THE PROBLEM
There are many multi-mode car seats on the market today. Most are not successful at achieving ease of installation and fit-to-child in all modes of use. Our goal was to design a car seat that transitions from Rear Facing to Forward Facing to High Back Booster mode easily and still provide comfort and safety for the child throughout the growing process.
THE SOLUTION
Because of the overwhelming litigious constraints of the category, we decided to focus our development on areas that would make the largest difference for the user (parent and child): ease of installation, comfort, and ease of use. By benchmarking current competitors, we learned many faults common to multi-mode seats, and identified many of those as design opportunities. Some opportunities included: increasing leg room in rear facing mode, improving size and shape of belt paths, improved installation instructions, and ease of headrest and harness adjustment. Qualitative research was done on early sketches to help drive understanding of what attributes of the concepts increase the perception of “safety” to caretakers. Multiple rounds of 3D concept refinement took place before we could move into testing fit-to-child and fit-to-vehicle with prototype mock-ups.
THE RESULT
The Graco Milestone All in One car seat grows with the child and accommodates the safety requirements for each of the three possible modes of installation. Features like belt path improvements and soft-good removal features make installation easier, but smaller features such as buckle stops and low side walls were included to improve the day-to-day use experience. It has become a platform for expansion for the Graco brand and something we are proud to have been a part of.
