context research reflections and new directions

Last year, Karen drew a wonderful diagram representing the cyclic expanding and constricting thought process of research.









Personally, research (especially design research) often feels more like this










This week I've been thinking about many different ideas trying to expand as well as focus. Many are new ideas, inspired by feedback from Jon, Lucas and (our guest) Dickson, as well as their work which they've presented. Some are old ideas, some of which I've blogged about but have not published.

Last week I received some great feedback and suggestions:

(1) Lucas suggested adding specific behavior to general design criteria, his reasoning being so you can design around the criteria towards solving a specific problem.

(2) Dickson suggested going the next step with sharing and further exploring the different cultural aspects of college living, as well as "telling the story" of the different configurations to target purchasers. Dickson's presentation also suggested considering "design qualities".

(3) Jon suggested we bubble up the important concept areas and populate ideas around them - 'Dig deeper and pull out the essence'.

I came up with the following design criteria for my presentation last week.









I think there are some important ideas in my design criteria, but also there are some very important ideas that are missing. They seem mostly based on needs and problems, e.g. work space, organization. I don't think I did a good enough job of explaining (or even understanding) factors such as sharing, conviviality and the college dorm as a home and community ( and how these relate to cooking and eating), even though I touched on them in my presentation and have been thinking about them throughout the semester.

I think my design concepts displayed a deeper understanding of what a college living product should be then I communicated to the class (or I consciously understand myself).
















Such as...

When you are at college, your dorm room is your home. Moreover, you have limited resources, especially space. Underdesign is important so students can create their own personal home (albeit a temporary one). There is no room for unnecessary components. Also, creating your own home is a highly personal activity. In essence, the home is a design, a composition if you will.
If the dorm room is the home, then the dormitory is the community. College is about building and maintaining social relationships (perhaps more so than academics; perhaps more so than in the past). College room products often need to have the dual function of supporting individual as well as social activities and desires.

So what qualities should the design embody? Thus far, my criteria have tended to focus on functional qualities and structural qualities (and are focused around preparing and eating food). There are also qualities related to aesthetics (e.g. appearance, style, overall experience) as well as values (what values should the design embody - values of the users, the client and brand, and my own personal values). Perhaps another type of quality relates to personal meaning in relationship to the design.

As I was thinking of qualities the design should possess (which I discuss more below) I also started to think of how they relate to the concepts I have.

One concept I have is for a modular design.
















One of the important principles of this concept is underdesign, which I talked about earlier. I think this is important because creating a home is a personal and communal activity. Moreover, many important aspects of the design cannot be known or practically included at design time.

1) system components - The components should all have a few primary functions that they do very well, e.g. the fridge body provides an area to keep items cold.

2) anticipated configurations of system components - The components should all be designed to combine in many combinations for much additional functionality and flexibility, e.g. the fridge body provides a base to put the shelf unit, provides space for fridge organizers.

3) possible configurations of system components - There will likely be configurations that are possible, but not anticipated. This also depends how you define components (should we consider fasteners used for assembly as components?).

4) anticipated configuration in use - In the real world, there will be physical components that are not part of the system, as well as user interactions and other intangibles. e.g. using the countertop for TV and DVD's.

5) iconic configurations - There should be a set of iconic configuration that are designed to fit different contexts. Like Dickson suggested, I can use these to start to show target purchasers what this product could be for them.

6) possible configurations in use - Because of limited resources and a desire to improve and personalize aspects of their home, college students often use products in very innovative, often completely unintended, ways. It's important that the components and configurations be "hacker friendly" and personalizable.


Thinking more about design qualities in some more detail (relating to function, structure, aesthetics, values and meaning)...and my research and understanding of college living...and looking at other products (I plan to look at more)...

...I began aggregating words and images of qualities that I felt were important.
Here are some qualities that I feel the product (especially components and configurations) should embody.

minimal
+ functional (does a few things very well)
+ effective
+ simple

Minimal goes with the idea of underdesign. When space and other resources are constrained, there is often no room for decoration or unnecessary or mediocre functionality.

clever
+ versatile
+ efficient
+ usable

Cleverness is necessary to achieve a versatile, efficient and easy-to-use product from a minimal design.

elegant
+ simple yet powerful
+ refined
+ stylistic simplicity
+ appropriate

Elegance is important not simply for functional reasons, but for aesthetic reasons as well.















This rail with S-hooks by IKEA is a great example of a minimal, clever and elegant design.

It's minimal: Despite the product being inexpensive and using little material, it is very effective at hanging items.

It's clever: The hooks aren't required to hang items on the rack and many different items can be easily arranged on the rack. The hooks can also be used to hang items elsewhere. The rail could be just as useful in the bathroom or bedroom as in the kitchen.

It's elegant: The design is stylishly simple. It is appropriate for the context.

There is another quality in this picture that is more a function of the user's relationship with the products. The rack proudly displays the kitchen accessories creating an expressive, inviting and personally meaningful kitchen area.

[Exercise: Compare these qualities of the rack with those of a cabinet drawer that could also be used to store and organize these very items.]

In my presentation I mentioned this idea of creating space. In particular, I mentioned using the outer space of the fridge to create space in the room for storage and work. I also talked about creating space inside the fridge with organization features, as well as combining inner and outer space ideas (e.g. organizing containers inside the fridge that can be used outside the fridge). One of my dominant concepts, which utilizes these ideas about creating space, is a mini-kitchen system.

