Opening chip bags:
Here Chris attempted to open a bag of chips with one hand and without the aid of tools. His first thought was to try to use one hand to pull the seal apart. After a couple of minutes with no gain, he resorted to using his teeth to grab the other side of the bag as shown in the picture on the right. This did work, but is kind of awkward because his mouth is put on the food.
Opening glass bottles:
Here Chris attempts to open a glass bottle with one hand and a bottle opener. At first he attempted to open it by simply placing the bottle on a table, this had a disastrous effect as the bottle slipped and fell without being opened. Luckily, Chris caught the bottle with his other hand. He then put the bottle between his legs to use as an anchor to open the bottle. While some people can open bottles with their teeth or other parts of their body, Chris declined to attempt the feat because he didn’t want to damage his teeth and is not talented enough to succeed in other methods.
Opening a plastic bottle:
In this example, Chris attempts to open a plastic Coke bottle with only one hand. In his first attempt, he tried to hold the bottle with his palm and middle, ring and pinky fingers while twisting with his thumb and index finger. This did not work because the bottle was too slippery. Then he tried to open the bottle with his teeth, which worked but got the top slobbery which is unsanitary especially if you were to share with multiple people. In the final picture he puts the bottle between his legs, similar to the glass bottle, and opens it. This works, but got the condensation from the bottle got his pants wet.
Washing Produce:
Here Chris washes an apple. It was not as hard as other tasks, but still presented some challenges. Scrubbing and washing the apple was difficult because one hand had to be used to hold the apple. To get around this, he used his thumb to scrub. Then when drying it off, he had to set the apple down to grab a paper towel, which may have gotten the apple dirty again.
Cutting produce:
Here Chris attempted to cut the apple into slices. The first cut straight in half was fairly easy, and only took 30 seconds. However, it was still very difficult because the apple wasn’t sturdy and moved around a lot. Trying to remove the core from the apple was even trickier and no progress was made after 5 minutes of struggling, so it was cut out using two hands. The final picture shows Chris slicing the apple into pieces, this was the easiest step because the apple was lying flat and the cuts were easiest to make. Getting even slices was still tricky though.
Cracking Pepper:
Here Joe is trying to crack pepper. At first he thought it would not be very difficult because he would only need to turn the top, however he struggled keeping the main bottle still and separate from the top. This process would be made much easier if the bottom had some sort of jell pad on part of it that would prevent it from moving, but still allow pepper to come out.
Putting a Tray into the oven:
Joe also found some trouble putting this tray into the oven. The first problem he ran into was the weight of the tray was much more noticeable because of the use of only one hand. The next problem was opening the oven while holding the tray, he had to use his elbow to do this, however this would be a problem if he did not have use of his arm. The trickiest part was keeping the oven door oven and the overall weight of the tray.
Slicing Pizza:
The biggest challenges associated with slicing the pizza was the inability to make an even cut and the lack of grip on the pizza. Without being able to grip the tray or pizza, it continued to move while Joe tried to cut and made it hard to make even one full cut. One suggestion to add to this process would be to make an almost “cookie cutter” model for the pizza that would allow the user to press down with one hand and have a perfectly cut pizza.
Opening Coffee Creamer:
Jacob found that opening this coffee creamer was not too difficult with the use of only one hand. However with someone who may have arthritis or weakened hands, this would be hard, especially on the thumbs. There is opportunity for an adjustment on the cap and easier opening.
Peeling Orange:
In this task, Jacob need to remove the peel of an orange. The most challenging part of this was initially tearing the orange and keeping it still. Once a small portion of the peel was removed, it was not much different than with one hand. However, the initial tear of the peel was challenging and their is an opportunity to find a better way to do this.
Saran Wrap:
For this task it was very similar with using one hand compared to using two hands. The most difficult part was just getting the saran wrap off cleanly. There is an opportunity here to add jell to the bottom of the saran wrap box and keep it from slipping when using it.
Cutting Produce:
This task involved using a knife to cut cheese. One of the hardest parts of this was getting the correct leverage with the knife to be able to make any cut at all with the cheese. We found it very hard to cut and were continuously have trouble making a clean cut. A built in “chop” like device would make this easier.
Drying Dishes:
In this task, Brandon was assigned to hand dry two dishes (one plate and one cup) using a kitchen towel. The biggest problem Brandon faced while doing this task was keeping the plate and cup sturdy on the countertop while moving the towel in and around these two dishes. The plate would often rotate without another object holding it down, and the cup would tip over fairly easily. After multiple attempts at drying both dishes with the kitchen towel, the dishes would remain damp. Brandon found it easier to just lay these dishes on a drying rack after taking off some of the water for the best results.
Pouring A Cup Of Water:
In this task, Brandon poured himself a cup of water from his Brita. Fortunately for Brandon, at the time of doing this task the Brita was nearly empty empty, so in turn it was easy to lift up (it was lighter), and it was easier for him control the amount of water that was being poured into the cup. Brandon believes that if the Brita was more full, it would have been hard to not pour, and he believes there is a possibility that water could have ended up being poured on the table.
Cracking Open an Egg:
This was by far Brandon’s most challenging task – cracking an egg open with one hand. Although chefs like Gordon Ramsey and Guy Fieri would make this task look easy, it was not. Exactly as someone with two hands would do, the first step in this process involved slightly cracking an egg on a table or kitchen countertop. Where the process dramatically changes is learning the technique to separate the eggs with that same hand. Although Brandon was luckily able to crack the egg open on his first try, it was difficult insuring smaller egg shells pieces would not fall in with the rest of the egg. Also, due to Brandon’s inability to preform this task like the chefs names above, he had to deal with a fair share of (what would have been) egg whites dripping along his hands.
For Danny, the first challenge was opening a bottle of wine. The major problem that arose with this task was stabilizing the bottle in order to both take off the wrapper and twist the corkscrew into the cork. For the wrapper, he was able to wrap his hand around the neck of the bottle as he used the tip of the corkscrew to make a small cut into the foil wrapper. Proving more difficult, however, was the task of getting the corkscrew into the cork. As he did this, the bottle began to turn as well. Some options for making the task easier include a surface with more friction underneath the bottle, or an electric corkscrew.
The next task for Danny was one that was not quite as difficult. While sauteing the dumplings, he was able to use only one hand to flip the dumplings in the pan either by moving the pan itself or using the tongs show in the second picture. Other items may be harder to sautee, and an improvement which could be made would be to have something which is able to stabilize the pan as he stirred with the tongs. This would prove to be a safer option as it is dangerous to have an unstable pan when the pan itself, its contents, and the burner underneath are all scorching hot. With the pan stable, the risk of burn would be reduced greatly.
The last task for Danny was the one which was the most difficult and the most dangerous. The most difficult aspect of the task was transferring a full pot of water from the sink to the stove top and vice versa. The act of dumping the uncooked pasta into the pot and stirring it was relatively easy as the heavy weight of the water in the pot stabilized it and prevented it from moving on the burner. However, the act of dumping the pasta into the strainer was incredibly difficult and dangerous as it involved moving around a scorching hot pot with burning steam coming off the top. Danny had to be very careful as he did this, and although he was able to transfer the pot without burning himself, he did spill a bit of pasta into the sink. The task would prove even more difficult for an elderly user as they may not have the strength to transport the heavy pot with one hand.