MI 844- Chef-E
Challenge
Create a project that provides experience in the ideation process, and that furthers your understanding of sketching, prototyping, user testing, and analysis.
Goal
Our group set out to make a "smart" cutting board that would aid people new to cooking in recipe discovery and execution.
Design
Design 1
Our group went through multiple rounds of brainstorming to eventually arrive at a design based off an existing cutting board. Earlier designs looked like this "camera on a stick" that could easily be moved around the kitchen.
Design 2
The group determined that in order to provide proper feedback, and to iterate quickly on the device and interface, the best option in the time provided was to make what was first described as a "kitchen laptop". It would be controlled by voice and by touch sensitive regions on the cutting board itself.
User Testing
Multiple user tests were done on various iterations of the device. Common themes that came out of these tests were the need for simplicity in navigation, the difficulty in understanding how to use the device, and (later in the project) the clarity of the design of the software.
Application of project
We recognize that this product is not ready to be marketed. No market research was performed to find out if this product would be desired. The project was exclusively about design and the ideation process. In this sense, the project was an enormous success, because we were able to creatively flex our muscles and go outside of the real world to improve our skills in various areas of User Experience Design.