Cutting Board | 2005
Kitchen Accessory
Brief
The project began with research in Indian kitchens and exploring domains that would uncover opportunity areas for new product development.
OPPORTUNITY AREA
Reducing time and adding utility to this chore was seen a direction. User has to cut the vegetables and then shift then to various
bowls for storing it and access it later for cooking.
There is an opportunity to reduce down few tasks by providing efficient storage system during the activity of chopping vegetables
RESEARCH
The research was carried out in several homes in India using shadowing and ethnographic interviews. Multitasking which was apparent through the research was seen as an opportunity area. Zooming into the main activities around cooking , it was identified to bring a level of engagement in one of the tasks. We took a mundane activity such as chopping of vegetables which was also time consuming activity.
CONCEPT DIRECTION Taking directions of entertainment and utility ,concepts were generated. The concepts were prioritised after mapping on the scale of fun
and function.
USER EVALUATION
Concepts were evaluated with potential users. The users had to evaluate based on their preference of utility and fun for each concepts. After the preference was given, concepts were amalgamated with the prioritized needs of the users.
CONCEPT The final concept is a cutting board which is evolved from functional need of storing the chopped vegetables and it provides a solution which is innovative yet very simple.User can slice and then sweep the ingredients right into the containers below.. The user can chop & store at one go.
DESIGN DETAILS
The cutting board is made of Polypropylene material with a cut out for grip and drying. The product has 3 compartments to sweep and store. The board has grooves to slide out water and a side rest for the knife. The containers of Transparent PC were injection molded with a silicon rubber sleeve for keeping it airtight. The board slides out to three compartments. Maintaining the rectangle shape to facilitate more space for chopping. A foam prototype was created initially.