WOWK: Design of a product to provide better control for Chinese stir-frying

WOWK: Design of a product to provide better control for Chinese stir-frying

Zhang, Y.

Van Boeijen, A.G.C. (mentor)
Henze, L.A.R. (mentor)
Hoonhout, H.C.M. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

2013-08-23

This report described the process and results of an Integrated Product Design graduation project that was carried out in the Human Interaction & Experience department of Philips Research Eindhoven. The design process has resulted in a product concept that provides homemade stir-frying by applying induction heating technology. The target market is the G&S group in China. This project started with applying heating technology in a proper way. The core idea is keeping heat speed with using high temperature, but without burning the food. At the beginning, there were two design directions which were proposed to realize this idea: stir-frying and food re-heating. An external analysis has been made, followed by a qualitative user research. The design direction stir-frying has been chosen to develop further. Stir-frying provides a clearer and structured usage context and it is an essential part in Chinese cooking. People were experiencing several practical problems in stir-frying cooking, like oil splashing, smoke generating, hard to control the temperature, etc. The design vision has been identified according to this part of the study, which was summarized as ‘bring chef feeling into home cooking, by providing better control to deliver good quality food’. As stated in the design vision, chef, control and quality became the three key words. Based on the previous analysis, five key design issues have been identified to generate ideas: environment, smoke and oil splashing, oil temperature, heating elements and interaction and communication. In order to integrate related solutions into one product, a function analysis has been made to summarize the main functions and sub-functions of this product. Considering social-cultural, technology and usability aspects, three concepts have been proposed. A quantitative questionnaire research has been conducted to evaluate these three concepts with users. The concept which contains a round bottom wok has been selected. The indication of wok temperature and anti-splashing lid these two add-on functions have also been included in the design. By combining the suggestions from the questionnaire research and designer’s own knowledge, the preliminary design WOWK has been proposed. The design was evaluated in a domestic kitchen by means of a 1:1 scale prototype. Ten participants were invited to simulate the cooking process of a recipe and gave their opinion of the product based on the product. Generally, the design got positive feedbacks; especially the appearance was quite attractive. The results suggested making some improvements on the control panel to promote the usability of the product. However, other concerns about market positioning for this product has also been mentioned. This needs a longitudinal study in future.

stir-frying
user experience
kitchen appliance
Chinese market

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:97e73e35-b65a-4b2c-ac7b-55b97dd15c8d

2014-08-23

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2013 Zhang, Y.