Waist Food Stabilizer and Rest
Using a rigid tray attached to a comfortable shoulder strap like those found on a messenger bag, a stabilizer can be created that helps hold anything a cook needs at their side. This can be used to hold spices, ingredients, and utensils at the ready to be used whenever needed. The rest can also be used to give more support to large pans, pots, and plates that are too heavy for a single hand carry. This can be useful when transferring hot items from the over or stove to the kitchen counter or table.
Scissors with multiple attachments
Instead of integrating meat scissors and the egg cracker in one design. We decided to take the concept of the scissor (a tool easily accessible to one-handed people) and made various attachments that would be useful to our target consumers. These attachments include an egg cracker, meat scissors, and a salt/pepper shaker.
Integrated Dish Washing Rack with rubber
This variation of the drying rack would be integrated into the sink design to make it easy and non-messy to transfer items from the sink to the rack. The rack would also be equipped with a curved rubber side which could be adjusted to make the curve tighter or looser. This curve would be used to push against (as a stabilizer) when cleaning plates and other curved items.
Meat Guillotine
-Add a variety of blades to cut different meats
Using a pivot/axis device that would be screwed into the wall, the blade (which has a rubber handle for grip) can swing 180 degrees and fold up against the wall for added convenience.
Drying rack for one handed person
-Add a attachment to an existing in sink drying rack that will hold the plate in place while you dry.
Twisting Open Jars/Cans
-Twist-to-Fasten Jar/Can Opener – Instead of the remote moving the holders back and forth, just place the item in the middle and crank knob to move the holders.
-Magnetic detachable holders – for jars/cans of different sizes
Roll up cutting board
-Dish Washing Rack Integrated with Sink
Chosen Prototypes from Concept Ideation:
Picture 1: Scissors with Attachments, Picture 2: Magnetic Attachments for Jar Opener, Picture 3: Food Stabilizer, Picture 4-6: Meat Guillotine with pivoting axis, and Picture 7: Claw for dish washing/drying
Reflection:
Overall this process went well, but not as ideal as anticipated. We ended up coming up with some pretty good concepts in the end but getting to those concepts was somewhat of a struggle. Having already produced so many different ideas throughout the semester, it made it tough to not only come up with new ideas but figure out how to improve current ideas. Normally improving the design upon a current product produces many ideas, however, since we are working with the constraint of consumers with one arm, producing ideas for a specific demographic can really slow down the process. It was also an eye-opening experience to look through the lens of someone else and the daily struggles they go through in simple tasks like cooking. During this process, although we were designing for a group of people, we found that these designs could benefit our target group but also anyone else who cooks. It was important in our phases of ideation that we seek out ideas that could be marketable for the public majority as well. Another important lesson we learned as a group is how to utilize each of our skills in order work as efficiently as possible. We all come up have a different type of creativity and coming up with ideas as a group works very well in that way. We found that a combination of features that spark our interest are creating the freshest designs. Another issue we encountered was the limitation of prototyping skill and experience. We were afraid that some of the concepts we had chosen would not translate well into a prototype without the use of capital or instruments that could help us achieve a tight tolerance. The material types we chose were those that would be cost effective for future prototyping but must be balanced with a strong base so that their functions could be properly shown and tested.