Overview
A pioneer in the design and manufacture of kitchen machines and food processors since 1947, Kenwood now operates in over 44 countries. The business continues to build on its strong design heritage, started by Sir Kenneth Grange in the 60’s and 70’s.
Method was commissioned to research and develop a ‘Universal User Interface’ for Kenwood – a consistent, flexible system and design language that could be applied to all kitchen products in future. This strategy was critical to facilitate their entry into the smart kitchen. It’s not as simple as putting a new screen on old devices: incorporating a new digital layer would have significant ramifications for the business, brand, products, and services, and therefore a considered and inclusive approach was required.
We were careful not to ignore the previous seventy years of cooking heritage both from a brand and user perspective. We quickly found that for an optimal user experience, a new digital interface had to integrate with, rather than replace, the physical controls.
The final recommendations, tested and validated through a series of physical prototypes, resulted in a set of universal user experience principles to be applied to all future Kenwood appliances. We authored an online style guide outlining in detail the implications of these UX principles - devised as a living document for use throughout the Kenwood organization to guide decision making and design choices when shaping the future Kenwood product range.
Method was commissioned to research and develop a ‘Universal User Interface’ for Kenwood – a consistent, flexible system and design language that could be applied to all kitchen products in future. This strategy was critical to facilitate their entry into the smart kitchen. It’s not as simple as putting a new screen on old devices: incorporating a new digital layer would have significant ramifications for the business, brand, products, and services, and therefore a considered and inclusive approach was required.
We were careful not to ignore the previous seventy years of cooking heritage both from a brand and user perspective. We quickly found that for an optimal user experience, a new digital interface had to integrate with, rather than replace, the physical controls.
The final recommendations, tested and validated through a series of physical prototypes, resulted in a set of universal user experience principles to be applied to all future Kenwood appliances. We authored an online style guide outlining in detail the implications of these UX principles - devised as a living document for use throughout the Kenwood organization to guide decision making and design choices when shaping the future Kenwood product range.
Offerings
Brand Design
Product Design
Prototyping
Research & Insights
Software Engineering
Awards
RedDot: Product Design Winner 2021
iF World Design Guide: Product Design Winner 2020
"Method is a great partner and this has been a fantastic journey for us — a highly passionate and engaging team from Method helped us to build the best consumer experience and establish our brand identity through the user interface of our kitchen appliances.”
The universal language of food preparation
Approach
The kitchen is a messy, hot and occasionally dangerous environment to place a digital interaction. Technology in the kitchen has frequently prioritized mechanical conventions. Take for example a toaster: what do the numbers on a toaster mean? How toasted is 2 versus 4?
Ingredients provide multi-sensory feedback to the chef through their changes of state – consistency, color, smell, taste. Our understanding of these factors shaped our approach to designing a digital interface specific to food preparation.
Our controls use intuitive language to communicate the intent of the chef – ‘gentle’ or ‘vigorous’ instead of speeds 2 and 4. The interface also acknowledges that a cook rarely stands watching an appliance, so it is designed to provide useful visual feedback from a range of distances. For example, the background color of the interface denotes the temperature of the appliance. If the user is too far away to read the numerical temperature on the display, they can still see a warm, orange color from a distance and receive feedback on heat.
Ingredients provide multi-sensory feedback to the chef through their changes of state – consistency, color, smell, taste. Our understanding of these factors shaped our approach to designing a digital interface specific to food preparation.
Our controls use intuitive language to communicate the intent of the chef – ‘gentle’ or ‘vigorous’ instead of speeds 2 and 4. The interface also acknowledges that a cook rarely stands watching an appliance, so it is designed to provide useful visual feedback from a range of distances. For example, the background color of the interface denotes the temperature of the appliance. If the user is too far away to read the numerical temperature on the display, they can still see a warm, orange color from a distance and receive feedback on heat.
Physical prototypes yield deeper insights, faster
Approach
Method collaborated closely with a team with a broad range of specialities, including Kenwood mechanical engineers and marketers and GlobalLogic developers. Working in an efficient and agile way helped the collective reach a prototyping phase sooner, exploring solutions for various physical and ergonomic problems that could not have been foreseen before testing with users.
By working inclusively with the Kenwood teams we successfully shifted the conversation within the organization away from an engineering first mindset to one informed by the needs of the modern home cook and the ergonomics and contextual behaviors within the kitchen environment. Prototyping also enabled more tangible and objective conversations with key stakeholders early on in the process.
By working inclusively with the Kenwood teams we successfully shifted the conversation within the organization away from an engineering first mindset to one informed by the needs of the modern home cook and the ergonomics and contextual behaviors within the kitchen environment. Prototyping also enabled more tangible and objective conversations with key stakeholders early on in the process.
