School Tablet Design Inspired by "Discoveries" Made Through Observation in the Field (Part 2)
ARROWS Tab Q5 Series

The aspect the designers considered most important in a school tablet that aimed for "not disrupting the lesson" was the improvement of the tablet's solidness and its ease of use in the classroom. In Part 2, Kohei Nakajima describes what discoveries the designers made during their observations in schools and how they realized the concept of "not disrupting the lesson," as well as the "sangen-shugi" that lies at the heart of his design style.

• (Note)
  This is the second part of a two-part article. Click here for the first part. >

Takeaways from Part 2

• Achieving "not disrupting the lesson" with solidness and function
• Sangen-shugi—genba, genbutsu, and genjitsu—lies at the heart of design.
• Future product designers will need the perspectives of curator (the role of gathering, sorting, and editing information to give it meaning) and producer.

As he described in Part 1, the concept that Nakajima recalls that they placed most value on in the product design of the ARROWS Tab Q5 Series (hereinafter referred to as "Q5 Series") was "not disrupting the lesson." So, how did he achieve this concept in the course of actually designing the product?

Nakajima explained the features of the design. "We adopted a new design concept of 'School Design 360°,' which achieved a space-saving design that would fit on elementary schoolchildren's small desks and that would be less slippery to hold and harder to drop.

Specifically, we covered the four corners of the tablet with a 'School Grip' and used a less slippery material for the back, thus achieving our goal of making the tablet less slippery to hold and harder to break even if dropped."

They also emphasized the fact that the way tablet devices are being used in schools is completely different from what they envisaged, which they discovered during their observations in the field. In schools, tablet devices are being used not only for Japanese and math lessons, but also for science and art classes. "In science experiments, tablets were being left near the taps, and in art classes, they were getting wet from water being splashed on them when the children washed their paintbrushes." Nakajima described how they incorporated these discoveries from their on-site observations. "In schools, when a tablet breaks down, it will disrupt the lesson, so we made them more robust by adding waterproof (including chlorinated water) and dustproof features."

Nakajima further explains the path his team had to take to incorporate these various new features into the design. "Before asking the relevant people in schools, who will be the users of the product, to assess our design, we made sure to gather objective data and obtain the understanding of the relevant departments in the company. For example, for CMF (color, material, and finish), instead of merely a sensory evaluation of 'less slippery to hold,' we used measurement devices to quantify how much the friction coefficient had improved compared to previous models as a way of clarifying performance, and we also considered the balance with scratch resistance and resistance to finger marks."

Meanwhile, many other features that aim for students' "ease of use" have also been incorporated into the Q5 Series. One of those is the Pencil-Pen, which has the same hexagonal cross section as a pencil to make it easier for children to use the correct "three-point support" pencil grip and a felt tip. The designers asked sales and planning division staff who have children to test these pens to see what shapes and materials felt close to writing with a real pencil.

Nakajima comments, "With the Q5 Series, we emphasized 'solidness' so as not to disrupt the lesson and 'functionality' that would feel easy to use, no matter what the kind of situation it was being used in. Also, to ensure we could offer the product at a price to meet the budgets of local governments and schools, we prioritized 'dependability' over luxury for schools' peace of mind, such as selecting a bumpy texture that will keep looking good even without having to apply costly coatings."

Sangen-shugi always at the heart of product design