I have been hired by Jessica Neilsen, a science teacher at Good Shepherd Lutheran College and also a parent to myself. My client does a lot of brain busy work like marking tests and other assessment tasks and likes using puzzles as an outlet to give her brain an escape in her spare time. She has always had a passion for puzzles which has since been re-lit when she was given a puzzle for Christmas. With COVID lockdowns and her unable to visit family during holiday periods, Jessica has enjoyed staying busy completing puzzles during the holiday periods. Jessica has been looking for more challenging puzzles completing puzzles with thousands of pieces.
I have been hired to create a new puzzle that is more challenging in both design and form. This means the image has to be hard to match with other pieces but still make sense in full form. The design will have to be unique meaning different shaped pieces, 3D or round puzzles. 3D puzzles are not often found or sold at local shops in the Darwin region. Jessica is familiar with existing products such as unique shaped puzzles and a single 3D puzzle. My client requires me to build a new 3d puzzle with more pieces and better colours. My client requires the 3d puzzle to not be a perfect sphere because the only other 3d puzzle she has seen was a perfect sphere and would defeat the purpose of a new product.
My client has requires me to design a unique puzzle that hasn鈥檛 been made before. The puzzle must be in 3D meaning that the pieces can stack next to, above and below each other to form more of a statue like product over a painting end product. The client has requested that the product be mostly in the red colour because it is the clients favourite colour and would add personalisation to the product. The client has also asked that the product has more than one object whether its living or not. This could mean I can make a flamingo puzzle but it should also have an apple or something in the picture. Depth between objects is also something I have to consider when design 3D because there's more viewing angles.
The object must be self-standing so that the client doesn鈥檛 need to find other attachments to display the work or hold whilst building. The product must be easily comprehendible when fully finished to give a sense of achievement whilst keeping the pieces complicating in the building process. The puzzle should be larger sized pieces compared to regular puzzles because big and small hands will need to be able to complete the puzzle especially with the different angles that the pieces will be put in. The target market for this kind of product in mind could be sold to people in higher age brackets or people who enjoy puzzles/Lego.
The target market best made for this product is age groups ranging from 30-60 because that age bracket is better at calming brain challenges such as puzzles. Age groups older then 60 are also good candidates but they might find is harder connecting pieces on a 3D scale. It's also often that, that age group does well with puzzles. Updating this product can be greatly beneficial to the puzzling industry as technology quickly replaces a lot of daily activities.
There are hundreds of puzzling apps on your phone that you can play and pack away simply by turning of your phone. The simplicity decreases the value of buying and setting up real puzzles. The beauty of a 3D puzzle is that technology is not advanced enough yet to replace the pop out aesthetic. This will benefit the target audience because puzzling could again become more part of society and increase brain use and reduce mindless social media scrolling. Essentially making the human race smarter. Brain activity can also slow down the brains decay.