I think these concepts have value, but there is more that can be said. I think there are some higher level ideas about what roles these newly created spaces should support. I'm hoping these might help to better refine my concepts, and formulate ideas other than the mini-kitchen concept I already have in mind (e.g. Lucas suggested creating spaces for entertainment, something Bests Buy specializes in).

+ personal-use space (private, protected)
+ shared-use space ( negotiated)
+ space for self-expression (personally created, embedded with personal artifacts, shared with others)
+ sociable space (collaboratively created, spontaneously created, hospitable, convivial)

Here are some ideas for a mini-kitchen concept related to these spaces.

personal-use space
+ work space (e.g. cooking,cleaning) and storage space (e.g. food, cookware) outside the fridge
+ organization space in the fridge
+ organization to help maintain private and protected space for personal items (e.g. moveable fridge dividers)
space for self-expression
+ organization that displays important personal items (e.g. a cubby for favorite tea kettles , tea packets and accessories)
shared-use space
+ organization to help maintain shared and communal areas (e.g. large area for shared pots and pans)
sociable space
+ dining space that can be easily moved or expanded

I plan to brainstorm other concepts around these ideas for spaces, as well as other ideas like underdesign and some of the qualities I listed. For example, the snack fridge, the study fridge, the lounge fridge, the entertainment fridge, the play fridge, the convivial fridge, the mini-bar fridge, the keg party fridge,...what might these fridges be like?


Some other to-dos:

+ understanding and critiquing the client (BEST BUY)
+ understanding related products and their qualities (kitchen and cooking products , college products, products college students have, full-size fridges)
+ business context research

Different values have been implicit in many of the ideas I've discussed. There are two more ideas related in part to values that I think are important:

environmental sustainability
This issue was brought to my attention when I was looking at some concepts of the "fridge of the future." Refrigerators and other appliances consume a lot of energy and seem to vary considerably in their efficiency - some compacts are not much more efficient than some full-sizes. Many college students won't care about efficiency since they don't pay utilities. Best Buy may not either. But apartment owners probably do, and so should schools. Sustainability will also be an issue when choosing materials and thinking about manufacturing. In this case, Best Buy probably will care. Anyway, I think a responsible designer should be on the look out for sustainable solutions, especially when they come with other benefits.

universal design
I learned that compacts are used in assisted living homes (for people who can't reach a full-size). Some of the ideas I have (and plan to have) about organization are likely universal design solutions. Again, I probably won't have the time to do more research on it, but it seems like a good idea to at least keep in the background.

context research presentation (near-final draft)

Many of you probably had a mini-fridge in your room at college. Maybe you used it mostly for pop or beer or perhaps you kept a lot of meals in it, or cooked a lot. For most students, size is the most important decision they make when selecting a mini-fridge for their room at college. If they are cooking meals, than a large fridge is important. If they just plan to keep some pop cold, than the smaller size may be better.




















Apart from size, the compact fridges that are out there all look very similar. Most of the differences are subtle, such as color or the way the door shelves are laid out. Some noticable differences are pop can storage and chiller compartment. Also, some fridges have a separate freezer compartment.






















Compact fridges are just scaled down full-size fridges with less features. There are no features unique to the compact, even though it is used in very different ways than the full-size fridge . At the full-size level and high-end compact level we see an explosion in features (I haven't listed them all). Many of the features that appear at the full-size level are aimed at maintaining the quality and freshness of foods, but many are also aimed at organization (which is very important for the space constrained compact).





















So there doesn't appear to be much differentation between mini-fridges, other than size or whether it has a freezer or not, and maybe whether it has a pop can dispenser. Instead these low-end compacts are competing on price. Most of the players are no-name brands that are only competing in the low-end compact market (GE, Kenmore and Whirlpool are exceptions, but their products still look the same as the lesser known brands). This is good for you (best buy). There's an opportunity (and a need, as we'll see) for a differentiated product, and lacking a name-brand isn't a barrier to entry.
Summit is interesting because they offer the most extensive line of small fridges. They seem to be the only ones offering a mid-price range, and they cator they're products towards assisted living homes and other situations where the fridge is mounted under the counter. Perhaps there is opportunity for the college dorm fridge to compete with these mid-range products offered by Summit that are popular with small kitchen owners.



















So what should a college dorm fridge do?

I think two concepts capture what a college kitchen product such as a mini-fridge should support: mini-meals and conviviality. Everyone I interviewed frequently make quick individual sized meals, especially during the week when they have class. Whereas mini-meals are typically about providing energy for the day, eating with others is often about enjoying the quality of the food and drink, as well as the company of others. Situations such as studying together, watching a movie together, conversing and partying can all be convivial, and food and drink is often an important part of such situations. Conviviality also includes cooking together and taking care of each other by sharing food and other kitchen resources.






















Going into my user research, I was expecting organization of items inside the fridge to be a big problem - I expected many people were trying to store lots of food in a tiny fridge and having problems. This is a problem that occurs, but it's not the most common problem...what I didn't realize was that if you don't have a full kitchen, organization isn't as big a deal.




















Optimally, a kitchen should typically have a fridge, a sink, a stove and oven, and a microwave, as well as convenient counter area and cabinets. [This diagram was inspired by the concept of the work diamond in kitchen design, and backed by my user research.]




















However, most kitchen areas in students' rooms are far from optimal. The fridge may be small, but the most pressing problem is usually lack of other kitchen components. There's often no stove or oven available, and no sink in the room. Perhaps more importantly, there's often a lack of space to prepare food and store food and dishes.





















