Research Study A small sampling of middle and

By admin on November 11th, 2007

Research Study

A small sampling of middle and upper-middle class American kitchens
was observed and analyzed using the same methods as was used in this study. The purpose
was to inform design decisions for kitchens. Previous studies the Fall 2005 study was based
on were the Design Continuum research conducted in early 2005 on specific kitchen patterns
of use, the video ethnography conducted in the summer of 2005 to better understand the
natural habits of families in the kitchen, and the secondary research conducted in 2004 and
2005 deriving cooking trends.
Major patterns gleaned from the 98 insights are the following:
Organization in the Kitchen
Information exchange and management and space usage
Kitchen space supports family & social life
Dissatisfiers caused by kitchen not supporting varying users
Traditional uses of kitchen: cooking & cleaning
Design criteria were then developed from the above patterns.
Innovations in the kitchen should support family and social life.
Innovations in the kitchen should support non-food activities and multiple uses.
Innovations in the kitchen should support media and information management.
Innovations in the kitchen should support storage and activity space.
Innovations in the kitchen should support multiple users including children.
Innovations in the kitchen should support convenient cleaning and food management.
At the conclusion of this study, it was suggested to focus on users who pursue extreme
activities in the kitchen such as entertaining multiple times a week, cooks with professional
cooking skills, users with large families, etc. A new direction also suggested was to pursue
users who are undergoing or had undergone the kitchen redesign process. The latter
direction is the focus of this study with an additional focus on new construction for large
complexes.