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: