🔩 Meccano — Building in motion
Nuts, bolts, and endless combinations.
🧠 UX Interpretation: From structure to mechanism
Meccano begins with simple components. Metal strips with evenly spaced holes, small nuts and bolts, gears, pulleys, and wheels.
Unlike Bayko, the parts are not fixed in purpose. A strip can become a beam, a lever, or part of a rotating system. The same pieces create different outcomes depending on how they are assembled.
The models move. Cranes lift. Wheels turn. Structures become mechanisms.
🎯 Theme: Flexibility creates systems
The user is no longer placing components into a predefined pattern. They are designing connections.
Each joint matters. Tighten too much and nothing moves. Too loose and the structure collapses.
The system rewards experimentation. You build, test, adjust, and rebuild.
This is not just construction. It is early engineering.
💡 UX Takeaways
- Flexible systems enable deeper exploration.
- Connections define behaviour, not just components.
- Iteration is part of understanding.
- Small adjustments can change outcomes dramatically.
- Design becomes dynamic when things can move.
📎 Footnote
Meccano was invented in 1901 by Frank Hornby, who also later developed Hornby trains. The system introduced generations of children to mechanical engineering concepts through hands-on construction, using standardised parts that could be assembled into a wide range of working models.