Design Project – Problem Defintions

 

Step 1: User Persona

https://jesusisking.xtensio.com/g0u3tryh

 

Step 2: Mindmap

 

 

Step 3: Problem Areas and Solutions

 

Problem Area 1: Opening containers that have a twisting motion. For example: Peanut Butter jar, Salt/Pepper grinder, milk jug, etc. 

User Needs: User does not want to have bland dishes, so they’ll want to use different ingredients that involve containers that require a twisting motion. They need to be able to open containers with one hand.

Solution Goal 1: Purchase/Build a device that will hold any of these containers in place. This will serve as the base/second hand to stabilize the container so the user can effectively twist the top off with no issues. 

Problem Statement: This purpose of this device is for people with one arm to be able to season their food without the help of others and can be done easily while they are preparing food in the kitchen. Currently the process is very time consuming and somewhat hard to accomplish for people with one arm. 

 

Problem Area 2: Eating a food that is large in size. For example: Steak, pork chop, hot dog, wedge salad.

User Needs: The user will need to cut up their food to prevent choking as well as making the meal easier to eat. Picture sticking your fork into a large steak and eating accordingly. Not only rude manners, just hard to do. 

Solution Goal 2: Pre-cutting any meat dishes. Use scissors or pizza cutter on raw meat. Raw meat is much easier to cut before it gets cooked and becomes tougher and denser. Using scissors or a pizza cutter only requires one hand/arm and a little bit of stabilization. This will cook the meat different than normal, but eliminates cutting the meat once it is done and ready to eat. Eliminates need for knife during meal and user can just enjoy with fork. 

Problem Statement: currently large foods like the ones listed above are very difficult for users who are one handed to cut/eat. Having a limit on the type of food someone is able to eat should not restrict their ability to enjoy such food. Which is why having a way to to cut these foods easily is an important piece of equipment to have for these individuals in the kitchen. 

 

Problem Area 3: Baking – Using the oven for tasks such as putting in and taking out a heavy meal dish.

User Needs: If the user needs to create a large dish such as a casserole, pie, or cupcakes. It is extremely heavy lifting these dishes with only one arm. 

Solution Goal 3: User should split up their full meal into two smaller pans. This divides the weight in half and makes it much easier to insert and remove from the oven. 

Problem Statement: Being able to maneuver heavy pans with food on top of them in and on of the oven and onto the stove top where the hot pan can be placed without falling or being burnt by the pan. Having the ability to use the stove and independently for someone who is one handed and likes to cook is important because the stove allows them to diversify the meals they are able to cook.

 

Problem Area 4: Cooking in the form of cracking eggs, stirring, and squeezing contents.

User Needs: When working with different ingredients, it is hard to control the volume of what you are adding to your dish. For example, it is tough to gauge how much ketchup you are squeezing into a dish when you’re only using one arm. 

Solution Goal 4: Using measuring cups for each dish will be important for gauging volume. When it comes to stirring, investing in an electric stirrer will make it much easier for tougher mixing. Finally, cracking eggs with one hand is a skill that can be practiced OR you can invest in egg whites/egg yolk or an egg cracker. 

Problem Statement: Design a product or process that makes it simple for someone with one arm to crack an egg and mix only the parts they need (yolk, whites, whole egg) with dry or wet ingredients of relative quantities.

 

Problem Area 5: Cleaning dishes, utensils and pans post-use.

User Needs: The user needs an efficient way to clean all of their cooking mechanisms so that they are ready to use for the next meal. Picture washing a dish with one hand 

Solution Goal 5: A dishwasher is a key investment for washing dishes. When it comes to larger items such as pans and casserole-like dishes, the user should soak these immediately so that less scrubbing is involved and leftover content will be removed from the dish. This makes the rinsing process much easier – make sure to soak the dish before contents harden and ruin the dish. 

Problem Statement: Design a product or process that allows a one-handed user to stabilize and clean any sized container, utensil, or a dish that has been dirtied through cooking use.

 

Reflection:

This activity was instrumental in helping our team to completely understand our consumer. Creating a persona helped us to bring our consumer to life since it requires the group to essentially create a person, which allowed us to heavily empathize with our users. The activity not only made us think about the problems our user might encounter but how our user normally works through those problems. I think this will be extremely helpful once we start designing our actual product, and will influence both our design language and the cognitive ergonomics of our final design. Furthermore, the mind-map helped us to group the problems we had encountered and visualize these groups to understand the similarities and differences between these problems. For example, we made a group dedicated to “twisting motions” which made us think hard about every twisting movement performed in the kitchen. We also found the mindmap to be a good exercise because it kept our ideas flowing free since didn’t have any restrictions on the way we built it. Through these activities, our team feels we completely understand the intricacies of working in a kitchen with one hand. We can completely empathize with our user and visualize every problem they experience in the kitchen. It’s obvious not every product goes through this kind of scrutiny and is why we believe our design will come out well. We want to be able to come up with a product that addresses the needs and wants of the customer which is why this project is essiethnal, because it allows us to have a deeper level of understanding into our customers.