Beware of Science! It May Cause Boring Toys.

As a small child I loved to play with my Fisher Price “Puzzle Ball.” You may or not be familiar with this toy; the goal is to fit the various yellow pieces into their corresponding holes. When this task is complete you pull open the ball from either end, and the pieces fall out so you can start over. What an ingeniously simple concept! This seemingly straightforward activity kept me occupied for hours. 

 

When thinking about the design of the toys that I grew up with, I was reminded of the newer toys that have been created for babies.  These days the only colors you see in toys for infants are black white and red. Scientists say this is because children respond the most to the extreme contrast. From a design standpoint this presents and interesting question: are we depriving our youngsters of the full experience of color?

When I was growing up children’s toys were primarily blue, red and yellow (Ha! get it? “primarily”) however more recently I have seen an overwhelming majority of toys for very young children composed of solely black and white, sometimes with the addition of red a color scheme that I personally find quite displeasing and aggravating to my senses. I remember loving color and I think that the addition of these colors to toys creates an additional teaching tool for parents.

"Piper the panda" from geniusbabies.com

While designing children’s toys seems like a relatively easy task there is more involved than may at first meet the eye. Successful toy design takes into consideration a broad spectrum of factors. Children’s toys need to be entertaining while at the same time facilitating learning, brain development and hand/eye coordination. Taking color out of the equation, severely limits creative potential and in my opinion, the end result is ugly toys in the wrong colors.

My toy taught me shape recognition, counting, hand/eye coordination and is one possible explanation for my interest in design today. From my experience, colorful toys have not caused any delay or detriment in development and cognition. People have been learning and playing with colorful toys or for centuries with no ill effects.

I am generally skeptical of new child rearing techniques; I turned out just fine without them as did generations of people who came before me. Who’s to know, in another ten years there may be new studies showing that exposing children to limited colors causes color blindness or some other issue. I for one, pledge to not buy ugly toys for my children.