If a student does have access to a full kitchen in their room but only has a mini-fridge, then organization becomes a real problem. There fridge is usually packed with lots of different types of food for meals as well as snack.




















Similarly, if a student has access to a community kitchen and is using a mini-fridge in their room to keep all their food, organization is real problem. Additionally,this student has to balance problems with transporting items back and forth from the kitchen versus leaving personal items in the community kitchen for others to steal or misuse.






















The first set of design criteria deals with creating space. Space is a big issue in all 3 situations. The mini-fridge takes up a decent amount of space. Students already use the fridge to create space by stacking items on top of the fridge to make use of vertical space and to raise items up to a convenient height.




















For the incomplete dorm room kitchen, parts of the kitchen are typically scattered throughout the room. Often there's a lack of space to work when preparing meals.,Matt uses his coffee table to prepare meals, do his homework and eat his meals. He wishes he had a countertop near his fridge and microwave, at a regular height, for preparing food. Another problem he has is that his food, dishes and appliances are scattered throughout various parts of his room.




















Mike and Raquib also have space issues with the small kitchen in their room. There's hardly any counterspace - stationary appliances and other items take up most of the counterspace. Raquib often uses stools and his desk in the other room for additional counter space when cooking. As Raquib puts it "you can always use more space."




















Eri uses a shared community kitchen to cook her meals, but keeps as much food and cookware in her room as possible. Eri is fortunate in that she has a double room to herself, so she has an extra bureau which is completely filled with food and cookware. Still, she has to keep some of her stuff in the kitchen and would like more space to store and organize her stuff in her room.

So, in all three situations space is a big problem - particulary work space and storage space that is well connected to provide a good kitchen area.





















The second set of design criteria deals with organization. Problems with organizing items in the fridge are most apparent when you have a full-kitchen, because then you;re keeping lots of different foods to cook with.

The problem is simply that there is too much food for the small fridge. Matt (when he was using a shared community kitchen and a mini-fridge in his room) said "it felt like my life revolved around the mini-fridge" because managing the small space forced him to constantly go shopping and reorganize his fridge to fit everything. Lack of freezer space also poses a problem because fresh foods cannot be preserved for extended periods of time. So efficient use of space is very important.

Access is also a problem. You have to bend down at take a bunch of stuff out and put it back to get at things in the back. Often times people forget about things they can't see.



















Flexible organization features are also important to deal with the variety of items stored. People use the same product in different ways. When students have more than one fridge it's common to use one as a primary food fridge and another for drinks or large items that won't fit in the primary fridge. Mike and Raquib have four mini-fridges: one for food, one for drinks and two for items that won't fit anywhere else. Flexible organization should be configurable to fit these different uses (e.g. food fridge, drink fridge, bulk storage fridge).

How frequently different items are used is important - a mini-fridge should allow for easy access to frequent use items like drinks or sandwich meats for mini-meals or butter butter for cooking. The easiest spots to access are the front areas, especially the top door bin, which are where people tend and keep the stuff the use most often.




















Another important characteristic is whether items can be stacked or not. Un-stackable items are difficult to organize in the fridge. For example, an opened carton of milk can't be turned on it's side and can't fit upright in the fridge. Loose items could benefit from compartments to keep them organized in.
How long an item lasts also plays a role in organization. Eri tries to keep meats and vegetables towards the freezer compartment so they'll keep better, even if there are more convenient spots available. Other people try to keep perishables towards the front of the fridge where they are visible, so they don't forget them.

The types of items people have change with time. Eri occasionally finds herself with tall bottles, which she has to store in the big fridge, or large vegetables which she was to cut up to fit in her
fridge. The fridge should allow users to easily change the configuration of the fridge interior to accomodate various items.

A final note on organization: like cooking, organizing food and cookware can also be enjoyable. Food is incredibly important to many people, as is being neat and efficient. Matt and Eri both showed a sense of pride and accomplishment at cleverly and effectively working with limited space. In short, flexible organizing features can help fullfill people's desires to be creative and organized , as well as their needs for efficiency and convenience.



















The potential benefits of a community kitchen are the sharing of resources and the company of others - the downside is people may steal or misuse your stuff and the location may be an incovenience. Storing food and dishes in the room allows for the convenience of making quick mini-meal or sharing a drink with guests. Because of the convenience and security, Eri keeps as much of her stuff as she can in her room. The main challenge for her is transporting stuff back and forth between her room and the kitchen. She recently bought this cart, which has greatly simplified her life (although she doesn't like looking like a fligh attendent when she wheels it around). Before she had to make six or seven trips or more, back and forth, using the tray in the picture when cooking a meal.





















So here's the concept I have in mind. The mini-fridge has two spaces: an inner space and an outer space. The outer space can be used to help create space in the room by attaching countertops, shelves and other funiture or space organizing components around the mini-fridge. In this way, people can start to create a more cohesive kitchen area, with places to work and store food and cookware. The interior of the mini-fridge should also have improved organizational features. Some of these features may be removable, and thus usable outside of the fridge to create space. For example, the fridge could contain removable baskets that can be attached to the side of the counter or other components.

The picture is just one idea for what a mini-kitchen configuration might look like.






















