Rationale

Explain design-centric rationale that has advanced into the proposed solution

Brand Personality
New educational tool to teach children the value of charitable giving with toys will be multi-sensory, playful, joyful, and educational to satisfy interests of 5-8-year-old children. The teaching methods will embrace play, toys, discussions, active learning, honest praise (proper thank-you phrases and notes), and a safe environment. It will be fun, engaging, and easy for children and adults to participate.

crittertrails

Color Palette
While selecting a color palette for the design-centric solution, the researcher examined multiple children’s picture books, brands, toy companies and read peer-reviewed articles. According to the research, both girls and boys favor red; boys also like blue, while girls like pink (Wanni et al. 1171). Zihe Chen et al.’s study of four-to-seven-year-old children found that “children are more attracted to colors as saturation decreases and brightness increases within a specific range. Beyond this range, reduced saturation diminishes color appeal. Moderate brightness and contrast enhance visual comfort during play, while extremely low contrast hinders concentration” (Zihe et al. 1205213). Also, their study proved that children prefer warm colors (red, orange, yellow) slightly more than cool colors (Ziheet al. 1205213). Per Wanni et al.’s article, primary colors (red, blue, yellow) will satisfy six-year-old and younger children, red will speak to older boys and girls, blue will be boys’ preference, and purple (the closest to pink and does not compete with red on the color palette) will appeal to girls who like pink (1171). Therefore, the colors of the study are:

Logo Development
‍The logo speaks clearly to the audience and conveys the message, emotion, and meaning. Animal characters, or critters, are part of the logo’s visuals. The word “trails” is intentionally positioned on the curvy baseline to give a sense of windy trails. Some shapes, like the top of the letter “T,” extended “s” swoosh, tail across the “tt” and part of the letter “i” are intentional design elements. The logotype is fun, but well-balanced and sophisticated to present educational content. MadeTommySoft font is clean and readable, has an extended font family, has rounded corners, and looks friendly and playful. “Play Give Learn” tagline is a part of the logo.

Typography Exploration

MADE Tommy Soft
Elementary school children remember large font-size words better than small ones (Vered et al. 1577). Rubens pointed out that printed materials are less strict and allow playful font options (Rubens 245), that will not compromise readability. MadeTommySoft typeface is clean, legible, and has an extended font family. Rounded corners add playfulness and fun. This font is used for headers to bring attention to the visuals.

Poppins
To avoid early readers’ (5-11-year-old children) legibility issues, Rubens Cantuni summarized font requirements for young children in his book “Designing Digital Products for Kids: Deliver User Experiences That Delight Kids, Parents, and Teachers”:
‍
• Avoid decorative typefaces; they are hard to read.
• Use fonts with simple, friendly shapes and round encounters.
• Use sentence case for writing complete sentences.
• Taller X-height typefaces look more readable.
• Use a well-balanced font. Too thin, bold or extended typefaces are less readable for children.

Typeface Poppins and its extended font family satisfy all the requirements above. Therefore, the program will use it as the secondary font for more extensive information on the printed materials and website.

Poppins Bold

Poppins Black
This is Header.
Poppins ExtraBold
This is Header.
Poppins Black
This is Header.

Poppins

Poppins Semibold
This is Header.
Poppins Medium
This is Header.
Poppins Regular
This is Header.

Poppins Light

Poppins Light
This is Header.
Poppins ExtraLight
This is Header.
Poppins Thin
This is Header.

Graphic Elements

Characters
“Among elementary-school-aged kids, interest in animals and superheroes runs deep” (Camino). Therefore, animals will be the main characters of the program.

After further research, the author selected six animals based on their biological and reciprocal altruistic characteristics in nature: a dolphin, a monkey, a parrot, an African wild dog, a bat, and a bee. They will lead the program and teach children the value of charitable giving through toys.

The researcher created a set of illustrations that matched the five-to-eight-years visual style with cartoon looks, moderately oversized eyes, genuine happy smiles.

Illustration Style
Bold and bright vector illustration styles are among the top children’s book illustration styles, according to Jason Hamilton’s article 18 Best Children’s Book Illustration Styles and Mediums. Illustrations will be playful, happy, and childlike. Adobe Illustrator is the digital tool to implement this style.

Texture
Adding texture and shading to the images highlights the program’s tone as warm and empathetic. The illustrations will visually feel hand-created and humanistic.

Pattern
Also, the researcher created varied seamless patterns using toys as visual elements because the program teaches the value of charitable giving with toys.

Inspiration for Board Game
Playing board games develops social and communication skills, problem-solving skills, strategy, and cooperation (Juhasz 182). It allows children and adults to discuss their philanthropic values and practices, which is essential in teaching children the value of charitable giving (New Study: Talk to Your Kids about Giving, and They’ll Likely Follow Through).

Schley and James Austin emphasize that a great board game should be a source of joy and fun, offering inclusive and active play, and be re-playable. Inclusive play, in particular, is a key element as it ensures that the game caters to a range of kids’ skills, making it a delightful experience for everyone. The game’s theme and scenario should also be engaging and compelling, sparking excitement in kids (Schley and Austin). Research strongly advocates exploring beyond traditional games and embracing cooperative games and tile-laying games (Schley and Austin). Cooperative games “allow players with different skill levels to play together; foster communication; and remove the emotional aspect of competition when young kids learn the basics of gameplay” (Schley and Austin). One of the steps to encourage pro-social behavior is practicing such behavior with evidence-proven activities, like cooperative board games (Dewar), where everyone is on the same team, working toward the same goal (Dewar). Cooperative games encourage generosity and trust in young children (Dewar) and ensure that all children, regardless of skill level, can participate and enjoy (Dewar, Toppe et al. 2019).

CANDY TRAINS
• Cooperative game: collaborate and cooperate to rebuild the train.
• The players work together and win together by building tracks and delivering candy by moving all the trains on the board.
• Hands-on play.
• Learn communication, basic counting, and strategic thinking.
• Simple instructions.
• No reading is required.

CONSTRUCTION KIDS
‍• Cooperative game: collaborate to complete the construction project before the storm arrives.
• The players learn together, win together.
• Help the builders work together around the construction site and collect materials needed to finish the project before the big storm.
• Fun and educational: children use their creativity and imagination, and they stay engaged while learning new skills (strategic thinking, communication, basic counting, and turn-taking).
• Easy to play with simple instructions, visual matching, and easy counting.
• Hands-on play at home and school.

Cooperation and forgiving Winning together against an external force, working together are the best performing strategies within generations (cite video).

More About Us

Better children's understanding of the causes for charitable giving and improved process of philanthropic actions in schools and families should give children decision-making power and encourage them to participate more willingly in giving.

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