Designer

An Automatic and Intuitive Gas-Spring Transformation System

Leapfrog automatically transforms according to the child’s intention to sit, stand and walk - relieving parents from the chore of repeatedly transfering the child between resting stool and walker. Less weary caregivers = more frequent practice for the child.

Automatic lift assistance - initiated by the child and not requiring caregiver intervention - affords a more positive form of rehabilitation where the child gets to ‘try to do it himself ’ instead of being forced into positions.

When sitting, the child’s weight folds the walker into chair mode; When trying to stand, reduced pressure on the seat allows the gas spring to extend, transforming into walker mode.

The gas spring raises the seating surface, and is calibrated to provides the right amount of lift to assist the child’s bottom past the critical mid-point of standing. This force is reduced as the child develops greater control and strength.

It was a major challenge to simultaneously incorporate size adjustments, flat folding and transformation. Eventually an elegant solution was found, accomodating growth for 11/2 - 5 year-old children.

Gathering insights in this specialized field of medical practice required going deep into literature, studying existing devices, interacting with patients, and consulting with therapy and equipment specialists. Most of the useful observations came from hands on participation in rehab sessions.

Various tools were used in the process to organize research findings into usable information. Here, a user-centric map was used to record the observations, gain a holistic view of the problem, and to identify related factors. This helps to ensure more bases are covered and key opportunities are not missed. The map here helped to identify that beyond the patient’s obvious physical needs, his emotional needs and the secondary user (caregiver) are also crucial factors to consider for the design.

Developing Key Strategies for Leapfrog

 

New findings in physical therapy emphasize the importance of developing the patient’s sense of independence and confidence. Active assistance, where the child is encouraged to ‘try-it-himself’ while being partially supported, is preferred. Conventional equipment approach the child’s condition like a mechanical problem that needs to be fixed, these devices lock them into passive positions, leaving no room for a sense of participation and achievement.

I find myself agreeing with the new approach because it grows the child as a whole person, so this became a key factor in my brief - to support the user’s positive emotional development alongside physical rehabilitation. In the same vein, I added another criteria - I wanted the walker to be of minimal hindrance to communication and interaction with friends and family.

The research was further fleshed-out with an in-depth study of existing products on the market - analysing their price, positioning and functionality. ‘Intensive rehabilitation’ type devices seemed plentiful, whereas a device which is more companion-like, with a friendliness and convenience geared towards daily usage at home, appears be more of an unmet need.

This resonated with the earlier insights calling for a product that is more like an assistive companion than a medical tool, and one that is designed with sensitivity to the emotional development of the child.

In terms of functionality, it became clear that a combination stander with gait-trainer device could be a good niche to pursue because there were relatively fewer offerings - most of which did not seem to be very competitive.

The insights and analyses provided the basis to draw up the detailed design brief to guide the development process. This included a few primary aims and secondary criteria, as well as the definition for the appropriate product personality/mood.

The kart idea showcases a different take on the problem - Although it only caters for standing up (no gait-training feature), it addresses issues of motivation and community interaction through games, while still providing limb-strength training. I believe in an ideation process which starts with broad options because new ways of looking at the problem opens up possibilities to find interesting solutions that might otherwise have been missed by tackling the problem head-on.

Promising ideas were developed further into 3 concept directions: The proposals were fleshed out with more realistic ergonomic, usage scenarios, construction layout and preliminary visual language.

This was the chosen concept direction for Leapfrog

The selected concept was taken further and exploration was broadened again. I tried a more sporty style to escape the notion of disability. The structures were also thinned down from the early concept to reduce the cage-like feeling. However it still had a ‘technical/engineering’ aesthetic, and lifting the child from the underarms instead of the backside was not ideal.

While trying to solve the mechanical requirements, I was looking for the appropriate first-read impression, and the overall visual personality of the walker. These sketches started to define the proportional balance, stance, and design language of Leapfrog.

I figured out a way to eliminate the bottom structural beam. The walker lost its technical aesthetic, and became less cage-like. It looked a lot of lighter and more agile. This also enabled an elegant folding solution. I decided that this was good.

The problem quickly became obvious - the seat did not fold as envisioned on sketches, and the walker was therefore unable to transform. It required entirely rethinking the way the seat compresses, and many rounds of prototype modification to finally get it to work - and for the mechanical principle to be refined to a good level of simplicity and clarity.

The resultant simple and intuitive sit-to-stand transformation, and convenient single-action folding principle

User-testing was carried out with the help of a paraplegic child volunteer at the Singapore Cerebral Palsy Centre. The comparative study of the fluidity of the standing up process, between Leapfrog and the paraplegic child’s own set of crutches, reveals Leapfrog’s smoother and more effortless system, it also proved itself as an adequate walking support. At this stage, Leapfrog was awarded Grand Winner of the prestigious Braunprize in Germany, 2007. The research is on-going to further improve the system and is currently funded by the National University of Singapore for further engineering development towards production.

With crutches, there was a need to initiate standing by forcefully swinging his body forward to gain momentum. There was also a tendency for the child to repeatedly fall back onto the chair during mid-stand; With Leapfrog, such ‘fall back’ cases did not occur, and the automatic transformation/standing function was significantly gentler, smoother and faster.