Factory Wares - design students in the UK

Here is a design that our TA (who happens to be a brit) sent to us. This is the result of a similar design project done at the Royal College of Art. These students were working with a group of senior citizens many of whom had arthritis but loved to cook. Here they describe the handles:
"Ergonomic two-part long handle with a fuller cross-section to assist gripping. Its distinctive shape is angled downward for intuitive use. The oval comfort platform at the end shifts the weight of the pan to the arm from a single point at the wrist making pouring less painful and ensuring greater balance and safety. The handle's main structural shroud is made of lightweight heat resistant material overlaid with tactile foam filled polyurethane to enhance gripping
Secondary hooped handle on the opposite side for two-handed use."

They did a beautiful job providing wrist support and making a desirable product. We hope to pick up where they left off and create something even more useful for our users.

Here is a link to their project: http://www.hhrc.rca.ac.uk/archive/hhrc/events/DBAChallenge/2003/factory.html

Heavy Lifting

So another story that we heard related to lifting and moving pots & pans, especially heavy ones. I know that I have spilled a pot of pasta (both into the sink and onto the floor) and not only am I bummed that I mad a big mess but I have to start the pasta all over...

For the past two weeks Jean and I have been concentrating out efforts on pot handles. Although huge improvements are being made all over the kitchen these handles havn't really changed much in the last century. Here are a few of the early prototypes that a few of our users tried out.

Our first prototype with an upright handle and wrist/arm support.

Another version with a slightly tilted handle but narrow support.

Just an upright and angled handle.

After being inspired by the above we made this wooden handle that is robust enough to actually cook with. We got some great feedback on this one. Here it is pictured with a wire mesh splatter guard (we didn't want grease from oily foods to get on the handle.) This afternoon we watched tofu being cooked in it. To our surprise the handle didn't get warm at all. We were told that it was both easy to cook with and easy to fill full of water. The handle got in the way while stiring the food unless you were to spin it around. It was even easy to pour the tofu from the pan to a plate. Washing was a bit harder than a normal pot. We also discussed that storing it in that configuration would take up more room.

Let us know what you think!

A vise in the kitchen?

This was one of the first paths that we explored: how to clamp objects in the kitchen. One of our favorite stories was using a vise out in the garage to open a wine bottle. Why do you have to go all the way out to the garage we wondered? Why can't you open a wine bottle in the kitchen? There are a lot of other objects that you might want to hold in a vise, jars for instance...

But upon further research we found a lot of products that did precisely that. So we used our budget to buy them for some of our users to try out. They should be here soon so if you're interested in trying them out let us know!
For holding jars: http://www.rehabmart.com/product/700.htm
Or for just opening jars with a single motion: http://www.dynamic-living.com/jaropener2.htm
And then there was general opening of things (we want to save those pearly whites!) http://www.americaninventorspot.com/open_it
Or opening specific things like medicine bottles: http://www.activeforever.com/ps-817-10-purrfect-opener.aspx
And then we thought back to cutting boards (our original concept that a few of you tried out for us.)
The Swedish cutting board that holds your zucchini while slicing and has spikes for your apple: http://www.rehabmart.com/product/699.htm we thought this looked a little dangerous...
And finally holding any little object like the Clamp-It: http://www.dynamic-living.com/clamp_it.htm
Please feel free to give us feedback and reviews on any of these or similar products.

Welcome to our blog

Jean & I are graduate design students at Stanford University working on a project to create a product that will help folks with one hand or reduced hand mobility in the kitchen. We have set up this blog as a way to communicate our progress and to give people a way to give us feedback and share experiences. Please feel free to post any of your thoughts or information that you think might be useful to us or other users. (I think the best way to do this will be to post comments.) We want this to be a positive, collaborative process.


Oh yeah and the name...
Shiva is a deity known as a doer of good (and destroyer of evil and sorrow). She can be most easily recognized as having extra arms. This is our goal, to give people extra hands in the kitchen to make preparing and eating food easier.