Creation and Discussion of Design Criteria for Dynamic Tripod Operation Spoon in Toddlers

Abstract: Spoons are one of the more delicate tools that toddlers are exposed to at their early stages. As children grow older, their gripping posture and the way they handle it vary. If a fine motor skill such as dynamic tripod operation can be introduced when children are learning to use utensils, it will provide sufficient opportunities for practice and further help develop their ability to manipulate pencils later in life. However, current literature and related products only emphasize the static grip posture with no practical suggestion for the dynamic operation of fingers, making the design inconclusive. Hence, in this study, the spoon was divided into four determinants regarding its structure: spoon tip, spoon neck, spoon handle, and overall factor. The nine design criteria were established by compiling the spoon design factors and proposals for dynamic tripod assistance from the literature. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and expert interviews were used to analyze the significance of each structure and criterion. According to expert assessment, the degree of importance of the structure was in the order of spoon handle (50.01%), spoon tip (33.71%), overall factor (8.77%), and spoon neck (7.51%), with spoon handle and spoon tip being more important in terms of operation. As for the design factors, handle diameter (33.33%), handle cross section (21.95%), and spoon tip depth (14.73%) were the top three design criteria that were evaluated by the tree structure conversion, providing a scientific basis for industrial designers to develop related products.

Keywords: Dynamic tripod grip spoon, Ergonomic design, spoon design criteria

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1002007

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