Children going into an MRI don't need a pamphlet. They need something to hold.
The Problem
The problem is not what children know about MRI machines. It's how they feel walking into one.
Pamphlets tell kids what will happen. Staff walk them through it. Neither one does much for a seven-year-old lying inside a large, loud cylinder. Procedural anxiety compounds — a hard first scan shapes how they approach every one after it. The tools trying to help were designed for adult reasoning: informational, low on play.
The Insight
Play works where explanation doesn't. A child who already owns an MRI toy before any scan is scheduled has a different relationship with the machine than one meeting it cold.
That changed what I was designing. Not a waiting-room prop. A toy kids want to own before they ever need it.
What that required: geometry that reads as toy (not equipment), something to interact with, a bore opening a kid can look through, no metal (PETG and polycarbonate, MRI-safe), and multiple colorways worth collecting.
Prototypes
I built two physical prototypes in PETG.
V1 was black, single form — testing bore geometry and hand scale. The proportions worked. The bore read clearly and the whole thing sat comfortably in a hand.
V2 was a two-part assembly, blue and white, with a separate internal dial. This one was about the mechanism. The dial spins freely, the bore stays clear, and the two halves align and close without fasteners.
V1 in black PETG — testing bore geometry and hand scale
V2 in blue and white — two-part assembly with spinning internal dial
Designing something a kid wants to own before they know they'll need it is a different problem than designing a calming tool for the waiting room.
The Product
The final form is palm-sized: bore opening, rotation arrows on the face, internal spinning dial. Five colorways — teal, green, blue, orange, pink. None of them look clinical. That's intentional.
The colorways are the product. Each one is distinct enough to want. A kid with the blue might go after the green. Neither of them is thinking about the procedure.
PETG and polycarbonate throughout, no metal. MRI-safe.
Blue colorway
Green colorway — spinner tab visible at side
Pink colorway
Next in the line
IV Bag Stress Toy · X-Ray Toy · MEDucation brand identity.
Reflection
The collectible framing wasn't in the original brief. It came from asking why a kid would actually want this — not accept it in a waiting room, but seek it out.
That question changed the priorities. Bold, distinct colorways matter more than one safe "friendly" one. More SKUs aren't scope creep; they're the point. The toy needs to get to kids before a scan is scheduled: toy stores, checkups, friends.
That's still the goal.