An Education Package to Help Migrant Kids
Develop Good Manners in Kindergarten

cooperate with

Rainbover

An Education Package to Help Migrant Kids
Develop Habits in Kindergarten

Cooperate with Yang Design Company & United Way
4 weeks Research + 3 weeks Design&Prototype | 6 people

Can We Ensure
A Brighter Future For The Children Of
The Ever-Rising Migrant People?

Migrant children are experiencing poor early education

In Shanghai, migrant workers account for as much as 40% of the workforce. Children of migrant workers often have limited access to quality education. Quality of schools various greatly from one neighborhood to the next. Also, there is not enough classroom space for all kids needing a kindergarten education.

We work with real stakeholders to improve these kindergarten.

This is a school project but kids, teachers, staff and NGO workers were involved in the process. After the research stage, we worked together to prototype and host testing workshops to define a better kindergarten experience for migrant children.

Migrant children are experiencing poor early education

We work with real stakeholders to improve these kindergarten.

Kids, teachers, staff and NGO workers were involved in the process. After the research stage, we worked together to prototype and host testing workshops to define a better kindergarten experience for migrant children.

Get a deeper understanding of the issues
faced by migrant children (aged 3-6),
teachers and families.

We spent three days doing field research in 2 migrant kindergartens.
Knowing that children are uncommon interviewees,
we tried to use different methods to understand their situation.
And also, we interviewed with teachers and kindergarten managers.

Communicate with kids through playing together

Rorschach inkblot test with kids

Interview the whole family

Observe with Many hided cameras and videos

Communicate with kids through playing together

Rorschach inkblot test with kids

Interview the whole family

Observer with Many hided cameras and videos

clear our findings with tools that
describe process and touch points of
the current education service.

tools we use including persona, shadowing,
observation, interview, focus group

Habit and discipline of washing hands is the
core demands for both kids and teachers.

Kids clean hands everytime before and after
having meals and going to restroom accompanied by teachers.
They need security, orderliness and cleanliness.
But now they are chaos in queue and don't wash hands seriously
which can be dangerous for both falling down and Bacterial infections.

How might we develop school habits
to migrant children age 3 to 6？

We’ve discovered there are 3 way
might be able to tackle the problem

Creating a mechanism for teachers to easy manage

Keeping the sustainability

Prototype to measure impact
(not just effectiveness)

Design for teachers, not children
Teachers working in migrant kindergartens are fundamentally different from others. Not only are they young and often lacking adequate certifications, they also have to work in under-equipped facilities and have minimal career prospects as the government has yet to recognize their status. As a result, we are designing for teachers who often feel frustrated, hopeless and overworked.

Keep cost low and replicability high
Without subsidies, migrant kindergartens can hardly afford expensive equipment and even if we design a low-cost tool, say mostly based on paper, how long is it going to last in the hands of the children? Can it be easily reprinted and rebuilt? Whatever we design needs to be either very durable, or easy to reproduce after the original prototype is long gone.

Donors are more than happy to give their money to NGOs not without expecting a return. They don't expect a profit, but they expect to see the impact. This logic needs to be applied to the design of concepts and, most importantly, to their validation. Testing if our idea works is essential but does it make a significant impact? If it doesn't, no donor would ever finance it, making it useless for NGOs. When testing our idea, save some time to quantify impact, measure the baseline and see whether idea brought some measurable change.

Co-design with teacher,
staff and workers from NGO.

/h4>

Created a kit containing models of school bathroom and playground areas that we used as we co-design with teachers and educators from NGOs. In addition to creating detail concepts, we videoed the process to analyze the features of their solutions and understand teachers’ needs, aspirations and subconscious desires to find out the right idea.

Created a kit containing models of school bathroom and playground areas that we used as we co-design with teachers and educators from NGOs. In addition to creating detail concepts, we videoed the process to analyze the features of their solutions and understand teachers’ needs, aspirations and subconscious desires to find out the right idea.

We Ceate the “Rainbover”
System including story, space, songs and VI

According to the physical and mental development characteristics of children, and guide children internalize the rules of interpersonal communication and learning life and self-conscious habit formation, and ensure the kindergarten activities orderly.
Colorful Rainbow graphics and relating actions guide children to establish a good habit of lining up to wash their hands.

