Simple Life starts from the Kitchen

STARTS FROM THE KITCHEN

SIMPLE LIFE

Simple Life starts from here

Project Overview

SummaryTarget market Target userProblem statementHypothesisDesign goalHuman factors task analysisProduct requirementStakeholders

Design Process

Initial ConceptConcept development 1Mock up and test 1Concept development 2Mock up and test 2 Concept development 3Mock up and test 3DiscussionConcept refinementMock up and testBlue foam mock upWorkable model

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Table of Contents

Final Design

Final DesignLayout ConceptFlexibilityFaucet RelocatedRinse & Colander areaCutting bord & ContainersCompost & DrainDetials Exploded ViewMaterial & ProcessBill of MaterialID Control Documentation

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109Bibliography

Feedback / Problems Refinement / ImprovementUser Scenario

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SUMMARY

Recently people have started to demand the simplicity in their daily lives and are realizing the value of it. Simplicity now starts selling and people are even willing to pay more for it. The most important thing is how to make the products handier to use, easier to operate, and fewer min-utes to read. At last, more people will be attracted to this “life style with simplicity”. My resolution is to make a room or a space as a product. When we consider the room as a product, the original “products” in the room could be transformed into “features” in this point of view. We can redefine the “product” and eliminate some useless “features” to simplify our daily life.

Project Overview / Inspiration

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SUMMARY Throughout all the rooms or spaces in a house, I choose “KITCHEN” to develop the “room-as-product” idea. This specific room has still re-mained as the center of the home in the 21st century. There are many different activities and tasks happened in the kitchen, such as dinning, cooking, social events, cleaning, and food storing…etc. It also includes almost 40% of products and tools in the common house. With my “room-as-product” concept, the kitchen absolutely is a versatile one. Things would become much more complicated along with many actions and tools involved.


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KITCHEN Towards the end of 19th century, the kitchen was considered suitable only for servants, hidden away in the basement. During the 20th cen-tury,, it was moved upstairs, in order to become the spiritual heart of the home. Now in the 21st century, the kitchen has remained as the center of the home, a place for reunion to connect families and friends.


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URBANIn the urban living space, people have some complaints about their kitchen.

" I hate clean up. "" High storage is hard to reach. "" I have limited kitchen space. "" I don’t use all the food I buy. "" I always forget what I have in my fridge. "


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SUBURBANIn the suburban living space, people have some complaints about their kitchen.

" I don’t remember what I have in my house. "" I spend too much time loading and unloading dishes."" I can’t keep track of recipes. "" I have no time to cook, clean, and pack lunches. "" My working area is a mess, and they never seem to stay organized "


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TARGET MARKET Urban living spaceCompare with suburban living space, urban living space has limited kitchen space. Therefore, it is valuable to design for urban residential area.

Project Overview

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TARGET USER Foody, those who use kitchen frequently and are willing to have an experience in using a more comfortable and simpler kitchen

Project Overview

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PROBLEM STATEMENTThere are three different stages when we cook in the kitchen, preparing food ingredients, cooking, and cleaning. However, we spend most of time on preparing food ingredients. There are many different tasks and tools are involved during the preparing process. Often it makes people feel difficult and stressful. Specifically, there are many actions being re-peated again and again. How to create a better users’ experience from struggling during the food preparation? The solution will be finding the connection between each action, reducing the steps, and making eve-rything organized.

Project Overview

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HYPOTHESISIf we can reduce the repeated actions and draw the connection between each action to simplify the workflow, we will work more efficiently and have more pleased experience when we are preparing food ingredients.

Project Overview

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DESIGN GOALThe goal of this project is to create a better experience for the user dur-ing the preparation of food ingredients in the kitchen, as we can cook food more efficiently, well-organized, and feel the joy instead of suffer-ing from disorders and terrible messes.

Project Overview

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OPPORTUNITIES1. Develop concepts around sink. 2. Draw the connection between actions and tools 3. Omit the repeated steps4. Simplify the workflow5. Maintain the cleanness6. Flexibility

PROBLEMS1. Not enough spaceHow to create more space?2. Disorder containersHow to make the connection between containers and tools?3. Clean issuesHow to maintain the cleanness of environment while preparing food?4. It takes too long to prepare How to reduce preparing steps?5. ToolsHow to organize tools?

