Digital technology is conquering private homes and changes the way people interact with products and services. Today already, devices provide intelligent support for daily tasks, by making homes automated and context-aware. This inexorable trend is projected to further reshape the nature of consumer goods. However, several threats come along with blindly implementing digital technology. Meaningful human-product interactions can get diluted, or even lost, by the ongoing automation of the kitchen. Especially, highly emotional luxury brands like German kitchen appliance manufacturer Gaggenau, rely on the physical qualities of their products. This dilemma makes the brand hesitate when it comes to the implementation of digital technologies, facing the thread of their products becoming obsolete on a market driven by digitalization. A crucial task for the brand’s future development is to find the balance between support and automation while preserving their user-centered brand values. While analyzing the target group it was found crucial to understand their process of cooking, in order to identify novel opportunity spaces.
An essential insight derived by analyzing the relationships of a product and its surrounding environment. Supportive countertop devices take a big amount of space. When managing bulky kitchen machines, the user has to restore the device after every use or leaving it on the countertop permanently. Additionally, every machine comes with its own, heavy motor block which is doing essentially the same thing - providing motion. The design principle was formulated, describing the idea of an universal motion port, submerged in the countertop surface of a kitchen. The seamlessly integrated hub provides motion and heat via an electromagnetic field, powering various modules placed on top of the counter.
Exploring the principle, became the focus of the project and a blender module was chosen as an example module. During the embodiment of the product, several ideas were tested to transfer a rotary momentum through a solid surface. The principle of an axial flux motor was sensed promising and got prototyped and tested by many iterations. A more elaborated prototype from machined parts was made, proofing the concept idea as valid. Due to the successful implementation of the axial flux motor principle an ultra slim motion port was achieved. To further enrich the product experience, a haptic input controller was designed. This completely detachable magnetic dial works with a digital user interface shining through the counter surface.
The final design of the blender module was strongly guided by the three design attributes - light, pure and effortless. The semi-transparent glass object can lock in on the submerged motion port on a perfectly unbroken surface. While processing food, the cook can perceive the color of the produce, even through the lid. The frosted glass finish combined with the light and pure appearance of the product, makes the device harmonize with its surrounding. Finally, The Gaggenau Sous Chef, was designed to be unobtrusively accessible to the user and to allow a flexible operation of modules by an universal motion port.