The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2024
Babyshop hid a colour-blindness test inside a normal pencil set for children.
A double-sided coloured pencil set co-designed with Moorfields lets parents spot colour blindness in kids during ordinary classroom play, with no clinic visit.
Babyshop · Moorfields Eye Hospital · Publicis Middle East
the move
Babyshop, the leading child and baby retailer in the Middle East, found the category's value eroding and wanted to connect with parents by living its purpose of giving every child the best start.
Colour blindness is an unspoken condition in the region, and with one colour-blind child in every classroom it was going largely undetected. Diagnosis normally requires a clinical eye exam that parents and children avoid.
Co-created with Moorfields Eye Hospital, ColourCheck gave a standard box of pencils a second purpose: one side is the normal colour spectrum, the other shows the world as a colour-blind child sees it. A parent or teacher compares the child's drawing with the packaging reference and can spot a deficiency during ordinary play.
After 30,000 sets were placed in schools and clinics, the tool had detected colour blindness in 14 children, and it won a D&AD Wood Pencil, a London International Award and the Design Grand Prix at the PHNX Awards.
why it works
- The test hides inside an object children already use, so nothing about it feels clinical or frightening.
- Putting the test in schools and clinics reaches children before a problem becomes a learning or safety issue.
- The retailer turned a declining product category into a genuine service, rebuilding trust with parents.
- It solves a real gap in the region by making a medical screen part of everyday life.
what transfers
Move a health screen out of the clinic by hiding it in an object people already use. When the test looks like play, children take it without fear and parents get an answer sooner.
what came after
ColourCheck placed 30,000 pencil sets into schools and clinics in the region and had detected colour blindness in 14 children at the time of the case. It was recognised with a D&AD Wood Pencil, a London International Award, a Clio and the Design Grand Prix at the PHNX Awards, and it became a model for embedding a diagnostic in a product.
references
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