Maybe the user research and design criteria portion makes more sense if viewed like this:

I've been talking to people

I completed 3 one-hour interviews over the weeked. I have another scheduled for thursday. Here's my thoughts and progress this week, thus far..

what's going on? I've collected a lot of data from my four interviews. I'm starting to organize it all to find patterns and develop insights. After each of the interviews, I came back to my room and reviewed my notes, audio recordings and pictures, trying to think about the important things I learned. There's so much stuff, and I didn't even get to ask all the questions I wanted to ask! I really want to try and structure everything in some thorough way. I feel like structuring is important not only so I gain high level insights, but so I become more intimate with the details and better understand the whole of what I'm looking at so I can determine what else I should learn and how dorm kitchens and fridges can be improved. Anyway, what I've done so far is this:

I printed out small pieces of paper with all of the data I thought was interesting. I've started to cluster data that is similar and buildup the data into categories. I've also been thinking about some of my preconceived notions and hypotheses about what is going on. My method (if you can call it that) is motivated by stuff I've heard about like structured planning and affinity diagrams.



















Figure: The columns with post it notes are areas I've organized while the lower right hand corner contains data which I still need to organize (because it didn't seem to fit with the other stuff )

For example, going into the interviews, I had this idea that sharing was an important category. However, after I played around with the data I'd collected I came up with the category of social interactions around food, which further breaks down into helping others, conviviality, sharing resources, and anti-social behavior. Each of these categories further breaks down into a set of behaviors or attitudes of people. For example, conviviality breaks down into "I enjoy cooking with friends and loved ones", "I like to share the food I make with others", "My friends will make food, eat and drink while visiting", "the kitchen, food and drink make my room a great place to hang out." Each of these statements is supported by data from my interviews (which I haven't listed here). Here are the categories I've come up with so far:

social interactions around food

helping others
+ "People ask to use kitchen resources I have (but they don't)"
+ "I cook for other people to be nice"

conviviality
+ "I enjoy cooking with friends and loved ones"
+ "I like to share the food I make with others"
+ "My friends will make food, eat and drink while visiting"
+ "My room a great place to hang out because of the kitchen, food and drink"

sharing resources
+ "I don't have to have every kitchen tool because we share"
+ "I can have a wider variety of foods because we share"

anti-social behavior
+ "people steal food and disrupt my meal plan"
+ "people disrupt my preparation by not cleaning up after themselves"

eating needs and desires

control over what I eat
+ "I like to know exactly what's in my food"
+ "It's important I eat right so I don't feel ill"
+ "It's important I eat right so I look and feel good"
+ "I need to vary the foods I eat so I don't get bored"
+ "I'm particular about the taste and quality of my food"
+ "Food is important for maintaining my culture"

control over when I eat
+ "I eat at irregular hours"
+ "It's important to fit my eating schedule with my work and school schedule"
+ "I eat when I get hungry"
+ "I eat frequently"

control over where I eat
+ "I like to work while I eat"
+ "I like to be entertained while I eat"
+ "I feel more at ease when I eat at home"

food preparation

available resources affect my food prep experience
+ "I don't enjoy the act of preparing because I can't cook"
+ "I can't cook because I don't have a kitchen"
+ " I can't cook because I don't have time"
+ "I enjoy the act of preparing food in the kitchen"

learning to prepare meals
+ "I want to expand my cooking skills"
+ " I don't cook because I don't know how"

types of meals
+ "I prepare food just for myself"
+ "I prepare quick meals"
+ "I prepare meals with many parts"
+ "I make several meals out of leftovers"


I've also printed out lots of pictures from my interviews and started to group them and make observations to further add to my data(but haven't gotten too far yet with this).




























What should I learn more about? I'll bet these categories will change, especially after a few more interviews. I'd like to test some of the concepts out on future interviewees, to test their validity and expand on them. I haven't finished organizing all the data I've gathered, but the stuff I have left seems to be about organization, work methods, work space and resources, and the fridge. In future interviews, I want to delve deeper into specific behaviors related to planning, organizing and preparing and also focus more on the mini-fridge.


What should we do? I've spent most of my time wading through my findings and organizing them into insights that I;ve hardly spent any time determining design criteria and synthesizing design ideas. I think it would be good to sit down and think about what a "convivial mini-fridge" or "learning mini-fridge" or "healthy mini-fridge" could be. Or, like Lucas suggested, I should ask other people what these fridges could be.
I have been keeping track of the few design ideas that have comee up. For instance, I've noticed that (1) appliances, like microwaves, take of a lot of premium space (2) people try to make use of vertical space (and for good reason, since it's efficient). This might suggest putting appliances on raised platforms or otherwise allowing for easier stacking or moving of large appliances.

pilot interview

Figure: the fridge area is one of several spaces that make up the kitchen area of Matt's room. Matt estimates that 80% of his meals come out of the fridges.

Here's a summary of the important insights and observations from my interview.

1) the big problem with the fridge is there's no freezer
2) the big problem with the room is lack of workspace
3) many quick mini-meal cycles rather than a few large meal-cycles (cycle: planning, preparing, eating, cleaning and restoring)
4) the major obstacle to cooking and enjoying meals is lack of tools (e.g. workspace, stove and oven, pots, etc.)
5) "food is the most important thing" "it's the most fundamental thing in my life"



Here's a more detailed account of the interesting points of our discussion:

According to Matt, food is the most important thing in his life. He prefers to sacrifice quantity rather than quality of food. Last year, Matt lived in an student apartment inGermany where he used a mini-fridge, but also had access to a community kitchen on the floor of his apartment. He Matt cooked almost all his meals and enjoyed doing so. At IIT Matt lives in the dorms and is only at school for 3-4 days a week and has only a microwave to cook with. However, he does prepare most of his own meals since he doesn't have a meal plan. Here, a typical meals for Matt are leftover takeout, sandwiches, leftovers from home, and deli-meals. He also eats a lot of small snacks, like yogurt, granola bars and bread and butter. Matt tries to eat at least one "real meal" (i.e. a hot meal w/ vegetables and meat) a day. He also tries to make one new meal a week, since this is a good way to learn to cook and to not get bored with your meals. However, this is difficult because Matt doesn't have a kitchen. Whereas in Germany Matt enjoyed cooking, at IIT he doesn't enjoy preparing meals since he can't cook because he doesn't have the tools. His "kitchen area" is "pretty crappy" at IIT.




