Step1.

Design the teaching equipment to help teacher

We created a picture book based on real life in kindergarten. The main purpose is to explain and teach the rules of habits and discipline, especially queuing and washing hands. We also made a simple guide for this storybook as teaching tools that are as effortless for teachers to understand and use as they are for the children.

Step2.

Arranger slogans and song to help children memory

Knowing that teachers shout slogans when they guide kids, we design the songs with simple rhythms and words to help strengthen memory and develop discipline.Visual Identity system among the whole kindergarten acts as the subtle influence as well.

Step3.

Space environment graphics

Corresponding to the storybook, we remodeled the real space with wallpaper and groundpaper which are low in price and can be recycled. The main graphic is five colors, like a Rainbow, to guide the young children queuing. As a clear color instructions, it’s also easier for teachers to give orders to manage 30 children at the same time.There are also icons of behavioral norms that explain how to properly wash hands on the wall above the sink.This strengthens the understanding of rules together with the storybook and the physical space.

Step4.

feedback mechanism

We also include some feedback mechanism to strengthen the rules of memory, such as creating a song. Through the preparation of children's songs, the Rainbow elements and behavioral norms will combine, children's songs help teachers better guide children.

We prototype our design with low price material
Through test, Rainbover did
help children to improve their manners

In the tests workshops, we divide the same aged kids into 4 groups under different situations in order to find out how the storybook and spatial Rainbow graphic impact kids. The group where kids learned the story before entering the remodeled room with spatial graphic behavior much better than others. Reward stickers increased the children’s enthusiasm to line up and wash their hands to a large extent.

This program also has high reproducibility and strong characteristics. No matter in the bathroom, stairs, playground, canteen or other space available, a colorful visual environment, can be applied to cultivate good behavior. A non-slip, water-resistant patch can reduce the cost and reduce potential safety hazard.

Exhibition @
YANG Design Museum & Tongji Design Week 2017

The project was planned to be realized in Shanghai area
but the supporter: an NGO gave up due to the actual influence is not as great as them expected
We didn't gave up, and tried to participate in the exhibition
to present the problems faced by migrant kids and publicize project Rainbover.

Rainbover

Can We EnsureA Brighter Future For The Children OfThe Ever-Rising Migrant People?

Migrant children are experiencing poor early education

We work with real stakeholders to improve these kindergarten.

Migrant children are experiencing poor early education

We work with real stakeholders to improve these kindergarten.

Get a deeper understanding of the issues faced by migrant children (aged 3-6), teachers and families.

Communicate with kids through playing together

Rorschach inkblot test with kids

Interview the whole family

Observe with Many hided cameras and videos

Communicate with kids through playing together

Rorschach inkblot test with kids

Interview the whole family

Observer with Many hided cameras and videos

clear our findings with tools that describe process and touch points of the current education service.

Habit and discipline of washing hands is the core demands for both kids and teachers.

How might we develop school habits to migrant children age 3 to 6？

Creating a mechanism for teachers to easy manage

Keeping the sustainability

Prototype to measure impact (not just effectiveness)

Co-design with teacher, staff and workers from NGO.

We Ceate the “Rainbover” System including story, space, songs and VI

Design the teaching equipment to help teacher

Arranger slogans and song to help children memory

Space environment graphics

feedback mechanism

We prototype our design with low price material Through test, Rainbover did help children to improve their manners

Exhibition @YANG Design Museum & Tongji Design Week 2017

Can We Ensure
A Brighter Future For The Children Of
The Ever-Rising Migrant People?

Get a deeper understanding of the issues
faced by migrant children (aged 3-6),
teachers and families.

clear our findings with tools that
describe process and touch points of
the current education service.

Habit and discipline of washing hands is the
core demands for both kids and teachers.

How might we develop school habits
to migrant children age 3 to 6？

Prototype to measure impact
(not just effectiveness)

Co-design with teacher,
staff and workers from NGO.

We Ceate the “Rainbover”
System including story, space, songs and VI

We prototype our design with low price material
Through test, Rainbover did
help children to improve their manners

Exhibition @
YANG Design Museum & Tongji Design Week 2017