Interaction Design and Product Design of IoT Kitchen Central Hub for North American Market

Abstract

Kitchen is an essential place in our home for food preparation, cooking and having fun activities. According to the market research report from Grand View Research (2015), the global smart kitchen appliances market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 25% from 2015 to 2022. North America is expected to hold major share in the smart kitchen appliances market. The future of small kitchen appliances is built upon new technologies, and it needs to fit in people’s lifestyles. Based on some initial research, a few future trends were identified, including connection, health cooking, sensing and computing, and interaction. Connection is based on the high-speed development of IoT (Internet of Things). Platform and products embedded and connected with IoT enable the users to control and monitor the household appliances through mobile and digital applications. In addition, these IoT kitchen appliances allow users to improve eating habits, with the help of an abundance of healthy recipes. New cooking methods such as Pressure-cooking and Sous-vide prove to be healthier compared to traditional cooking methods. Sensing and interactive allow users to control their cooking processes with accuracy and thoroughness. With these future trends and an increasingly growing market, there’s a great potential of design opportunities in this market. This research includes the product design and the interactive prototype of the kitchen central hub. It also includes several rounds of comprehensive user research and user testing. The outcomes of this research prove the promising future of IoT kitchen central hub for North American market. Possibility of further improvement is discussed in this end.