Co-creating knives with kids
Having been a designer for the last 15 years, I'm no stranger to co-creation/design thinking workshops where we collaborate with end users to create something they truly want. While there are many similarities like
- users saying one thing but doing another, or
- users saying one thing but meaning another
There are some stark differences when designing for users with big feelings and without a vocabulary to match. Discovery has to be from ethnographic approach and by proxy through their caregivers.
We start by speaking to parents to understand what it's like cooking with their kids, pain points they face and what they expect. There's always some variation and creative workarounds parents come up with.
For little ones, there's no better feedback than them trying and they love it! It's not often they get to unleash their inner fruit ninja, cutting till their hearts content.
We've tested handle designs to evaluated ease of rotation or slippage, blade geometry on wrist angle, serration patterns on ease of cut. We do this but swapping out knives through the testing session.
Recordings of the testing session are then scrutinised. Looking out for awkward hand or body postures and even facial expressions to identify discomfort as they make cuts in various food items. All insights we take onboard as we iterate and repeat the testing cycle!
Coming from a background in UX and CX, we firmly believe user testing and iteration are key to us putting out tools that don't just get the job done, but make you and your little ones go "FWAH!".
We're always on the lookout for volunteers. If you'd in Hong Kong and would like to participant in out testing, please drop us a note via contact us.