Color Play - Learning colors for Color Blinds
Timeline
July 2025 - September 2025
Discipline
Tangible Interaction Design
Problem Statement
Children often struggle to learn and understand colors and color theory, especially those with color blindness. Existing tools rely mainly on visual recognition, which excludes children with color vision difficulties and limits inclusive learning.
About Color Blindness
Color blindness in kids means they have trouble telling some colors apart, usually red and green. It is often inherited and more common in boys. Kids can still see colors but may mix up shades, which can make daily activities harder.
Color Play
Color Play is an interactive, inclusive learning toy for children designed to teach colors and color theory through hands-on play.
Target Audience
Children aged 5–12 years, especially preschool and primary school students, including those with color blindness.
Objective
To create a fun and inclusive tool that helps all children, including those with color blindness, easily learn, recognize, and enjoy exploring colors.
Modules
Input Modules - (1) Arduino Uno (2) Push Buttons (3)RGB LED (4)Resistors (5)OLED Display (6)Breadboard (7)Power Supply
Output Modules - (8) OLED Display Supply
How does it work?
Press a Button – The child presses any color button on the board.
See the Color – The center disc lights up in the chosen color.
Read & Relate – On the OLED, a word + symbol appear (e.g., red → fire, green → leaf) to make color easier to recognize.
Mix Colors – By pressing the Mix button, two chosen colors combine, the disc shows the mixed result, and the OLED displays the new name + symbol.
Learn Through Play – Children connect color + word + symbol, reinforcing memory and making learning inclusive for color-blind kids.
User Testing
I visited Kidzee, a school for children aged 2 to 8 years. The purpose of my visit was to observe how children interact with my project and gather insights on their experience with the product.
I interacted with around 60 children and talked to them about colors and how they identify them. To understand if they face difficulties distinguishing colors like red and brown, I showed them different color blocks and asked them to identify which was red, which was green, etc. I also considered whether there might be any children with color blindness
One child, Adhviya, who is 5 years old, struggled to distinguish between red and green.
He kept naming the shapes instead of the colors. A teacher observing him assumed he was misbehaving intentionally and scolded him, expressing frustration at his difficulty in recognizing the colors.
This incident highlighted that color blindness or difficulty in color recognition is not easily noticeable at this age, and teachers or parents might mistakenly think a child is careless or intentionally doing wrong.
This shows why color blindness is not easily recognizable. Teachers or parents might feel that the child is just careless or misbehaving, even though the difficulty is actually related to color perception
Future Scope
Extend inclusivity to visually impaired children
Add Braille texture sheets on buttons for recognition
Integrate a voice module to announce color names and combinations
Enable multi-sensory learning (touch + sound + light)
Expand into digital companion app for extended play and learning
