Grow: The Lock that grows with your child

This project was submitted to the International Housewares Association Student Design Competition in December of 2016. It showcases both generative and quantitative research that is used to identify gaps in the child-proofing market to develop a product that addresses the concerns of parents. Grow, aims to eliminate the need to purchase a new child-proof lock once a child has become strong enough to open it.

Many child-proofing products out on the market are ineffective because of their build quality, their methods of securing themselves to objects, and their ease of use. Parents find them cumbersome to use while children are able to overcome many of the products I found while conducting market research. The design opportunity to create a lock that grows in resistance as a child grows addresses common issues that were found through interviews and research such as the durability of the product and the ability of a child to open a lock. Generative research led me to identify areas of concern for injury in the household. These results were validated by interviews conducted with parents and nannies of small children. Statistics of child injury cases from the U.S. Census Bureau were analyzed to determine the frequency of various types of child injuries in households.

After the ideation phase, three prototypes were developed and tested by a parent for feedback before selecting on the final concept that incorporates a spring that is compressed in order to increase resistance.

Once the design of the resistive lock was determined, further ideation was done to explore the forms that the lock could take. This lead to the final version of the design that incorporates a dial to increase the resistance of the spring housed inside the lock.