Project Overview

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Project Overview

JOYFUL NEUTRAL UNCOMFORTABLE

Human factors task analysis in the kitchenCarrying out a task analysis has many benefits including gaining a rich understanding of how a set of tasks interact, where bot-tlenecks or human error potential are likely, how long a process will take etc. A properly prepared task analysis can provide a vital whole system overview which will assist many aspects of the design process.

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Project Overview / Human factorsProject Overview / Human factors

Step One / Shopping in the grocery story Step Two / Store and unpack food

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Project Overview / InspirationProject Overview / Human factors

Step Three / Preparing food for cook Step Four / Cook

43.7% of people think the food preparing is the difficult part for them.

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59.1% of people feel uncomfortable with maintaining the cleanness.


Step Five / Eat Step Six / Clean

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Project Overview / InspirationProject Overview / Inspiration

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Step Seven / Trash and compost Step Eight / Store leftovers

Project Overview

Key finding : 1. We use most of kitchen tools when we are preparing food.2. We spend over 1/2 cooking time on preparing food.

Even though there are many different activities and tasks took place in the kitchen, the main function of the kitchen is cooking. There are eight stages when we cook. To analyze the human factors task, it can help us get better a understanding what the problems are or what problems we might have. According to the survey and research, people are happy with cooking and eating but feel uncomfortable with food preparing and cleaning. Therefore, the goal of this project is to create a comfortable and simple experience during the preparation for food ingredients in the kitchen and at the same time the cleanness still can be easily main-tained. Therefore, we can cook food more efficiently, well-organized, and feel the joy instead of suffering from disorders and terrible messes.

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FOOD PREPARE /WORKFLOW

Project Overview / workflow

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There are some interesting facts when we look into the preparing processes step by step. We are repeating certain actions again and again such as washing food, transport-ing food into containers and cleaning cutting board…etc. These repeated actions lengthen the time of the whole pre-cess. Therefore, we can have faster and simpler experience if design can help to reduce these repeated process .

Key finding : We are repeating certain actions.

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Project Overview / workflow

PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

This document defines the requirements for the product system and serves as a basis for concept development and design. The product requirements are defined by the following conditional words:

MUST: Necessary or essentialShould: Recommended but not required. May: Expresses possibilityWill: Use to indicate a statement of fact

Product Requirements Document

Physical Requirements

1. The product must fit into a 24 inches x 45 inches space.2. Minimum product width will be affected by the type of counter top.3. Minimum product length will be affected by the type of counter top.

1. Using product may not need to read any instruction. 2. User will use their intuition to operate product.3. Product may be used in all generations.4. Users will have the sense of achievement when they use product. 5. Product should work well under different cultures.(No culture gap) 6. Trust( Users can put dependence on this product)7. Users will have a whole new user experience but still feel comfortable to use this product.8. More efficient to use—takes less time to accomplish a particular task9. Easier to learn—operation can be learned by observing the object.10 User will have better user experience.11. The product should be easy to maintain.

User Requirements

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Functional Requirements

1. This product must be very simple and easy to use.2. The product should be designed in a way that makes it easy for user to remember the steps they should follow.3. The product should be free of errors, it will be easier for us ers to understand what they are doing wrong when using the product.4. The product should performing main function well .5. The product should be low physical effort. 6. The product have intuitive interface 7. The product will integrate functions.8. The product may follow the principles of universal design9. The product will provide the better working flow.10. This product is a time saver.11. The material of the product must be durable.12. The product must be seamless.

Aesthetic Requirements

1. This product should fit in with environment.2. Appropriate size and dimensions for use.3. This product should work well with other furniture in the certain space.4. Shape will follows functions.5. From of this product should provide better undestand- ing of how to use.

Other Requirements

1. This product may provide affordance in the space.

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StakeholderIndustrial DesignerFurniture DesignerInterior DesignerUniversal Design DesignerEngineerAcademicsEnd Users

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Interior Designer

Niche InteriorsTEL: 415.336.3181email: jen [at] nicheinteriors.com

Pin Hsu (MFA Student, Interior Design at Academy of Art University)Joe Huang (Instructor, Interior design at Tainan University of Technology)Selene Ye (Interior designer, at Guoplus design Studio)Maxine Lin (Interior designer at YH Architecture)

Engineer

Function Engineering109 Stevenson Street Sixth Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 TEL 415.974.3590

Academics

Li-Hui, LeeBehavior and Environment Design

Furniture Designer

Jess Sorel

Industrial Designer

Shin So Instructor, Academy of Art University

Jared Allermobile [email protected]

Peter Stathis1001 Mariposa St | Unit 102 San Francisco, CA 94107 USA T 415 362 6166ewww.PeterStathis.com

Universal Design Designer

Greg Houston, UD designerAral Balkan, UD designerwwNikola Mircic , UD designer

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DESIGN PROCESS

Design Process

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Initial Concept developmentIn the beginning of concept developing, I look into different space and try to figure out how to create simpler user experience for each space.After the second research and reviewed the feedback, I narrow down my directions to the kitchen space.

