FirstBuild: Designing for limited visibility users | FirstBuild (A GE Appliances startup) Internship | 2017

Researching the experience of limited visibility users in the kitchen

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Overview

I worked with a team of researchers, designers, and engineers at FirstBuild to conduct research to identify a target persona and prioritize the needs of limited visibility users in the kitchen so they can cook more effectively, safely, and independently. A team of students at a hackathon first undertook this project. However, FirstBuild wanted to dive deeper into identifying design opportunities and develop a product rooted in user insights.

Segment Research

We first conducted market research to understand the market size, key statistics, and other relevant data. This helped us develop a screener to recruit participants for further studies.

Screening & Recruitment

This helped us understand that there are varying degrees to blindness, and some users might still be able to identify particular elements like bright colors. It also helped us recruit female participants, who were in the older age range, and were married. We reached out to the Kentucky school for blind who put us in contact with limited visibility users.

Phone Interviews

We conducted phone interviews to understand the get a deeper understanding of their cooking experience, and further recruit participants for the ethnography and co-creation activity.

What senses do you rely on the most? How do these particular senses help you for different tasks in the kitchen? Do you rely more heavily on one sense vs. another when cooking vs. food preparation?).
How do you locate things in the kitchen? (Materials, Textures, organization, shapes, sizes, colors)
How do you identify your cooking tools and ingredients?

We have seen a lot of users come up with their own DIY techniques for organizing and identifying tools, do you have any?
What are the difficulties you face when adapting to a new appliance?What would make it easier/ what makes it difficult?
What apps/technology do you utilize the most? Why do you find these helpful?

Empathy Session

We realized that in order to really empathize with our user we need to step into their shoes. So we did an empathy session and cooked blindfolded. It took us each one hour at least to make one burger. This also gave us a perspective on designing the ethnography & co-creation session.

Ethnography & Co-Design

This was designed to be a two day session to understand the user’s current cooking process, analyze it, assemble a customized toolkit based on the perceived needs, and have the user co-design their ideal cooking set up the next day.

Observations & Insights

The participants had a deep-rooted fear of cross-contamination, food manipulation, locating and stabilizing the pots and pans on the stove top and determining whether the food is done or not. They were also very tech savvy, and preferred a product that was not “specially” made for limited visibility users. The participant also mentioned wanting extra prep space near the stove, leading to the conclusion that it might be a way to avoid cross-contamination and keep things organized. The current designs were also lacking in providing any kind of feedback.

The Outcome

The persona was used to provide the designers an understanding of the target market, and the user’s pain points. The research also provided a tremendous amount of insight into the nuances of DIY solutions, and how each user adapts to their environment based on their level of vision and love for cooking.