Figure: The "cooking" area of Matt's kitchen is in his closet next to his clothes. Matt doesn't like how his kitchen area overlaps with other areas of his room.














Figure: This closet shelf is used to store food and kitchen items as well as personal items.

Matt would rather prepare meals. Matt's situation in Germany where he cooked most of his meals was much closer to his ideal situation than his situation at IIT. He views the main obstacle as a lack of kitchen tools rather than a lack of time. His ideal kitchen would be like the one he had in Germany. The key elements are:

+ a fridge with a freezer and a lock
+ stove and oven
+ lots of countertop space and cabinets
+ variety of pots, dishes and other cooking utensils

One important benefit of this ideal kitchen is it is shared environment. This allows for sharing of food, tools and meals. The shared kitchen can also become a problem when people steal food (and therefore disrupt your meal plan), hence the lock is important.

In Germany, "life seemed to revolve around the [mini] fridge" because every few days he went shopping and every few hours he had to rearrange his fridge contents. Organizing fridge contents was more of an enjoyable challenge to overcome than a constant frustration. Here Matt and his roomate are not "actively using" the fridge, because they don't cook and eat a lot of take-out.

Matt's eating schedule is highly irregular. Whereas in Germany food was something to be enjoyed, at IIT food is often viewed more as simply fuel for the body. In Matt's words "I make a quick meal when hunger distracts me from work".

One issue that kept arising was lack of workspace. According to Matt, "once you take something out, you have to put it back right away to make space". Matt's "countertop" was a coffee table that also functioned as a desk, dining table and tempory space for other objects. For Matt, kitchen tasks are performed in series rather than in parallel. With limited space and tools, Matt tends to make lots of quick mini-meals throughout the day, rather than large meals.














Figure: The coffee table functions as a kitchen countertop, dining table and desk.














Figure: Many "tops" are used for food related items.

Matt's biggest problem with the mini-fridges are that they don't have a freezer. This means he can't keep ice cream, ice and other frozen foods for extended periods of time. The chiller compartment is like a "slap in the face" to Matt, and he would prefer to not have it at all. Some other things he didn't like about the fridge was the "plastic thing" (i.e. crisper drawer). He'd rather not have it and instead have another adjustable shelf.


Not suprisingly, frequently used items are stored at the front and top areas of the fridge. Stackable items (i.e. items with flat and strong tops and bottoms) are stored on the bottom of the shelves. Other than this, food tends to go in any available spot. Matt never volunteered that organization was a major problem with the fridge. Rather, he felt a major problem was that there isn't enough workspace outside the fridge to arrange items and prepare, eat and cleanup meals.


Here's the discussion guide I used:

Intro
+ this will only be shared within the class
+ ill take lots of pictures, and record
+ assume I don’t know anything
+ this is a pilot interview

Warm Up
How's school going this year?
How's the room?
What are some your favorite foods or drinks?

General strategies

1) Why?
2) Show me…
3) What does ____ mean to you?
4) Story or Example
5) Repeat or Rephrase
6) Generalize
7) Summarize and state conclusion

How do you use your fridge on a typical day?

Purchasing

Why’d you buy this fridge? What were you looking for in particular?
Does it meet your expectations?
How important is: Appearance? Price? Size? Features? Availability?

Can we take a look inside your fridge…

Shopping

What types of foods do you buy?
How often do you restock your fridge? How often do you shop?
Can you keep everything you want in your fridge? What are the limitations?
What sacrifices do you make? How do you adjust shopping and meals?

Organizing

What items do you use the most frequently?
How do you organize the stuff in your fridge?
Do you have trouble finding things? Keeping track of things?
What’s the biggest challenge with your fridge?

Preparing

How often do you prepare food?
Do you cook a lot? Make a lot of snacks?
Walk me through making a meal. Walk me through making a snack.
Do you plan meals?
Is preparing food a chore; is it enjoyable?

Eating

Where do you eat your meals?
When do you eat? What’s the schedule for meals? Snacks?

Sharing

Who do you share the space, food, utensils with? What are benefits?
How do you have to adjust? What problems arise?

Kitchen

So what would you call this area of the room?
How have you organized it like this?
What are the most important tools you have related to food?
What tools do you wish you had? (fantasy)
Describe you ideal kitchen setup…
(back to reality) What are the essentials?

Experience

Describe the social atmosphere around food for you.
What does food mean to you?
Where did you learn to prepare food?
Do you wish you could cook more? What prevents you?

Features

What’s good? What’s bad?

+ canstor
+ shelve
+ chiller
+ crisper
+ door configuration
+ what else?

For future interviews: I definitely want to explore many of these areas more. I feel like I didn't do a very good job of identifying specific behaviors and problems. For example, "lack of workspace" arose several times in our discussion, but I didn't get many specific examples of how lack of workspace is a problem. I also need to do more work thinking about the spaces of the kitchen area that I see in peoples' rooms.
In general, I found it hard to get Matt to demonstrate things explicitly for me. Instead, I'd move on to something else. As a consequence, I didn't get as many interesting pictures of behaviors as I would have liked.

research plan (in more detail)

User Context Research


Here are the meal-user recruits I have so far:

1. (friend) Matt lives in the dorms at IIT but goes home every weekend. He doesn't have a meal plan, and prepares a lot of meals himself but does not have a kitchen. He shares an under-counter fridge AND a snack fridge with his roomate, who is in similar situation as Matt (except he's on a meal plan).

