresses, the more flotation elements he removes, thus gradually freeing himself from the textile, giving him more freedom of movement.
Pool has been designed to be easy for parents to put on, but difficult for the child to take off, due to the fasteners on the back of the product.
Finally, the architecture of the product favours an oblique position in the water, leading the child to learn foot and hand flapping gestures.
How it works ?
The device has three levels of buoyancy, ranging from discovery of the water to aquatic fluency. Each has a name and specific features. At each new stage and according to the skills acquired, the child, with the help of his parents, removes a buoy.
Shrimp level
At this level, the buoyancy is maximum, the device is complete and consists of the two additional volumes. Pour passer au niveau suivant, l'enfant doit être à l'aise dans l'eau, avoir moins peur de la position oblique et apprendre le battement des pieds.
Turtle level
At this level, there is less buoyancy. The child becomes more independent and progresses. Only one extra buoyancy volume remains.
To progress to the next level, the child must be comfortable with flapping their feet and hands.
Shark level
At this level, the buoyancy is lower, but still safe and legal. The child is more comfortable in the water and is more independent. All three levels of buoyancy meet the relevant standards.
Pool comes with a free application, which allows you to record the performance of the child(ren) concerned, to find exercises to enable them to develop and to follow their progress.
Thought for boys and girls
The colour choices were made to meet the needs of the greatest number of children and parents. The aim was to create a strong, impactful, but above all non-gendered colour range, in order to break away from the clichés of pink for girls and blue for boys. The range offers modern and cheerful patterns and colours without falling into the ease of classic children's designs.
The patterns are based on experiments on the theme of air and water.
Branding
Ugo has been formally designed to be reassuring, welcoming and designed with a simple aim: to put the user in as little difficulty as possible. With soft, reassuring shapes and details designed with and for users, Ugo ensures that it is understandable from the first time it is used.
The kit comes with two accessories to allow visually impaired people to easily retrieve pasta, but also to steam it.
The pans are covered with a silicone coating to protect against heat. In addition, if the user wants to connect two appliances to each other, the connection is made simply by the handles and the appliance detects it immediately.
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