GROUP 10
Presented by Mingquan Cheng, Zhongtian Huang, Dana Thomas, and Haixuan Wang.
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Cooking is hard enough...
Make the cooking cleaning easier with our
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Adjustable Dish Rack
Customizable,
size adjustable
dish rack to be placed adjacent to your kitchen sink
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The images only shows one configuration of the dish rack but the product is modular so you can create a dish rack to suit your needs.
Our Product
We design a product that we could be PROUD of one that we can rate FIVE STARS!
---- Dana Thomas
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Size adjustable so it's suitable for all kitchens from big to small !
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Spout to allow water to drain out into sink instead of just on your kitchen counter
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Combination of all your storage needs from plates and bowls to cutlery too
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Stainless Steel 304 doesn't rust and is easy and quick to clean
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Trays are designed perfectly to help you organize your wares
We wanted to make a product that's good for households and college students with limited kitchen counter space who struggle to find a dish rack that meets their needs.
Our Design Journey
The discovery process involved a week's worth of self observation where each group member noted chores they performed around the house and short interviews with family members. After a group meeting we all agreed that the kitchen was the area in the home with the most potential for improvement.
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The group's goal was to create a product that could improve the quality of life of the average person by making everyday tasks more simple. The initial research included scouring the internet by reviewing statistics and posts on several popular forums to determine which room in the home had the most potential for improvement.
We came up with multiple ideas for several problems we noticed around the home. We then created several briefs for each of them to help us develop our designs.
Discover
Define
Develop
Deliver
One of our first proposed problems and briefs were:
Problems: Most people dislike cleaning kitchen counters.
Brief: Create a tool which can make cleaning kitchen counters more efficient
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We presented 3 concepts during a Design, Art and Creativity lecture where we received constructive criticism which inspired us to reassess our design strategy. Our strategy then involved extensive market research, a survey to receive input from people and then to create a design that combined both forms of research to solve a common problem experienced within the kitchen area of the home.
After performing some more research we decided that our final problem and brief would be...
PROBLEM : Current water sink products do not completely satisfy many of the customers needs and wants.
BRIEF : Improve current designs of kitchen water sink products.
First Steps
included Extensive Market Research to determine what could make our product stand out from the rest on the market
We looked at existing products on the market and analyzed the positive and negative reviews on amazon and other e-commerce websites to determine what aspects of existing products we could improve upon by reading customer's critiques. Our aim was to make our product not only unique but make it something new on the market that could be the answer to the consumer's needs and wants by finding gaps in the market.
Our Target Demographic are people who cook often and/or for many people
One of the most important steps we took was creating a survey that targeted our key demographic. The participants ages ranged from young to old adults including both single and married couples with children.
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We wanted to ensure we had the input of real people like you so we can make our design practical so it can be used by everyone.
Our Survey Results
After conducting this research we realised that the most popular consumer products were made for the kitchen. Our survey had 56 participants from the age range of 20 to 50 years old. Through market research, we identified five main areas of applications around the water sink: storage, water-retaining, anti-blocking, leachate and side bin. Both our survey results and existing products in the market suggested that a successful product must have combined functions.
As can be seen above, a large majority required additional attachments around the water sink. Some of the requested attachments can also be seen in the figures above. Our final design was made to satisfy the need for both storage and leachate.
Taking into account of manufacture and design feasibilities, we ultimately decided to combine the washing area with the food preparing area, and it is statistically supported to let this product also come with some form of water-filtration method. A similar product is yet to be found in the market. Ultimately, we decided that our idea would be based on countertop storage near the sink to dry wares.
What separates our product from others on the market, is that our product will be modular with adjustable widths so that one can customize their dish drying rack to the specifications of their kitchen. Additionally, it will be able to collect water as the dishes dry and then allow the water to be drained into the sink.
Sketches showing our design iterations which led us to create our final product.
We created a design to satisfy the needs of real people to make their lives not only better but more simple!
We wanted to allow people to spend less time doing chores and do more of what they love.
We tailored our design to fullfil the needs of our survey participants.
In conclusion, after gathering both feedback from our target audience and market research we were able to identify a problem in the market where current water sink products do not completely satisfy the needs and wants of the customer and then subsequently created a brief to improve upon water sink products to cater to the needs of the customer by fulfilling the gaps found in the market. We then through further brainstorm sessions came up with 3 ideas for a design that incorporated the requested storage and leachate functions from our survey. Finally, one low fidelity and one final 3d printed prototype was then made from our best design.