In its last feature of the year, Icsid spoke with Ilana Ben-Ari, Founder and Lead Designer at Twenty One Toys and the creative force behind the ‘Empathy toy’, a game that forces the players to listen and understand each other. Ben-Ari believes that not only are toys the new textbooks but that they can bridge the large communication and social gap between the visually impaired and the sighted.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for an empathy toy?
The Empathy Toy was my thesis project in University. Originally, it was designed in collaboration with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) as a navigational aid for visually impaired students to play with their sighted classmates. The intention was for them to develop the language of navigation, training more commonly known as Orientation and Mobility. The foundations of which are, “Where am I? Where I’m going? and how do I get there?” The toy was conceived to explore these three essential questions, while creating a common language in the hopes of developing empathy for one another.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your design background.
I studied industrial design at Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada). Before I was a furniture and lighting designer. I won the Canadian People’s choice award for the Bombay Sapphire Designer Glass Competition years ago.
Q: What is the objective of this toy?
The toy is made up of abstract wooden puzzle pieces with various textures, shapes and materials and they connect in hundreds of ways. One set of pieces is put into a particular pattern and given to one or more players. Players are then tasked to describe that shape so another player can recreate it with their identical set. The challenge is, they’re all blindfolded and left with only their words to describe these abstract unknown shapes. The game can run from 5-20 minutes and provides huge insights with how players react to frustration, creative language, teamwork and empathy. The real value comes from the debrief after each game where a discussion is facilitated between players and observers, connecting what happened in the game to what happens in real life.