2. (friend) Mike lives in the dorms at IIT and never goes home during the school year. He has a kitchen in his room and prepares many meals for himself and has a partial meal plan. He has two under-counter fridges.

3. (brother) Nick lives in a small apartment in Germany where he goes to school. He has a kitchen and a single compact fridge, and cooks most of his meals for himself. He loves to cook meals for himself and others.

4. (classmate) Kurt lives in the dorms at IIT. He loves to cook and has two compact fridges. Since he doesn't have access to a kitchen in his building, he often walks over to the other dorms to use their kitchen.


User Research Methods

Contextual Inquiry
------------------------

I plan on asking these people questions while we look at the contents of their fridges and other objects in their room. I'd like to see demonstrations of how people use their fridge and other tools for meal preparation.

Photo Documentary
-----------------------------
Even though these people would (at least at first) be happy to answer any questions I have, I want to try and take up as little of their time as I possible. However, getting lots of photos of their fridges shouldn't take too much time. By looking at pictures of the state of their fridges and kitchen areas over time, I can start to draw insights and selectively ask questions as needed.



Discussion Guide (1st Draft)

Each set of questions is preceeding by some comments where I've tried to capture the motivation behind the questions.


// what are purchase drivers? What were the intended uses? How do intended use and actual use differ?

Why did you buy this model ?
Was brand name important? Performance? Features? Appearance?

// general questions to get a feel of the user's situation

How do you use your fridge on a typical day?
What is the biggest challenge you face with organization?

// What are the different fridge contents, tasks and tools?
// In general... What's bad: what are the problems, workarounds, unmet needs, ideas for improvement? What's good?

Walk me through:

- making a meal
- making a snack
- organizing fridge contents
- stocking your fridge (and shopping)

How well does this (workaround) work for you?


// Test and probe specific behaviors and objects you've identified, e.g. lifetime, frequency, stackability, compactability; internal organization hypotheses

What kinds of items do you typically keep in the fridge?
How do your fridge contents change from day to day?
Do you stack items a lot? Ever think about investing in tupperware containers?
Do you forget about items often? Do you throw out a lot of food that goes bad?
Do you always keep these items over there? Which stuff do you use the most? The least?
How often do you rearrange items? How often to you adjust the shelves? Reconfigure interior?
How often do you cook meals? In what contexts?


// critique current features

What's good about this feature? What's bad?

- can storage
- door configuration
- shelves
- chiller
- crisper
- exterior (door, top, dimensions, level legs)

What features do you wish this model had?


// planning and strategies, or lack thereof

Is their a method to the way you organize contents?
Is their a method to the way you plan shopping lists?
Is their a method to the way you plan meals?
How often do you organize contents, plan shopping lists and meals?


// identify other kitchen tools

What other kitchen appliances do you use?
What other tools do you use for preparing meals?
What are the most essential tools you use?

// what's missing from your kitchen?

What other resources do you wish you had? A stove? More space? More time?
What would your ideal kitchen consist of? What are the essentials?

// how does preparing meals and organizing food fit into your daily life

Do you like making meals?
Is preparing meals fun or a chore? Why?
What's the most important object in your kitchen? In your room?

Business Context Research

My plans for context research feel relatively underdeveloped, but here are some areas I want to investigate further:


+ How do compact fridge manufacturers in the low-price range compete ? (they don't seem to be competing on price and features)

+ leasing and other business models for small fridges and other appliances

+ kitchen organization products ( tupperware, what else?)

+ small kitchen appliances / college kitchen appliances (what's new? what's popular?)

+ What are the full-size fridge innovations? Can these features be inherited or adapted to compacts?

+ think about other systems for organizing stuff (???)

research plan ( an overview )

Here's the current plan for my research plan.

Who I want to interview

So far, I've focused on one particular way to breakdown of the set of mini-fridge users, where I've labeled two ends (extremes) of the user spectrum:

1) Snack-users don't have a lot of items to keep in their fridge. There isn't a large variety in the types of items they have.

2) Meal-users have lots of different types of food and lots of it. They prepare many of their meals themselves. They would prefer a large fridge, but must settle for a compact fridge because of limited space or money.

At first, I plan on focusing on meal-users, rather than investigating other types of users for several reasons:

1) I suspect the needs of other types of users are often a subset of the needs of meal-users. Researching meal-users will likely spawn new user subgroups to investigate.
2) Meal-users seem to be the most underserved group.
3) Meal-users are less common than snack-users. I should recruit and talk with them sooner rather than later. Snack-users are easy to find.



What I want to find out

Figure: Representation of the 3 progressive levels guiding my inquiry.














Currently, I'm thinking about my research goals by organizing them according to 3 levels or themes. The core level is organization features of the mini-fridge. This level is primarily about function. It is about addressing user needs and creating a product that works better. The next level is mini-kitchen. This is about offering extended functionality to the user in the context of planning, preparing and eating meals. It's about a system of features and products that work together to help support the multitude of tasks related to food preparation. The final level is about creating an aesthetic, meaningful experience, not simply a functional system. It is about a system of products that is truly in rhythm with the life of the user.

