Product Development
Role:
Designer | Product Designer | Ideation | Consumer Testing
As you can probably tell, developing products is a true passion of mine. I love to invent games, design puzzles and come up with innovative ways to help kids learn. Why? Because I was doing this when I myself was a child. I used to invent games to help me learn Maths and English and change the rules in boardgames to make them “more interesting”. Nothing has really changed, I’ve just got better at drawing.
Each Not Just Nibbles box was unique. It wasn’t just about the nibbles (hence the name), each box had games, crafts and hours of extra learning. Here are a few of my favourites products I developed:
—-POP-UP PIZZERIA KIT —-
Show me a child who DOESN’T love pizza. This was always going to be an easy sell, but weirdly, it wasn’t the pizza drawing them in; it was their own Pizzeria kids could pretend to own. I created branded NJN menus for them to add their dishes, ideas on how to set up their restaurant at home and of course, order forms so they could take their families order.
But that wasn’t all. I also designed a board game: the pizza builder. Designed to teach children about fractions as well as the difference between proteins, carbs and veggies.
Pizza builder game
This was a truly innovative game which I spent hours mastering. In a nutshell: the first one to build a full pizza, WINS! Sounds simple, right? Well let’s just say… those pesky proteins might be misbehaving and have other ideas on letting you win…
—-Tea party KIT—-
Tom’s Teas Collaboration
Is there a better collaboration between two brands? A children’s fruit tea brand and a children’s healthy cooking kit. I came up with the idea to reach out to Tom’s Teas to pitch a co-branded tea party kit. I designed the recipes (brownies, and scones) gave sandwich ideas which paired well with the delicious fruit tea, and provided craft ideas like ‘brownie decorations’ to colour and tools to make their own hats — obviously to make it the full authentic party experience.
—-Carnival KIT—-
Probably one of the most immersive kits I created across the entire product range. As you would expect, there were carnival games: tin can alley, target bowls and roller golf; made with the leftover cans from their recipes and utilising the Not Just Nibbles box as the target. There were carnival tickets to win (just like from the arcades) and a sheet to keep score. And of course, there were recipes — three! Homemade veggie hotdogs (including a homemade bun recipe), banana lollies and a fruit mocktail — just like at the carnival. This was a huge hit and became my second best seller!
Then… there’s the Best seller!
—-Rainbow pasta—-
Inspired by children making rainbows up and down the country during lockdown, I had the idea to create a rainbow pasta kit; all made with healthy ingredients of course, no colourings were used in the making. I couldn’t make these kits fast enough, they were selling like hot cakes. They won numerous awards, were listed on notonthehighstreet as their bestseller during Christmas and were featured throughout numerous publications as the “best cooking kit for kids”. As with all my kits, there were craft activities and a food chart to encourage them to eat a few more veggies.
Food chart and stickers
Designed to encourage kids to eat more vegetables, I designed a 3 day food chart and branded stickers. Parents would regularly message to tell me how much the kids loved to use it!
—-RAINBOW DUMPLINGS—-
The second rainbow box I created was: Rainbow Dumplings. Complete with their own chopsticks and a game to help practice using them. This was a great kit made for older children 8+.
