Qube is a set of puzzle blocks and is friendly to play for visually impaired kids.

Xiaojie Gu



The blocks are consist of 7 different pieces made with 7 different material, including four kinds of fabric, metal, wood, plastic. Each of the blocks will be in a unique shape, thus easier for blind kids to feel, touch, recognize, and move. Also, the material will help them in building their blocks as well. The goal is to train the space perception of blind kids and to teach them to tell different materials.

However, during my design process, I decided to make Qube available for normal kids as well. I added braille on each block so that normal kids can learn and build more empathy with blind kids. To play with Qube, there should be at least two normal kids and two sets of blocks. One covers his/her eyes with the eye mask and create different figures with the blocks. The other, also wearing the mask, will try to mimic the shape with the help of material and braille.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
Toy Design and Prototyping