I suspect most of my research will be focused at the mini-kitchen and internal organization level. Who knows what will happen with this outer level. I mention it explicitly to remind myself that I feel like a really great design is about more than satisfying user needs. I want to remember to ask questions, when appropriate, that help to uncover what type of product would truly be enjoyed by the user. Or maybe people just want something that works. I'm interested to find out.


Looking at these levels in more detail...

1. internal organization

So far, I'm setting the focus of my research around the theme of organizing items within the compact fridge. Organization becomes increasingly important as we move from snack-users to meal-users. Meal-users would benefit from an easy to use organization system that is also flexible and space efficient (clearly a tradeoff and hence a challenge).

Some general design criteria for an organization system, supported by some early observations:


Quick and Easy
--------------------------
+ students are busy
+ organizing and planning meals is a constant and necessary task

Space Efficient
---------------------------
+ limited interior space
+ there is always more stuff that could go in the fridge

Flexible
-----------------------------
+ varied needs of users in general
+ dynamic needs of a given user
+ preparing meals is a highly personal activity

Inexpensive
-------------------------
+ college students have limited finances
+ small fridges viewed as short-term investments


This criteria is still very general. With my user research I need to get into more specific criteria. What are the frequent tasks which need to be quick and easy? What features can help better use available space? What methods do you use now? Which tasks in particular require flexible features? How do use patterns change from meal to meal? From day to day? How inadequate do youfeel the current system is? How much would you be willing to pay for the new system?

Another thought - the Inexpensive Criterion could be challenged by any the following assumptions:

+ there are many meal-users who are confined primarily by space (not money)
+ students have the option to rent or resell an expensive compact-fridge
+ the design is modular; expensive components can be added on as the user desires

I want to investigate the potential validity of these assumptions. As part of my context research, I want to research the market for meal-users other than students. Also, I want to look into current and potential business models for renting or leasing mini-fridges . It would also be good to look at other kitchen products, particularly products that help organize and products designed for small living spaces.

2. mini-kitchen

The second theme I want to focus my research around is the mini-kitchen. The general list of design criteria I mentioned earlier applies to the mini-kitchen as well. I need to work on developing more general and specific design criteria for a mini-kitchen. What are the important tasks that should be supported? (e.g. shopping, stocking, planning, preparing, cooking, eating, sharing, cleaning, ...?) What are the existing tools and methods that support these task? (e.g. kitchen appliances, utensils, storage containers, work areas,...?)

3. experience

Finally, I'm interested in what preparing and eating meals means to people. When is preparing meals fun and when is it a chore? Do you want to learn to cook more? How does eating and preparing meals fit into the social aspects of college life? What kitchen products do you love and why? What about college products? Are the inadequacies of the mini-fridges a constant frustration or challenges you've overcome?

In the following posts, I'll get into the specifics of my emerging research plan.

immersion presentation (revising)

I've started to make some revisions of my immersion presentation based on feedback from Lucas and April (thank you to both). I don't have time have time to work on this anymore for the moment since I'm working on my research plan, but here's what I have so far .


Product Landscape Overview

A student is shopping for a small fridge for their college dorm.

They are concerned with:

-

+ Is the inside big enough? (Will it fit all my food?)

+ Is the outside small enough? (Will it fit in my room? In my car?)

+ Is it the right type? (i.e. fridge w/ freezer, fridge w/ chiller or all fridge)

+ Is the price right? (This isn't a long-term investment, I don't wanna shell out a ton of money.)

They are not concerned with:

+ Will it maximize freshness of my food?

+ Will it fit with the décor of room?

+ Is it a quality name brand?

Figure: Table summarizes the categories of small refrigerators. The region outlined in red indicates where college students are shopping. An X means no models are offered in this range.

















Sizes

1) Snack size models are characterized by their near cubic outer dimensions.

2) Under-counter size models are characterized by their 33" height, designed to fit under kitchen counters.

3) Apartment size models are characterized by their height of over 33".

Note: These sizes can further characterized by common features (see next section)
Note: many different "subsizes" are available within a given size


Types

(type 1) all refrigerator

(type 2) refrigerator w/ chiller compartment.

Chiller compartments are advertised as "freezers", but they don't freeze water (but they come with ice-trays!) They do maintain a lower temperature which is, for example, good for quickly chilling a can of pop.

(type 3) refrigerator w/ freezer

Freezers are offered as compartments separate from the main body.


The vast majority of college students will choose something in the red box, i.e. a low-priced compact-size refrigerator. The high end models are too expensive and the apartment size are too large for the dorm room or for transporting.

The major purchasing decisions are:

1) Size ( snack-size or under-counter-size)

2) Type (fridge w/ freezer, fridge w/ chiller or all fridge)

The decision about type is often misinformed (i.e. buyers think chiller = freezer)

Price isn't as big of a decision because for a given size and type, the prices tend to be the same across brands (until the jump into the high-price models)




Features Overview

Figure: This diagram represents common features at a given size or price.



















Trends:

1)
(1) As you go up in size, you get more features. These features are oriented towards “meals” (e.g. vegetable crispers, dairy compartments, deli drawers)

(2) As you go down in size, you see fewer features. These features are oriented towards "snacks" (e.g. vertical beverage storage, chillers)

2)(3) Features are usually inherited from the sizes below it; few features are unique to the compact size

3)

(4) There are few differentiating features among the low-price compact-size models.


Organization is especially important for compact users who need to keep lots of food in a small space. However, there aren’t novel features for the compact fridge that help with organization and maximizing efficient use of internal space.

