Freddie the Frantic Frog speeds to market
A
Cambridge Design Partnership product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Mar 23, 2005
When game company Upstarts! decided it wanted to debut an electronic toy that was still at concept stage at a major UK toy fair and with only a two month widow before the show, it called in CDP.
When game company Upstarts! decided it wanted to debut an electronic toy that was still at concept stage at a major UK toy fair and with only a two month widow before the show, it called in product design engineer Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) to help create a "looks like, works like" prototype of Freddie the Frantic Frog to show toy buyers.
Upstarts! selected CDP not least because the company has a track record in product development in the medical, consumer and industrial arena, but also CDP has the ability to field an in-house team of industrial designers and mechanical and electronics engineers.
Robin Freebairn, Project Leader at CDP says: "Within a couple of days of receiving the go ahead everyone involved in the project met at Upstarts! for an intensive brainstorm session".
"We already had ideas, as did Upstarts!, and we pooled them all".
"We refined some, rejected others and concluded with a set of achievable features that met the timescale, budget and sensory excitement that Freddie required".
"We also had to factor in the age profile of the user along with size, weight at complexity of game play".
Two "must haves" that emerged from the brainstorm sessions were that Freddie should have extended game play with increasing levels of complexity and that there should be an array of stimulating noises and sound effects to accompany the flashing light displays.
Nigel Dye, Product Development Director at Upstarts! says: "Outsourcing an array of vital elements to a third party might at first glance seem risky".
"However those risks can be managed to the point where they become negligible".
"We kept the brief tight and were precise about our requirements".
As a result of the working relationship developed between Upstarts! and CDP, two fully formed prototypes were created in time for the toy fair that attracted the attention of major buyers.
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