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2026 Galleries // 2026 Spark: Spring Student // FingerTop

FingerTop

Winner - Platinum

Competition: Spark: Spring Student
Designer: Hyejin Kim
Design Type: Concept
Company / Organization / School: Korea Design Membership+
Team Members: HyeJin Kim & Dayoung Kim

In households where both parents work, the hours after work are often divided between household tasks, childcare, and rest. During these busy periods, tablets can become a convenient way to occupy children. When this pattern becomes part of everyday life, play can be reduced to repeated tapping and swiping. For children aged four to six, this can mean fewer opportunities to touch, grasp, insert, compare, and manipulate real objects with their hands.

FingerTop was designed to bring these physical experiences back through a familiar and enjoyable form of play. Rather than presenting fine motor development as an exercise, it turns a sequence of hand movements into the process of building and spinning a top. The project gives children a clear reason to use their hands. They select parts, assemble a shape, and immediately see the result when the completed top begins to spin.

The kit is built around parts that gradually change in size and thickness. These differences encourage children to adjust how they reach for, hold, and place each part. Ridges and grooves are added to the surfaces so that the parts feel different when touched and gripped. Children can compare the surfaces with their fingertips while discovering that each part requires a slightly different way of handling it.

Special parts include four finger bands. Children place selected fingers into the bands and move the part by controlling each finger more carefully. This action requires smaller and more deliberate movements than simply holding a large object in the palm. It also encourages children to regulate pressure and move individual fingers independently. The finger bands are not an added decoration. They turn the act of picking up and placing a part into a more focused fine motor task.

Play cards provide a simple structure for each activity. They show the top to be made, the order in which the parts should be assembled, and the fingers to use. A child first reads the visual information on the card, then finds the matching parts and places them on the spindle in sequence. After completing the form, the child spins the top and watches how the arrangement of the parts becomes a moving result.

This process brings several hand movements together in one continuous activity. Children grasp parts of different sizes, insert them onto the spindle, use both hands to stabilize and assemble the form, and rotate the wrist to set the top in motion. The cards change the combination of parts and finger instructions, allowing the same kit to offer different challenges instead of repeating one fixed movement.

The spinning result is an important part of the design. Fine motor activities can feel like training when the movement itself is the only goal. With FingerTop, assembly leads to a visible and immediate outcome. Children can check whether the top is complete, spin it, observe its movement, and try another combination. This direct relationship between action and result helps sustain attention and gives children a clear sense of completion.

The design was developed through physical prototypes used to review the size and thickness of the parts, the way fingers enter the bands, the stacking process, the grip of the spindle, and the final spinning action. These trials helped refine the relationship between the child’s hand, the parts, and the sequence of play. The aim was to make each movement understandable through the form of the product rather than through lengthy instructions.

FingerTop offers a reusable physical play alternative for homes where screen use has become routine. It does not ask families to remove digital devices completely. Instead, it provides a simple activity that children can begin by following a card and complete through their own hands. The system connects touch, finger control, two handed movement, and wrist rotation with the pleasure of making an object that actually works.

By turning fine motor activity into a process of choosing, building, and spinning, FingerTop supports sensory exploration while giving children confidence in what they can make. The project is designed not only to increase hand movement, but also to make that movement meaningful. Each completed top becomes evidence of the child’s decisions and effort, creating focus, engagement, and a sense of achievement through play.