Philips Kitchen Buddy
This project was part of Human Machine Interaction course undertaken as part of my undergrad curriculum at MIT Institute of Design & was sponsored by Philips Innovation Campus, Bengaluru
Project Duration: 5 weeks
Group Project: 4 Team members
My Role
Ideation
Concept Detailing
CAD Model
Shared Role
User & Market Research
Insight Formation
UI Design
Brief
"Generate a future Indian Kitchen Scenario with the help of connected appliances by understanding the present lifestyle and changing culinary trends in urban India"
Initial Brainstorming
User Research
The main objective of this research is to understand the actors present in a kitchen scenario, how they interact with kitchen appliances and kitchen space throughout the day. This helped us understand the general attitude towards cooking, food habits, consumer habits and tech savviness
10 Retail Workers Interviewed
20 Families Interviewed
The data gathered from the user interviews is presented in the form of an experience flow to help understand similarities, pain points, and unique/peculiar habits of the actors involved. A kitchen triangle was mapped for each house to understand its effect on user behavior
Presented below is the scenario of 1 family: The Nemade's (A Maharashtrian family of 4 living in a 3-bedroom apartment)
Picture of their kitchen
Kitchen Layout
Experience Flow (The Nemade's)
After observing and understanding the actors, their mindset, and the way they interact with appliances and the kitchen space, we visited electronic stores to understand the purchasing habits of consumers, their preferences based on utility, features, price, and after-sales service of an appliance
Key Insights
1. Children are not allowed to use kitchen appliances due to safety concerns
2. Preparation of meals is not always fun and can be very boring/tedious
3. Users keep using mal-functioning appliances till it stops working
4. The younger generation generally decides the dinner menu
Broader Understanding of the Insight
After synthesizing our findings, we decided to focus on the key insight highlighted above. After discussing with the Philips Design Team, we explored that insight from a systemic lens
Design Direction
Based on further examination of the highlighted insight, we realized that solving for the root cause would not only alleviate the parent's concerns but also potentially have a positive effect on the broader society.
Redefined Brief
“To design a safe and accessible kitchen environment for children with the help of connected appliances”
Persona
Concept Storyboard
Context
Kids are not allowed to use kitchen appliances, especially a Gas Hob because of safety concerns. Due to this, kids don’t develop kitchen literacy early on
The Storyboard below demonstrates how a child would interact with a Gas Hob to prepare noodles
Adding such safety protocols at every interaction in an intuitive manner will help avoid mishaps and build trust among parents to allow their kids to experiment in the kitchen. This is the first step towards building kitchen literacy
Proposed Eco-system
Presented below is a high-level representation of the proposed eco-system. It is used as a foundation for the High Fidelity Scenario
High Fidelity Scenario
Safety protocols have been detailed for a Gas Hob, a Microwave, and a Sandwich Maker. The appliances were selected based on increased consumption seen in the ‘ready to eat’ food category
1. Built-in Gas Hob
Product Visualization
2 burners and 1 induction were combined in a single layout to provide the benefits of both methods in a single product. People tend to perceive induction cooktops to be safer but don’t purchase them because many Indian recipes require open-flame cooking
The burners are placed underneath the top surface to avoid burn injuries due to the flame and to also provide the Gas Hob with a clean aesthetic look
Task Flow
Product Interaction
Inductive sensors installed near each burner detect the metallic/non-metallic nature of the utensil. The color of the knob changes to green/red respectively. If a non-metallic utensil is detected, the respective burner will not turn on
2. Microwave
Product Visualization
Pyrometer: Detects temperature of the food item
Display: When turned on, a minimal B/W interface emerges and blends seamlessly with the physical form
Bar Code Scanner: Heating data (time/temp) is captured by scanning the bar code on a ‘Ready to Eat’ food packet
Tangible buttons: Physical controls provide a tactile experience and work as an assured override switch
Push Door: To avoid accidentally opening the door while heating, a push mechanism is used instead of a handle
Task Flow
Product Interaction
Once the food item is placed inside, the user is prompted to select whether they will 'EAT' or 'DRINK' it
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Depending on the selection, the microwave recommends a heating time and the play button starts blinking
During the heating process, the pause and stop buttons light up
The child scans barcode on a food packet
The child places a metallic conatiner inside the microwave
3. Sandwich Maker
Product Visualization
Introducing a touch bar on a Sandwich Maker will enable the user to intuitively select a desired crispiness level for their sandwich. The user just needs to slide their finger across the bar. The touch bar will also display the time required for the sandwich to be ready
Task Flow
Product Interaction
Philips Kitchen Buddy App
Instead of being a stand-alone solution, we envisioned 'Parental Control' as part of a larger Philips Kitchen ecosystem which includes a recipe book, grocery management, and appliance control
Using the Philips Kitchen Buddy app on their smartphone, parents can easily access the kitchen safety protocols
They have the ability to customize all the functional parameters of an appliance for each of their children. Presented above is an example of the Built-in Gas Hob
Conclusion
Concept Validation and Feedback
We presented the scenario to 5 families whom we had initially interviewed. For this step, we narrated a story highlighting their current pain points and how our concepts remedy them.
Feedback from Philips India Design Team
The Philips Design Team was delighted to see that our scenarios had received a positive reception during our validation sessions. They were very appreciative of the quality of output we were able to deliver in just 5 weeks.
As further steps (not as a continuation to this project), they recommended us to explore quick prototyping tools like Arduino for testing concepts and getting quick feedback from users/participants