BigBox Play

Robust cardboard fort system.

With screen time eclipsing traditional play, kids have lost a key developmental activity: fort‑building. RKS partnered to design a tactile, intuitive system that not only facilitates creative physical play but bridges into storytelling and digital extensions.

Elevate creative play in a digital age

Client

Markets

What We Did

RKS conducted classroom and home ethnographies, uncovering the value of hands‑on construction in creative development. Using Psycho‑Aesthetics®, BigBox was positioned in the “artistic–enriched” quadrant—balancing simplicity with immersive empowerment.

Research Insights & Discovery

KEY OUTPUTS

User Personas

Psycho-Aesthetics® 2.0 Map

Benchmarking

Opportunity Areas & Design Criteria

How We Used Psycho-Aesthetics™ to Identify Unique Opportunities in the Project.

Using our proprietary Psycho-Aesthetics® 2.0 framework, we conducted in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation in diverse lab settings. We identified key emotional and usability pain points — such as intimidation with complex interfaces, workspace clutter, and trust in precision. These insights guided both the form and interface strategy, ensuring approachability and confidence in operation.

The goal was to supplement children’s tablet and video game time with a system that empowered them to build their own creative play spaces utilizing their imagination. In conjunction with this low-tech offering the RKS team worked with the clients to develop and define a strategy for storytelling and digital extensions that would expand the system across physical and digital offerings to provide education and learning tools for children. Whether they were building rocket ships, castles, or their own creative spaces Big Box Play enabled children to create their own micro-universes. Big Box Play is timely and nostalgic, cutting-edge and old-fashioned, original and familiar all at the same time.

Industrial Design Concept Development

KEY OUTPUTS

Form Factor Concepts

CMF Strategy

Refined Industrial Design Language

RKS worked closely with Hamilton’s engineering team to refine and validate the internal architecture of the Microlab Prep, ensuring it met performance, manufacturability, and regulatory standards. We conducted rigorous evaluations of part tolerances, thermal behavior, airflow, and user safety across multiple prototypes. Our engineering validation process focused on real-world reliability, longevity, and maintaining the compact footprint required by lab environments. This phase ensured that the final design not only looked polished, but was also fully functional, production-ready, and aligned with lab-grade precision.

Engineering Validation

KEY OUTPUTS

Engineering Evaluation Prototypes

Tolerance Analysis & DFM Refinements

Validation Reports

In addition to this low-tech offering, RKS worked closely with our clients to develop a comprehensive strategy that incorporated storytelling and digital extensions, expanding the Big Box Play system into a versatile platform that offers educational and learning tools for children. Whether constructing rocket ships, castles, or their own micro-universes, Big Box Play enables children to bring their imagination to life. It seamlessly combines timeliness and nostalgia, cutting-edge innovation and old-fashioned fun, originality and familiarity.

Branding Design

KEY OUTPUTS

Logo, iconography, and illustrative storytelling motifs

Packaging designs emphasizing system versatility and safe play

Messaging strategy to extend into digital learning pathways

BigBox Play showcases RKS Design’s ability to craft heart-led, systems-focused products that blend tactile joy with structural ingenuity. Grounded in emotional and educational insight, the system reinvents fort-building for a new generation—hugely empowering kids and inspiring imaginative exploration in a low-tech, high-impact package.

Key Outcomes and Results

Key Accomplishments

Supported by university research, BigBox Play boosts creativity, problem-solving, and experiential learning.

Children and caregivers praised its blend of nostalgia and novelty—combining physical play with digital possibilities.

Designed as a platform with physical modules and storytelling extensions, enabling future educational app integrations.

Strategy

Design

Development

BigBox Play

Elevate creative play in a digital age

Client

Markets

What We Did

Research Insights & Discovery

KEY OUTPUTS

Industrial Design Concept Development

KEY OUTPUTS

Engineering Validation

KEY OUTPUTS

Branding Design

KEY OUTPUTS

Key Outcomes and Results

Key Accomplishments

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