How to create a simpler and comfortable user experience in the kitchen space?

Design Process / Initial Concept development

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Create more space

Intergrade functions

Unification

Module kitchen

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Concept development 1Can we increase the space around the sink ?First, I develop my ideas around the sink area. During the preparing process, we have to wash food, clean tools or containers frequently. Therefore, developing concepts around sink area has rich opportunities to reduce steps.

Design Process / Conept Development 1

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FEEDBACKS1. Interesting way to increase space.2. Cleaning might be a big problem.3. It can not be fit in every size of sink.4. How to stand the strength when we are chopping?5. Durability of materials.6. Where are tools storage?

MOCK UP / USER TESTIn order to increase the working space covered the sink, I try to design a gadget which can be hooked on the sink. Therefore, we can completely use the space on the sink.

For testing this concept, I build a full size double bowl sink and two dif-ferent mock ups(Figure A and B).

Design Process / Concept Development 1

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1. Pull and hook it on the sink

2. Create additional space on the sink and we can work on it.

A B

Concept development 2How to organize the containers and make them easier to access?It always makes people frustrated to see unorganized containers scat-tered around the working area. The problem could be solved by two approaches. First, it could be improved with easy-to-access placement of the containers. Secondly, if we can provide space where we can store and organize the containers at the same time, it will accelerate the working speed by reducing the distance to reach all the items we need.

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FEEDBACKS1. For this idea, it might spend less time on food prep but spend more time on cleaning.2. It is way too complex.3. It is not easy to transport food from folded pieces.4. It can’t fit into the dish washer.5. User can’t use it intuitively.

MOCK UP / USER TESTIn order to enlarge the working surface and also to create the space to contain the prepared food at the same time, the cutting board on the top of the sink is built with several pieces with hinges connecting each. The users can have entire space on the top of the sink to prepare food and put the processed ingredients to the side for storing in the area divided by folded pieces. (Figure A and B)

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A B

Concept development 3 How can I arrange a smooth workflow for preparing food with the sink integrated with the most frequently

Through breaking down all the steps in the procedure of preparing foods and analyzing the connection between each step, it can make me be clear about finding out the unnecessary movements. Then, I can draw a plan to rearrange the workflow and relocate the tools in the sink area objectively.

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FEEDBACKS1. It is interesting to see the sink and the counter top de signed as landscape-like feeling.2. It is a good way to put the containers under the cutting board and only needs simple scraping to transport the food into the container. 3. The location of the faucet might be a problem.4. Too many corners might be hard to clean.5. This design might need to cover the compost area.6. The cutting board could be integrated and fit into sink.

MOCK UP / USER TESTOne of my major goals of this project is to smooth out the workflow of preparing the food. With this approach, I tried to optimize the working space of the sink and divide it as several small units.(Opposite page shows the new working flow of food preparation)


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Design Process

DiscussionCleaning process I have relocated the faucet to make it cover as much area as possible but there were still some hidden spots which are hard to be cleaned. The consideration of smoother shape would be the solution. On the other hand, the choice of the material is crucial as well.

Compost A small space to store the compost is handy for the working area. I am still seeking a proper location to fit the con-tainer/storage for the compost. How to transport it from the working spots to the trash bins is also my concern.

More flexibilityThis design should provide basic functions therefore users can customize the counter top and working space from their demands. The puzzle-like design could be fit into this concept.

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More simple My current solution seems not simple enough. It will require more development on eliminating unnecessary process to smooth out the entire workflow.

Water flowDue to the large coverage of my faucet design, how to guide all the used water into the drain will be a very important is-sue.

Concept refinement It is difficult to cover all the concerns above in one inte-grated system. In this case, I will have to obtain more users’ evaluations and feedbacks to find out the most acceptable direction of my project.

Design Process

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Design Process

SUMMARYI get a better understanding of the appropriate proportion by doing mock ups and user test. It also helps me to get the basic idea of how to arrange every component. The last thing is I can simulate the context and find out a simpler workflow. One of my major goals of this project is to smooth out the workflow of preparing the food. With this approach, I tried to optimize the working space of the sink and divide it as several small units, which contain the major sink, the sliding cutting board which can be moved along the L shape space, the side sink to put the containers to store the prepared ingredients, and the compost/disposal area. The landscape-like design utilizes the whole area of the sink in three-dimension space.

