Our goal was to make a design that fit with the goals and guidelines of the Montessori school system. We needed to design a piece of furniture that would encompass their ideals. Our group decided that we wanted to help the students to learn about their motor skills. The balance aspect of our design would help the students to be able to learn how to use their bodies to balance, but in a safe way. Another goal we had was that we wanted our design to have dual functions. The Montessori school likes furniture that is able to be easily moved around the classroom. Also, the students need to be able to move or change the furniture as need be, without the help of the teacher. Lastly, we decided that we wanted to aim our design towards the younger age group. We decided on the 3 to 6 year olds because those are the students who need to learn about their motor skills. 

Once figuring out our guiding principles we started looking at precedents. We knew we wanted to have an aspect of balance incorporated so we started looking at a "u" like shape. There were a few products out that are similar to what we were thinking, but nothing exactly like we had in mind. These precedents gave us a nice starting point and then we started to design our own ideas. 

Our first idea was just a simple half-circle curve. We thought its ergonomic shape would benefit the design, and the rocking motion could help develop motor skills. After the cardboard version of this, we made one with the laser cutter but stacking semi circles one on top of the other. This prototype looked better and was sturdier, but the curve was too sharp and we immediately recognized that it would be extremely uncomfortable.

Our next two prototypes were similar to each other. Their purpose was to decrease the weight of the chair so a small child could handle it easily. We changed the design to have ribs and spaces so there was significantly less material. One design had vertical ribs and one had horizontal ribs. Eventually we decided to choose the ribs going the long way for comfort.

Our next few prototypes played with the shape of the chair. They were oriented toward helping young children learn about balance and movement, but they didn't balance and were not practical.

Finally we decided to focus on the nesting aspect of it. We changed the inside curve of the chair to be the same as the outside curve, allowing multiple chairs to fit inside each other. This turned out to be our final design. We created a half scale model out of cardboard, we did this so that we made sure that all of our measurements were correct before be cut it out of wood. 

On the last day we created our full scale model. Ideally there would be a cushion on top, which we represented with a piece of black fabric. The cushion will make the chair more comfortable and make it safe for children to play, so that they will not get their hands stuck.