Kitchen Planning I have now visited and cooked

By admin on November 7th, 2007

Kitchen Planning

I have now visited and cooked in a large number of kitchens from the narrow Motor
Home or caravan galley way to the expansive and ample circulation of a 5metre by 5
metre kitchen, with a home or garage for every kitchen gadget or appliance. ( I must
confess though that I am not a chef).
However if you are faced with the need to redesign a kitchen to meet a particular
users physical requirements, or to take into consideration future changes, then you are
more than likely about to be faced with one of the most expensive rooms in the house
to change.

INSTALLING AN INSET SINK AND TAPS The tools

By admin on November 6th, 2007

INSTALLING AN INSET SINK AND TAPS

The tools you require and the amount of plumbing needed will vary
depending on the type of sink and taps you have chosen.
Start by carefully measuring up, marking out the sink outline - a template is
usually provided with the sink. Remember you’re not measuring out to the
full width/length of the sink as a lip around it will hold it in place. Once
marked out, carefully cut out with a jigsaw.
With the sink on its face, seal around the rim. Fit the securing clips to the
sink - this ensures the sink is firmly attached to the worktop. Now is the time to
fit your taps, following the instructions you receive in the packaging.
Mixer tap tips
Look to see whether the hot pipe is on the left as you look at the sink .
When undoing the cap nuts of each connector and you’ve slipped the nut and
olive onto each pipe, use a spring-clip clothes-peg below each pipe to stop
them slipping off.
Read and fully understand the instructions before you start.

So far, most of the research in domestic

By admin on October 31st, 2007

So far, most of the research in domestic technology has focused
on making the environment aware of the context: this requires
definition and description of parameters, assessment of their
relevance, interpretation of sensed data and design of relative
system reactions. In a certain sense, environment and users
have been loaded with sensors in order to make the system
knowledgeable about the context. It remains an open issue
though how to make users aware and knowledgeable of the
hybrid context in which they interact. And, furthermore, how to
make designers knowledgeable about the complexity of the
hybrid contexts of interaction for which they design.
Interior and product designers, as well as ergonomists, have
been working on the kitchen in terms of space and artefacts for
some time; the design of affordances for digital information
embedded in a real physical environment implies the
consideration of new aspects which differ from the desktop PC
environment. The users possibility to move around in the space
and to directly manipulate objects and information items needs
to be supported by interfaces that are properly scaled to users
metrics, locations in the space, reciprocal distance among users
and motor capabilities. Issues such as the height of the user, her
visual angle, the reachability of displayed objects to the hands,
the proportion between objects and hands sizes, environmental
factors such as sound, smoke, heat, assume an important role.
In order to face such issues, ergonomic considerations need to
be included in the interface design, thus suggesting the
emergence of a novel design approach. The traditional
usability guidelines for visual displays will most likely need to
be revised in order to address the novel aspects brought by
ubiquitous computing. In these scenarios I expect that the
design discipline will need to merge screen and product design
competences, in order to merge virtual and physical worlds.
Furthermore, the design of experiences that build on social
relationships and imply social contexts needs to find novel
approaches to prototype, test and assess such experiences. In
this sense the tight collaboration of design research with
behavioural sciences promises to provide novel methods for
experience simulation and assessment: such assessment should
focus on a short, as well as on a longer time perspective.

TESTS IN THE KITCHEN The technical setup and

By admin on October 30th, 2007

TESTS IN THE KITCHEN

The technical setup and the user tests of the appliance took
place in the small kitchen of our lab. The design of the interface
underwent an iterative process. In an early stage of
development 4 members of the design and development team
tested the application with real cooking sessions. Two of them
recorded recipes, and the other two played them back.
Considering that the cooking activity was more or less familiar
to everyone, it made sense to directly involve ourselves in the
test, so as to have a first hand experience. Everyone, indeed,
has her personal way to deal with household activities, which
justifies the direct involvement of team members. These
sessions were concluded by 4 meals in which the team dined
and discussed the application, improvements to be done on the
interface, changes in the setting of the camera and projector,
and the experience delivered by the application.
In a second phase 4 people from outside of the team, 2 men and
2 women at the age of 22 to 45, were invited to test the
application. In this phase a cognitive walkthrough method was
adopted, so as to evaluate the user interface. Testers were given
some tasks and were asked to report and talk aloud when they
did not understand what to do, or encountered any difficulty.
These tests also ended up in meals and discussions, jointly with
the team members: in this setting the discussion addressed both
the User Interface (e.g. whether it was clear how to interact),
and the whole experience (e.g. how they felt about recording or
playing a video of a personal cooking session). During the meal
together with the team, testers were invited to present their
impressions of the application, to think whether they would use
it in their homes, and how it could be improved or done
differently.