$$ \large\color{midnightblue}\textsf{🍳 A seasoning container for people who are struggling to judge the proper seasoning amount. 🥙} $$
$$ \LARGE\color{white} \fcolorbox{#FE5E41}{#FE5E41}{ Our Design Process } $$
$$ \Large\color{midnightblue}\textsf{01 Problem Definition} $$
To define a proper scope for our problem, our team conducted research on different physical challenges and listed some inconvenient scenarios associated with these degenerative conditions. Additionally, we examined existing solutions that have tackled these problems, analyzing their pros and cons to identify a niche for a problem we could solve within three weeks. The scenarios we discussed included motor limitations in dressing, vision decline while walking on the street, and sensory decline during cooking. We spent time researching the significance of each topic, identifying pain points in each scenario, and understanding the existing solutions to these issues.
For example, although motion degeneration is a critical problem for the elderly, we found that some solutions were already well-developed. Therefore, we decided not to choose this problem as our topic to avoid generalities and to provide more room for developing innovative solutions. Below is a summary of our topic selection process, as outlined on our Miro board.
After our discussion, we finalized our research topic as cooking-related issues. However, even though we had decided on the general scenario, we were not very clear about the specific cooking problem we wanted to focus on, as cooking encompasses a broad range of issues with multiple problems that could be addressed. To refine our focus, we applied the user journey map to narrow down the "cooking" topic. We divided the process into three stages: pre-cooking, during cooking, and post-cooking, for more targeted research. We then decided to focus on the seasoning issue resulting from taste decline problem for the elderly during the cooking process. Below is a summary of our discussion content for each stage.
$$ \large\color{#FE5E41}\textsf{💡 Set Design Question💡} $$
<aside> 🎯 How do we make it easier for individuals who experience taste disorders to season their food more effectively?
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$$ \Large\color{midnightblue}\textsf{02 Investigation} $$
After setting the design question, we conducted extensive secondary data research to show the significance of seasoning issue. The justification can be analyzed from WHO, WHY, WHEN, WHAT, WHERE, and HOW aspects. We utilized data o support the design questions Below is the discussion process on Miro.
Here are some data that can support the design question:
Aging may lead to a change in taste perception and influence people’s diet habits a lot. The ability to detect five basic flavors, salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami, will decline for people who suffer from taste disorders.
The satisfaction of life was reported to be 87% for those with no taste and smell problems, while only 50% for the impaired people. In addition, 49% of the people with taste disorders indicated their ability to cook was affected by the impairments in taste and smell
Elderly needed a 25% increase in intensity to detect a taste difference, whereas younger adults could detect it with only a 6-12% change.
Elderly people require two to threefolds of salt to detect the change in tomato soup. This is over twice the salt concentration than the younger people to discriminate the intensity change and thus leads to some other health issues.
To better understand our users more, we conducted field study and went to three different family kitchens and observed their cooking, especially for seasoning process. Given our inability to access individuals with taste disorders for direct observation during their cooking activities, we made the decision to study two distinct groups: those who cook often and individuals who believe they have poor cooking skills. Before each observations, we set focal points, which helped us realize what to pay attention to during the process.
Following our observations, we gathered and transformed the results into insights for defining further design questions using the affinity diagram. During this process, we aimed to categorize the observation notes into groups and develop insights for each category. We also endeavored to understand the relationships between each group, which would help us gain deeper insights.
Besides observations, we also distribute the survey to learn more about people’s cooking and seasoning behaviors. We created a survey with 12 questions via Google form and distributed it to people aged between 18-65. The survey can be separated into two parts, one is the demographic question, and the other is about their cooking habits. There were four items we tried to include in this survey, habits of using measuring tools, proxy to ensure food is seasoned well, the influence of seasoning containers, and taking others’ opinions into account when seasoning. Below are some chart for the survey result.