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DESIGN REFINEMENT

Design Process

Refinement Mock up

For refining the initial mock up, I chose blue foam because of its solidity and density. With this specific material process, I am able to have a better under-standing of the shape change between surfaces. The size is also made with better accuracy than the previ-ous version.

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PROBLEMSharp edge or track may be hard to clean.

55” X 27” Size RefinementIf I put this design into the kitchen environment, it might oc-cupy too much space. (Figure A). Ideally, this design can be fi t into 45”x 24” space .

PROBLEMThe size of this mock up is 55” x 27”. And I got the feed-back from testers, they menti on that the size might be too big .

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55” X 24”

45” X 24”

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PROBLEMUsers have the consideration about that water sprayed out from faucet if they use it to clean the cutting board.

Water TestWater will spray out if there are no section between board and counter top( pic A). But if I rise one side of the cutting board or there is a section between cutting board and counter top the water will flow directly into the sink (pic C and D).

A B

C D

Compost BinEven though we have disposer under the sink and trash can near the work area but most of people still have a small compost bin on the counter top.

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45” X 24”

Blue form mock up

For refining the initial mock up, I chose blue foam because of its solidity and density. With this specific material process, I am able to have a better understanding of the shape change between surfaces. The size is also made with better accuracy than the previous version.

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Access to the compost space

Access to the container

Working model test This workable model can simulate the real situation when user operates this skink system. By operating this working model, user can provide more specific feedback and what the problems they might have.

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Problem 1The transportation from the cutting board to other area could be smoother.

Design Process / Working model test

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Design Process / Working model test Problem 2The application of space on the bottom left corner.

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Problem 3The storage on the top right corner seemed not enough for large meal.


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Design Process / Working model test Problem 4Materials can’t transport accurately into the container from the cutting board.

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Problem 5When people wash the cutting board, the dirty water might pollute the food under the cutting board. It is not easy to drain the water in the containers storage area when we clean it.


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Problem 6There are no space to place cutting board after we using it.

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Improvement

Reduce uselss space to make the cutting board movemen more efficiency.

Design Process / Refinement

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Improvement

Surface of the containers storage area inclines to the left, therefore, it is easy to drain water to the draining hole.


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Improvement

Containers can be hooked on the cutting board, therefore, we can sweep food material into container directly without splashing in the sink.


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Improvement

For sufficiently and efficient using the space below the cutting board, I re-design the containers so it can fit seamlessly in the area.


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User Scenario

Current situation

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User Scenario

Future situation

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FINAL DESIGNIn the process of refining my design, the entirety and details have gently been plotted to achieve the comple-tion. In the visual aspect, the land-scape-style shows the elegance and simplicity. As for the functionality, this project contains several creative attributes which improve the experi-ence of cooking. By breaking down the procedures of preparing foods, this sink allows users to work mainly on the top of it and to use the space effectively. It simplify the procedures people need to do for preparing food in conventional way. Users can easily cut, transport, and clean the ingredi-ents with ease because it can be done in the same space of the sink. The faucet covers all the working area and makes the product very easy to clean.

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ConnectionThe layout of this product is based on different functions because we can easily access differ-ent function areas by using cutting board.

Sink & Disposal

Rinse & ColanderFinal Design

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Container Storage

Temporarily draining area

FlexibilityThe colander / container set and cutting board can be placed in A, B or C position. This provides the flexibility for users to arrange everything in the working area.

Final Design A B

C

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RelocatedIn order to cover different function areas, I place the faucet in the center of the sink which is unconventional location where it always sit at the back.

Final Design

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Rinse & Colander areaWe can put the ingredients in the colan-der set for the food preparation. There are two items in this set. One is deep and the other is shallow. Intuitively we use the deep one for containing the ingredient in large volume. The pores in the bottom of the container allow we dry the food after the rinse, such as spaghetti and salad.

Final Design

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Sink AreaIn order to contain the different size of cook wears and dishes such as frying pan, pot or boiler, the dimension of the sink ares is 20” in the width, 20” in the depth, 9” in the height.

Final Design

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Cutting BoardI solve the problem with closing the opening. The specially designed contain-er can be also stacked along the rim of the cutting board. With the new solution, the food will never spread off the cutting board and the stacking containers can save much space at the same time.

