omar-alqasem profile photo

Omar Alqasem

Industrial Design and Technology (BA Hons)

With a diverse background, I love getting to understand people's stories and bring meaningful, deliverable and original solutions to their problems. Get in touch if you enjoy my work!

Major Project: Communicube

The Communicube is a developmental toy designed for young children suffering from trauma in areas of conflict. The toy encourages children to build on their communication skills, whilst providing a space for sensory relief. Ultimately, the toy is open-ended. A child could use it in solitary, with others, as an instrument or as a game; whatever the child finds comfort in.

Communication and Creativity

The Communicube is quite complex in it’s form for a 3 year old. It gives them panels to investigate, questions to ask and provides an opening for communication between two children, both as curious as the other as to what the cube can do.

The toy is designed in an open-ended manner, allowing kids to use the cube as a sensory relief tool, a game to play with others or as a building block in their imaginary world.

Sensory Relief

Modular faces allow a child, along with a carer, to create the cube in a way which best suits their needs. Softly changing lights can calm a child, and calming audio samples from nature help a child imagine a change of scene. The toy provides auditory, tactile and visual relief.

Trauma-Specific Development

Research interviews with childhood trauma psychiatrists, childhood trauma charities operating in areas of conflict and toy designers led me to establish some key elements my toy should address. These would encourage healthy child development whilst addressing key trauma-specific factors that play a major role in these children’s lives.

These criteria are: sensory relief, promoting conversation, promoting creative thinking, control over symptoms, and providing a sense of ownership and control.

Ownership and Control

A lot of these kids sadly don’t have much to their name. The modular attachment system allows a child to tailor their experience with the toy, whether they prefer silicone textures, fur pads or light-up panels. This builds a sense of ownership, and gives them something they can truly say is theirs, providing them with a sense of responsibility and control.

More Projects

AirSense+

An air purifier concept designed for inner city schools in the UK. The design was submitted for Loughborough Live Projects; a 10-day design sprint. My work was commended for it’s attention to DFM detailing and achieved 3rd Place.

Eco-U

A UX/UI design task, making domestic energy reduction a more engaging, enriching and reassuring experience for stressed university students. With the inclusion of an AI/Smart meter companion, students are given tailored suggestions on how to build energy saving habits, with a community page where others in similar positions can share what’s helped them.

Next - Charlie Andrew →