LG - Kitchen Applicances
Kitchen appliances for the generation Z support their changed lives in a new way after pandemic.
LG
UX Researcher & Designer
Spring 2021 - Fall 2021
Design Concept Proposal
UX Design team (Seojoo Yun, Hwang Kim), Product Design team (4 people), Design Research team (4 people)
Client
Role
Period
Status
Team
It is an industry-sponsored project I participated in as a UX designer during my internship at Of Now Lab. A client company, LG, wanted to create a new kitchen appliance design for generation-Z who is going to live new normal era after pandemic.
With no boundaries set except for the topic, the desgin had to be built step by step starting from target group research. I was in charge of leading the UX design process with product design team, helping them stick to user’s stance and ideate in terms of users.
Design Outcomes
Mobile refrigerator
It cosists of two parts, mobile part, and fixed part. User can carry mobile part anywhere keeping contents cool.
Smart cutting board
The cutting board automatically shows information of ingredients such as gram or calories. The ingredients data will deliver to user providing diet management services.
Smart bin
Mobile smart bin supports users to clean up after meals. User can call Smart bin anywhere to litter trash or wash dishes.
Design Process
01 Define Target
Desk research
Setting target groups
02 Research
Target groups interview ●
Analysis
Affinity Mapping ●
Insights Keywords ●
03 Design
Persoana
User Story ●
User Scenario ●
Prototyping
Tings I Led ●
Background
What is My Role as a UX designer in a physical product project?
- being an users’ ambassador in the team
At first, I was confused about my role in this project aiming at desinging products. I had to find my own role in the team which is consists of a research team and a product design team. With a great help of my advisor, I guided UX research and ideation methodologies to physical product designers who are unfamiliar with design methodologies.
*Therefore, The story of this project is centered on the process rather than on the results, which is appliance product design.
Target definition
On a vague mission, designing for future generation, we started with target analysis.
01. How does the current market define them?
Marketing trends : #retro #unexpectedcombination #storytelling
Home Appliance trends : #cooksupport #customizing
Service trends : #diet_management #healthcare
02. What are the key words that represent them?
#low_calories_but_delicious #eat_alone #body_profile #home_body #cook #cooking_guide #stay_home_challenge
03. Core persona types
User Interview
Kitchen is not a place for just cooking.
So many different activities, contexts, and interaction are in a kitchen.
01. Sensitizing Mission a week before Interview
Through Sensitizer we induced stories about their life patterns, kitchen experiences, environment, and emotions.
Sensitizer diary
Interviewees’ kitchen
02. Interview - explore users in various perspectives
The Interview Questionnaire was organized to know users’ behavior in kitchen and their motivation beneath that. Sensitizer and user’s daily life picture helped this whole process.
Affinity mapping
It was important to keep 10 designers on the same page, sharing the results of 13 in-depth interview. Affinity mapping was not only good for make everyone focused on interview results but also make them come up with new insights.
1. Sharing interview results between teammates
2. Mapping in different way iteratively
3. Extract insights
Surprise vs Confirmed
Hypotheses for the target were classified into confirmed data and Surprise data. Insights were prioritized through this process.
Insights
1. The boundaries of the kitchen get blurred.
Various activities has came into the kitchen - e.g. Netflix or conversation with family
They enjoy meals in other spaces than a kitchen multitasking with other activities - e.g. Eating while playing computer games
As food grocery delivery services became common, food ingredients came into the kitchen after spending several hours at the entrance.
2. Taking care of diet is getting more and more important
They manage their appearance through maintaing healthy diet and tracking nutrition
They try to cook for themselves to consume healthy foods
3. There is still a long way to go to manage wast properly.
As the frequency of cooking in a kitchen decreased, the desire to keep the kitchen clean grew.
They are reluctant to put a trash can in the kitchen. Instead, most of the waste from the kitchen is thrown away in a nearby bag.
They tend to freeze food waste in the freezer and throw it away.
Persona
Based on user research, we made three personas and sketched their daily lives. It helped us empathize and understand persona.
1. Busy with works and household chores
2. Spending most of his time on a computer desk
3. Managing her diet strictly
Ideation 1. User Story
Based on insights, we ideated product’ features in the form of user story. The formet helped us ideate what users want and what function should be included to relieve their pain points. 98 user stories were created in total.
Ideation2. Product Scenario
Based on products ideas from user stories, we combined the ideas with various contexts. Positioning ideas in a context scenario made us stick to users’ perspective. Furthermore, during imagining sceanarios, various idea came out at the same time. After iteratively revising the scenarios, we could ideate lots of detailed functions.
Dot voting - narrowing down ideas
After dot voting based on several criteria - feasibility, novelty, user’s needs - we narrowed down ideas
User scenario
After confirming design concepts, we visualized various contexts based on personas' life. Each scenario shows how the persona would use the product in their lives. We considered each persona’s job, family, and economic level.