Kids Are the Toy Experts at Fisher-Price's Play Lab

There's a lot of behind-the-scenes research and development that goes on before an idea ends up as a toy on the store shelves — a process that takes about 12 to 24 months, depending on the complexity of the toy.

Each toy begins with brainstorming and ethnographic research before moving on to concept drawings. Children are brought in to test the toys starting from the prototype phase.Fisher-Price's teamof early childhood development experts, designers and engineers then observe as the kids play, uncovering critical details like how big should that dinosaur's mouth be, what shade of purple is more eye-catching and what sounds keep tiny fingers pressing the keys.

The team also considers details such as whether the buttons intuitive, is the handle easy for little hands to grasp, is the pace of the music just right and so on.

At each milestone along the way, the concept or prototype toy is revisited and evaluated by Play Lab experts. "We might be showing parents some concepts to get their feedback, or we might be doing some competitive testing to springboard to the next thing," Lohiser says. "We watch the [children's] play patterns and as we observe them and learn what they're liking, we iterate on that design and then we test it again."

A single item could be tested multiple times in the Play Lab, "and we watch it every step of the way," she adds.

For example,Meditation Mouse, one of Fisher-Price's newer toys, was initially designed to help children ages 2 to 5 unwind at bedtime. Researchers noted that families used the toy with their toddlers during the day as well for calming meditation and mindfulness activities. So, before Meditation Mouse made it to store shelves, the length, cadence and speed of its exercises were adjusted to optimize it for both day and night use.

"I cannot think of a time in my 13 years [at Fisher-Price] that the first model or prototype of a product was put in front of a child and something wasn't changed," Lohiser says. "We're constantly learning from the children."

The Play Lab has come a long way since Herman Fisher began observing children play in his office. In 2021, in honor of the Play Lab's 60th anniversary, the physical space was renovated, including updates to the four research spaces within the lab. Those spaces include:

Fisher-Price also added innovative research tools, technology and software to help its early childhood development experts better understand children's play experience. Some of those technologies include:

The new technology has also helped researchers identify learning and developmental benefits more positively. For example, researchers utilized eye-tracking technology to observe children playing with toys from itsLinkimals line．Researchers found that when one Linkimal said "red" triggering the other Linkimals characters to light up red, the children's eyes looked for the red button on the other Linkimals.

"Obviously, the babies weren't able to talk yet, but [the technology] told us that they were beginning to make that connection between what was being pushed and what they heard. It shows that they're starting to understand the lesson and that learning is starting to happen," Lohiser says. "The eye-tracking actually allowed us to say yes, in fact, that the act of playing with the Linkimals has promoted learning in those early childhood years."

There are about 10,000 families in the Fisher-Price Toy Tester database. Once families are entered into the database, they stay there until the children reach about 10 to 12 years of age. Most toy testers for Fisher-Price products are between newborn and 8 years old. Occasionally, the Play Lab will test some products designed for older kids from its parent company, Mattel.

Fisher-Price solicits volunteers to be toy testers through social media pushouts, local advertising and local events. The vast majority of its testers are in the East Aurora area. But more recently, thanks to increased interested in video conferencing, Fisher-Price has engaged in more at-home toy and product testing.

"What's really exciting is that we're starting to open that database so we can be on a more national level," Lohiser says. "So, we have parents from all around the country who can participate virtually."