普象-让好设计发光

Even with sight, cooking can be daunting, much less without vision. For the blind, preparing food naturally becomes challenging as they learn to cope with the uncertainties of spills or injuries like knife cuts or burns.

I was thus surprised to find blind MasterChef Christine Ha working the stove and knife like a seasoned hand. Later, I come to understand that she could accomplish this only through rigorous practice. This process however takes time and can be demoralising in early stages due to injuries - to an extent it discourages many from continuing. I was thus curious as to how we can imbue these individuals with confidence so that they can overcome physical and mental barriers to attempt and appreciate cooking.

Essentially, I realised that the blind’s actions are guided by spatial judgements which are formed by sensory references – our bodily senses.

Introduced as a system, Folks taps into the adjusted sensory strengths (like touch or hearing) of the blind. The collection consists of 5 products.

Poor hand postures, irregularly-shaped ingredients and dull knives lead to cuts which dissuade the blind from cooking. To help them gain tool confidence, a retractable guard serves as a physical anchor and guides the fingers during the cutting process. This encourages blade contact, making it safer for the blind.

It also allows them to clean off any food that is stuck on the blade with a simple trigger. After usage, the guard can be removed for cleaning with a simple nudge of the trigger.

Prototypes are tested with blind individuals to evaluate the solution's effectiveness.

The side tray, which pegs freely on the sides of the chopping board’s valley, which is created to drain excess juices, acts as an extension of the hand to gather and efficiently transfer ingredients with less spillage.

Prototypes are tested with blind individuals to evaluate the solution's effectiveness.

The ring’s terraced profile allows the user to effectively recognise the burner’s boundaries, eliminating unnecessary probing. It also centralises and secures cookware in place during the cooking process. Such prevents topples and hence spills.

Prototypes are tested with blind individuals to evaluate the solution's effectiveness.

It is common for the blind to prepare an extra vessel, e.g. bowl, to house the cooking utensils. Leveraging on this behaviour, the lid provides a convenient nesting spot for kitchen tools or ingredients.

Its pronounced spout also helps the user to identify the steam outlet with ease, avoiding risks of burns or scalds.

Prototypes are tested with blind individuals to evaluate the solution's effectiveness.

The teaspoon’s integrated float rises as liquids are added into a given vessel, e.g. cup. When the float touches the user’s fingers, which are normally situated near the rim of the vessel, it informs the water level and prevents content from overflowing.

It also prevents the fingers from making premature contact with the liquid. This becomes a useful cue when hot content are transferred.

Prototypes are tested with blind individuals to evaluate the solution's effectiveness.

The project is grounded by literature reviews on existing approaches and ethnography research. To better understand the users’ pain points, interviews and observations were done in their homes. This provided first-hand information that was used for user experience mapping to highlight design opportunities.

001 Knife

002 Chopping Board

003 Stove Ring

004 Pot Lid

005 Teaspoon

Feedback

At the moment, Folks addresses selected, essential aspects of having a meal. This line can thus be expanded upon with further validation from a larger audience to thoroughly evaluate the collection’s effectiveness.

Folk's Press Kit can be accessed here.