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Design Thinking 2: Define

A project log for ÓSK Squirrel

An Open Smart Kitchen (OSK) assistant for saving resources and meeting dietary goals by better utilizing the food you squirrel away

manyhatsManyHats 07/29/2019 at 21:370 Comments

The next step in design thinking is Define. We spent time trying to further define the problems in the kitchen based on the Empathize step.  Define is determining users' needs, their problem and related insights.

Some of the things we came up with:

• Overworked and tight-budget users need an assistant to help save money and time because they want to take advantage of sales but don't have enough time to run all over the place to a bunch of different stores.

• Environmentally conscious chefs want ways to prevent waste of food and waste of food packaging to help them feel like they are contributing to saving the environment. 

• Parents needs help making quick cooking decisions when they're hungry so they can avoid the pitfalls of making decision that don't meet their goals.

• People want group collaboration/input in meal planning, help in making menu decisions to that the family can enjoy what they eat and actually be able to sit down together and eat.

• Parents need fast and easy shopping assistance because bringing the kids to the store is difficult. Speeding up the food shopping and delivery processes is important.

• Shoppers need notification when products are used up by others. They are not the only one consuming the product and don't necessarily know when items are consumed/emptied.

• Cooks with restricted diets need an assistant to help stick with their diet so they can be healthy and live longer.

• Cooks with small space need to remember what is in the pantry so they have enough of the ingredients to cook specific recipes.

• Cooks want fast and easy meals to save money be eating out less and purchasing less prepared foods.

Cooks need some way to track what is consumed (eaten or spoiled) so that they have up-to-date information on what's available in the pantry.

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