To better understand how kitchen tasks are experienced by those who only have the use of one hand, team members identified eight tasks to investigate through immersion research. The team chose to focus specifically on tasks related to dishes. The following tasks were chosen for this research:
- Washing/rinsing a heavy dish
- Washing/rinsing something fragile
- Loading dishwasher
- Scrubbing dish
- Adding soap to a sponge
- Scraping off leftover stuff
- Drying dishes
- Putting dishes away
Each task was performed by at least one team member using only one hand. Recordings of each instance are included below with additional notes and observations.
1. Washing/Rinsing a Heavy Dish
In this video Denver struggles to wash the heavy pan that was used to cook bacon without it moving around a lot as he scrubs it because he could not use his second arm to stabilize the pan. He notes that if the pan required strenuous scrubbing, it would be even more difficult to get the pan clean. Later on, he noticed that in the grooves of the pan there was still some bits of grease that were not completely cleaned during the scrubbing process. These grooves would be very difficult to wash without something to stabilize the pan as he washes it.
In this video, the user struggles to secure the heavy pot he is trying to wash in one place. Without attempting to pin the pot in a corner of the sink, it slides around and becomes difficult to scrub clean. Washing the bottom of the pot is not easy because of the movement, but it is doable if he pushes down enough. The edges however pose a bigger problem because he cannot press them against the sink the same and use that friction to scrub. The stability of the pot was the biggest issue in this video.
2. Washing/Rinsing Something Fragile
In the video, the user has a fairly easy time rinsing the glass out. It would be more difficult if the handles for turning the faucet on and off were more like knobs than handles. The faucet that the user is using to rinse out the glass only has one setting. It would be interesting to see if a faucet with a more powerful spray and/or different setting would make the task harder or easier.
The user had a moderately challenging time cleaning the large mug due to the mugs tendency to rotate while cleaning. The user was able to successfully clean the mug after a short learning period. The mug would have been more challenging to clean if a deeper scrub was needed i.e. scrubbing out stuck on food.
3. Loading dishwasher
In this video, there were no real struggles for the user to rinse his dish and load it into the dishwasher. As long as the dish can be set down in the sink and the dishwasher only requires one hand to open, this cleanup task does not pose a significant problem for a user restricted to the use of one arm.
4. Scrubbing dish
The user overall had a moderately challenging time cleaning cooked food out of a bowl. The user had to hold the bowl with their thumb while using four fingers to move the sponge around. The user also tried to trap the bowl in the corner to hold it in place while cleaning it. The most challenging part was cleaning around the brim of the bowl as the bowl wanted to rotate out of the sponge.
The user had a hard time completing this task. The plate slid and spun around while the user attempted to scrub. In this instance, the user was cleaning a flat dish (a plate) there were no ridges. This was a relatively simple dish to scrub but it was still a challenge for our user.
5. Adding soap to sponge
Video of Adding Soap to Sponge
The user did not struggle with this task. The type of bottle that the soap was in already had the cap removed, so the user was able to just pick up the bottle and pour the soap onto the sponge.
The user did not struggle with this task. In this instance, the bottle was designed to have a cap but it was left off by a previous user. This task may have taken more time with one arm rather than two.
6. Scraping off leftover stuff
The user did not have much difficulty with scrapping food off a plate but did make a little bit of a mess. The plate sat on the table while food was scrapped directly off the plate into the trash can. Some of the food missed the trashcan and therefore required further clean up for this task.
Sometimes during cleanup, there is food that people don’t want going down the sink drain, especially if they do not have a garbage disposal. The most significant issue with this task was getting the scraped food off of the fork and bowl. Once food is loosened, the user had to bang the fork and bowl against the trash can to try and get it off. This is not a great solution if dealing with more fragile dishes.
7. Drying dishes
This task is very difficult for someone who only has one arm (especially for drying cups). The user had to use their knees to grab the cup from their hand. It is not ideal to have to use other things as leverage while drying. They used a towel to dry the cup so maybe there is a better product for them to use instead of a towel.
In this video Denver completes both tasks 7 and 8, which are drying dishes and putting them away. Cups were particularly difficult for him to grip as he dried them. He utilized the drying foam on his counter to support the cup while he pushed the towel around the surface of each dish. He also sets the towel down flat on the counter and rubs the plates on top of it to get them fully dry. Putting dishes away was not overly difficult, but took more time than it typically would since only one hand could be used at a time to maneuver the dishes. Some other dishes in the way had to be set aside on the counter while he moved the dried dish into place, which normally with two hands he would just hold the dishes that were in the way and put them back immediately.
8. Putting Dishes Away
This task was not very challenging for our user. Having use of only one arm added time to steps that may have been completed concurrently by a user with two arms. This task would also be more challenging if there were multiple dishes that had to be put away at one time.