The design and development team behind our new ‘Story Building Box’ take a moment to reflect on the journey of the box, from initial conception to 100 Story Building’s very first product.

It all started with an idea to package up the magic that 100 Story Building offers into a non-face-to-face product. So we asked ourselves - ‘how can we distil the essence of 100 Story Building into something that is both a useful tool for parents as well as something fun for children to explore and enjoy at home?’

The answer - The Story Building Box; an activity box that includes a book, resources to help create, share and display creative work of children and embodies the principles of 100 Story Building teaching and workshops.

One of the principles of 100 Story Building is ‘Low floor, High ceiling’ - which basically means that something is easily accessible for a young person to begin, there are no barriers and there is no limit to the creativity they can explore. You will see this principle applied in our final box; like the set of blank cards in Activity A. Through simple instructions to draw animals on the cards, children create their own tool for story making and extend their creativity, these card can be used again and again in different ways.

At 100 Story Building, we believe that drawing out creative ideas helps children show how they are envisioning the story. In fact, we often draw out stories ourselves before penning them!

Children often have a hard time describing their creative thoughts in words. Using imagery helps them express more about what they’re thinking, which leads to a more detailed story. This was something we explored in the activity design and conception of the box. Most of the activities have a drawing component, as a way to generate creative ideas.

After the conceptual design and values of the box were decided, we started combining with possible themes and got to work building prototypes.

Drumstick

Once we had an idea of how our final box would work and what it would include we mocked up a super-quick model to see how it could look, feel, and play like in real life. Our physical concept was a box with QR codes that lead to instructional videos and uniquely sized and shaped pieces of paper for completing each creative activity.

It wasn’t very pretty (in fact it was an ice-cream box!) but it helped us visualise the box and how the different elements would need to be visually distinct.

Mock-up

This first prototype turned the ideas into functional activities, drawing on concepts from our face-to-face work and bringing that same experience to an individual participant. The box directed to mostly video content that participants could follow along, but in the end we really wanted the activities to be child-led and unplugged, and we’re all a little over video instructionals, anyway!

Origami

Our next prototype aimed to be video-free, only paper. We thought some parents might prefer a little less screen time! Working exclusively with paper led immediately to origami and uses of paper to create unique fun for the young writers. The idea of folding and using the paper in interesting ways has stuck with us and will likely be a part of every box we make!

A Box

With the box now free to be more pretty, instead of covered with QR codes, we wanted to stretch the limits of what the box could be and do. We “modified” the box so it would dramatically bloom when the lid came off, revealing special instructions, secrets for the user and more information. It was at this stage, that we really learnt how to make a box, and transform what is often just a shell for fun, into a fun and creative part of the experience.

During the development we sought feedback from parents connected to our programs and workshops at different stages. Parent testing was a really crucial step in the development, as parents will ultimately be deciding whether the box is something they see value in. We appreciated the robust responses and support of the initial prototypes we received.

It was very important to us that a final iteration of the box was put through its paces by young writers! We held a testing day and as each young writer was presented with the box and worked through the activities, we were keeping an eye out for where things weren’t clear, weren’t working, or just weren’t quite fun enough. All of the thoughts and feedback from the young testers was captured and went into editing, playing with the text and the layout, and refining the instructions for the final box. After the kid-testing we knew we were onto a winner!

“It took six months, but we have managed to pack the experience and principles of a 100 Story Building workshop into a box!”

100 Story Building has years of experience designing playful and inspiring story making activities and experiences for children and young people. Bottling that up into our first product has been a real journey and we are so proud of what we have been able to create!

You can be part of the journey of our first ever box: DREAMS by purchasing it for the young writer in your life via our online shop. Let us know what you think, as we are continually cultivating and refining ready to create the next one…

Written by Colin Craig (Program Coordinator and Box Developer), Ben McKenzie (Creative Facilitator and Box Activity Designer) and Ella Bucovaz (Marketing Manager and Box Graphic Design)

Images by Matto Lucas Photography