Opportunity: A set of differentiating features that aid in organizing lots of food in a small space.


A closer look at features

coming soon! (maybe)


Brands and Offerings

Figure: Each of the enclosed regions represent the offerings of a group of small refrigerator manufacturers. There are in total 8 groups of offerings (4 sizes and 2 price ranges) . Example: Summit offers snack, under-counter and apartment sized models (but not full-size) both at the low and high price range.




















I've started to rattle off a list of 'insights' from thinking about this diagram, as Lucas suggested. I haven't gotten around to sorting it all out yet...

+ Summit offers the most comprehensive line of small refrigerators
+ Most of the competition is among lesser known brands who specialize in low-priced small-size refrigerators
+ The low-price small-size refrigerator market is dominated by models that satisfy many different user groups (e.g. dorm, office, rec room, etc.)
+ No one is making high-end apartment refrigerators
+ Few manufacturers make small AND full-size models
+ Rental companies use MicroFridge, which specializes in compact 3-in 1 fridge/freezer/microwave appliances
+ There isn't a well-defined mid-price-range. Summit is the exception, offering models at many different price ranges. Microfridge also might be in the mid-price range.



Users

There are two extreme types of users:

(i) snack-users - Those who only need to store "snacks" (not a lot of food)

(ii) meal-users - Those who need to store "meals" (lots of different types of foods) but can't afford or can't fit a large fridge


The relatively simple needs of snack-users are well-supported by the current market: cheap snack-size fridges are ideal if you only need to store some drinks and the occasional leftover Chinese food.

However, the demands of meal-users are not well-supported by the low-price compacts being offered. Meal-users buy the biggest fridge they can fit and afford. The most important features are type (freezer, chiller or all fridge) and size . The other features don't play a big part in purchasing (this is supported by talking with meal-users as well as the fact that stores such as Best Buy and Target only sell one model for a given size and type).



Opportunity: Organizing Features

Since meal-users would like full-size fridges, but have to settle for compacts, the features of the compact fridge should help them make the most out the limited space they have. At present, their is a lack of such features at the low-end compact range (in fact, a lack of features in general).


Opportunity : "mini-kitchen"

The needs and desires of meal-users users also suggest a mini-fridge supporting a mini-kitchen. That is, a fridge which supports preparing and organizing meals rather than just preserving and organizing the contents of the fridge.
















Figure: A "mini-kitchen" in a college dorm. Components include a mini-fridge, pantry, microwave, sandwich maker, toaster, and blender.


Many college students haven't the need, the time or the tools to cook all their meals. Yet, there is a niche of meal-users who prepare many meals themselves and would do so more often if they had more resources. This group can benefit from a mini-kitchen which helps them make the most out of limited resources. Moreover, the snack-user/meal-user classification is a spectrum and many college students are somewhere in the middle of it, finding themselves wanting a full-size fridge but having to settle for a compact. New organizational features can be beneficial to a wide range of users, not just the extreme class of meal-users.



Appendix: Hypotheses relating to users and the market (modeled after the hypotheses example sheet John and Lucas gave us)

Market

Lack of innovation and specialty amongst small fridges

+ Small fridges are for generic use; most are intended to serve a large variety of users

Corollary: there are no small fridges specifically designed for college students

+ Small and full-size fridges differ mainly in size and number of compartments

+ Few features are designed specifically for small fridges (Canstor, chiller and top recessed door handles are the exceptions)

+ The biggest purchase drivers are capacity (associated with size and portability), type, price and availability

Performance

People are confused, deceived or apathetic with respect to performance and reliability differences

+ Students buy the cheapest fridge (for a given capacity and type)

+ Brand name reliability isn't important; it only needs to last a couple years

+ Buyers think chillers = freezers

+ Energy efficiency isn't important to students; they don't pay utilities

Control and appearance

Advanced controls and fancy finishes are features that college students can do without

+ There are few cosmetic features, especially at the lower price range
+ Students are worried about fitting all their food in the fridge, not maximizing freshness

Internal Organization

Small fridge users need/want more efficient, flexible and convenient organizational systems

+ Fridge contents change with time; consequently, so do optimal interior configurations

+ Reorganizing contents is a frequent chore

+ People don't reconfigure adjustable shelves (you have to remove all the items first)

+ Crispers are used for long-lifetime, infrequent-use items, rather than the short-lifetime items they were intended for

+ Single serving and other small items are common to fridges

+ People have lots of wasted vertical space in their fridge

+ Food is buried and forgotten about in deep spaces

+ Canstor is good for pop, but not for much else

+ People underestimate the fridge size they need/want

+ People try to put more in their fridge than it can comfortably hold

+ People plan meals and shopping lists according to what will fit in the fridge

Mini Kitchen

The mini-fridge should support a mini-kitchen

+ Students would cook more if they had more kitchen resources

+ Fridges don't help with meal planning and preparation

+ College students eat and prepare a lot of unhealthy meals

Aesthetical, Social, and Reflective Experience
Small fridges can be more than functional products

+ Fridges are utilitarian; they are not cool; they are not personal

+ Fridges offer a poor aesthetical experience (aesthetics are not limited to super

+ Food is an integral part of people's live: it is necessary, pleasurable and enjoyable, it brings people together

+ Students learn to plan and prepare food for themselves when away at college

immersion presentation

I'll post my presentation as soon as I get my camera and upload some pictures (most of my presentation wasn't in digital form).

Check out the following post where I've started to revise the presentation based on the feedback I received from Lucas and April.