Final Design

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Final Design

Compost/ Draining

User can adjust the placement of the compost container according to their de-mand. If users need to use the disposal, they can slide the container to the back and transport the kitchen waste to the dis-posal.

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Exploded ViewAn exploded shows the relationship assembly of various parts.It shows the components of an object slightly separated by distance, or suspended in surrounding space in the case of a three-dimensional exploded diagram. An object is represented as if there had been a small controlled explosion emanating from the middle of the object, causing the object’s parts to be separated an equal distance away from their original locations.

Final Design

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Colander

Anti-Slip rubber

Faucet

Drain

Drain Stoper

Cuttng Board

Containers

Sink

Anti-Slip rubber

Anti-Slip rubber

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MATERIAL & PROCESS

Material and Process

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Sink / CorianCorian is manufactured in two thicknesses: 6 mm and 12 mm. Cross-section cuts show consistent color and particulate patterning evenly distributed throughout the material. Nicks and scratches can be buffed out with a Scotch-Brite pad or orbital sander. In the fabrication process, joints can be made invisible by joining the relevant pieces with Corian’s own color-matched two-part acrylic epoxy. The pieces are clamped tightly together in order to express any excess adhesive. After the adhesive dries, the area is sanded and polished to create a seamless joint.

Available in over 100 colours Corian can be cut, trimmed, routed, polished, carved, engraved, sanded, repaired, moulded, thermoformed, sublimated, glued,… the design possibilities are practically limitless.


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Containers & Colander /

PolycarbonatePolycarbonate derived from BPA is a very durable material .The characterist ics of po lycarbonate are qu i te l i ke those o f polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA, acrylic), but polycarbonate is stronger, usable in a wider temperature range but more expensive. This polymer is highly transparent to visible light and has better light transmission characteristics than many kinds of glass.

Unlike most thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo large plastic deformations without cracking or breaking. As a result, it can be processed and formed at room temperature using sheet metal techniques, such as forming bends on a brake. Even for sharp angle bends with a tight radius, no heating is generally necessary.


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Color/ Surface TreatmentQuantity Material Manufacturing Process

Sink 1

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6

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1

1

Part

Cutting board

Colander

Container

Polycarbonate(PC)

Polycarbonate(PC)

Steel

Steel

Steel

Stainless steel

Stainless steel

Stainless steel

Gray

Gray

Orange

Rubber

Rubber

Rubber

Polyethylene (PE)

Drain Stoper

Drain

Counter Top

Corian

Corian

Faucet

Container / Anti-Slip rubber

Colander / Anti-Slip rubber

Cutting board / Anti-Slip rubber

Cool gray/ Polish Thermoforming

Thermoforming

Injection Molding

Injection Molding

Injection Molding

Injection Molding

Injection Molding

Injection Molding

Die-casting

Die-casting

Die-casting

Cool gray/ Polish

Cool gray/ Polish

Cool gray/ Matted

Cool gray/ Matted

Bill of Material/ BOM

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ID Control Documentation

Final Design

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Documents

• Interface Design: A Focus on Cognitive Science • Documentation Solutions for Complex Tools: • Task-Based Design at the Cross Roads • The Product Complexity Conundrum • Product Metaphors • Must Consumer Electronics Be So Complicated? • Affordance Theory • Product Metaphors• Product semantics • Sign and Code in Product Design

Books

• The Laws of SIMPLICITY • The Design for everyday things • Emotional Dseign • Small Things Considered: • A Whole New Mind • Material and Design• Making it• Inquiry by Design• Human Factor Design Hand-

book

Bibliography

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Web sites

• Study unravels consumer waste. http://archives.cnn.com/• Why are Consumer Electronics So Complicated? http://www.selfseo.com/story-11540.php• Feature Presentation http://www.newyorker.com/• Complexity Analysis http://deseng.ryerson.ca/xiki/Learning/Main:Complexity_analysis• CNN: Study Unravels Consumer Waste. http://archives.cnn.com/• Why are Consumer Electronics So Complicated? http://www.selfseo.com/story-11540.php • Tacit and Explicit Knowledge http://technopreneurship.wordpress.com/

• Wired.com http://www.wired.com/• Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/• Getty Image http://www.gettyimagrs.com/• plusminuszero http://www.plusminuszero.jp/• MUJI http://www.muji.com/• Simpliflying http://simpliflying.com/• 7 principles of universal design http://www.cph127.com/• Design of the future http://www.tuvie.com/

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