Twiddle
the fidget sticker
Twiddle, the fidget sticker, allows users to transform any personal item into a fidget object with ease.
Minimal. Subtle. Convenient.The universality of this tool enhances a new level of customisation, bringing a sense of familiarity to users as they engage in mental wellbeing practices throughout the day.
How can we design a new fidget toy for adults in the workplace dealing with anxiety and stress?
01 Market Research
Compact
Texture
Breathing
Movement
Sound
First, we identified the elements of fidget toys that helps reduce anxiety in their users. This helped us figure out what elements are crucial to our design and characteristics we must keep in mind for our product to be effective.
In order to understand what sort of fidget toys were currently popular and being sold, we visited different stores to see their offerings of fidget toys. We commonly found that fidget toys were often categorised as children’s toys, as most products we saw was clearly intended for children use with its colourful design and playful nature. This further defined the gap in the market for an adult stress relief object, and therefore shows the need for such an object.
02 User Journey Map
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Stressful stimuli
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Person feels stressed
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Person acquires fidget spinner
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Person spins fidget spinner
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Visual stimuli brings relief
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Spinning sound brings relief
Finally, to further understand the holistic process that surrounds people’s use of fidget toys, we made a user journey map following the process of having and using a fidget toy.
03 Understanding Movement
After drawing conclusions from our market research, we categorised current fidget toys into three categories based on the product's dominant movement. Understanding how these movements can regulate stress gives better insight into what motions our design show facilitate and how it can be most effective for our target audience.
Cause and Effect
Sensory Stimulation
Rotation and Completion
We then conducted a market survey to understand what fidgeting motion our target audience most relates to or finds most helpful. Results showed that a large majority people at 68% voted for a pushing motion similar to that of buttons.
04 Ideation
Moving forward, we sketched out and tested various ideas for fidget objects that performed the most voted "pushing" motion.
(from left to right)
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Flush buttons: buttons that provide satisfying sensory stimulation
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Fidget stickers: buttons that could be placed anywhere to allow any object to become a fidget toy
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Slide to Lock: a 2 in 1 engaging button movement
bucks demonstrating the ergonomics and practicality of each idea
05 Fidget Sticker
In the end, the fidget buttons were found to be the most appealing idea, and so we explored different sizes and shapes for them. We wanted to maximize their visual appeal and tactile feel while still keeping them subtle and unobtrusive.
06 Twiddle
