Guidelines for Designing Non-Electric Kitchen Tools for Enhanced Pleasurability

Abstract

Today, meeting the spiritual solace has become the top priority of customer needs. The kitchen is always a happening place because it is the heart of the home. Kitchen tools have an important role in making the experience of cooking and eating pleasurable. Consumers can buy professional chef’s tools or create and enjoy their own tool. As people have expectations for their kitchen tools, it is important to design pleasurable kitchen tools. This study will explore the most important elements that a pleasurable kitchen tool has and develop a process for designing kitchen tools that are pleasurable. In the book ‘Designing pleasurable products’, Jordan states that “Pleasure with products comes from the relationship between a person and a product. Therefore, pleasurability is not a property of a product but of interaction”. This thesis is based on common emotional design principles. With consideration of emotional design elements of kitchen tools, three levels - visceral level, behavioral level and reflective level will be studied in this thesis. Safety, intelligence, compatibility, usability, hedonic and practical benefits associated with products will be researched in the study. After studying physical and psychological pleasure feelings and ergonomics of kitchen tools, a process of designing pleasurable kitchen tools will be assigned in this study. A final design shown in this study will follow the guidelines to verify the feasibility of the design process.