Hackaball was a programmable toy for kids, developed at Made by Many. The challenge was taking something complex (programming logic) and making it feel playful and accessible for 6 to 8 year olds, while building a brand that could carry a crowdfunding campaign.

I paired with another designer to run co-design sessions with children, developing the brand and product experience from research up. Designing for an audience that can’t easily articulate what they want or why they want it changes how you work: you watch more than you ask, you prototype faster and you trust what happens in the room over what gets said about it afterwards. The sessions shaped everything from the visual language to the interaction model.

The wider team included product designers, sound designers and engineers. Lighting, sound, weight, texture: every physical property of the ball carried meaning for a child holding it and every decision needed to work together. The brand needed to do the same thing at a different scale, by translating a complex technical concept into something a parent would back on Kickstarter and a child would want to play with.

It launched via crowdfunding and was named one of TIME’s 25 Best Inventions of 2015. It was also a finalist at the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards the following year.