PATENTED & LAUNCHED COMMERCIALLY: FEB 2017

Nuk came to us looking for innovation in the toddler feeding space.

Through market research, stakeholder analysis, intensive user research, ideation, prototyping, and building a business strategy, we found an unmet need in the marketplace and invented a brand new product to add value to our customers.

We created a healthy snacking category for Nuk's Gerber Graduates brand and patented our first offering: the 2-in-1 Healthy Snacker* - now commercially available on the market.

*Previously described as the "Rinse-n-Ready Fresh Fruit Snacker"

PROCESS

Challenges & Opportunities

• Designing for small hands with little dexterity

• "Healthy = messy"

• 4-month project timeframe

• Creating a product at a low cost for a mass-market retailer

• Increasing number of 2-parent working households => busy, time-constrained parents

Final Form

our job:

I had an idea for a product I believed could help parents and children eliminate this issue. I assembled a design team and wrote an application outlining the problem, the market, the competition, and my idea.  Our team, "Cool Baby" was awarded the Boeing "Innovation in Action" Grant through Carnegie Mellon University to further research and prototype a solution.

Process

IMAGINE
Before heading out to interview some chefs, we first imagined what it was like to be in a kitchen - fast-paced, not enough room, cutting yourself, wanting a quick bandaid, and we sketched a number of ideas we thought could be great for small spaces and bandaging on-the-go.  

USER RESEARCH
Interviewing chefs and their employees allowed us to understand not only the particular safety issues they face day-to-day, but to discuss the health department regulations and how that affects their "injury journey."

ITERATE
Our initial ideas never saw the light of day, but they were a great place to start - a talking point for the chefs we met - something for them to tell us all the reasons why those ideas wouldn't work, and then to tell us what would work.

INTEGRATE AND PROTOTYPE
After visiting some kitchens and interviewing many chefs in the mid-to-high end restaurant range, we had a grasp of their issues.

 - MANY COOKS IN THE KITCHEN-
KITCHEN MANAGER -  SOUS CHEF -  LINE COOK -  PREP COOK -  DISHWASHER
 

 - FAST-PACED, BUSY KITCHEN-
"Chefs don’t usually deal with their burns, they want to make themselves numb from burning in order to keep working"
 

-LIMITED SPACE-
"Kitchen space is so precious, we use every inch for storage on the walls and underneath the countertop"
 

-KITCHEN FIRST AID KIT THEFT-
"If anything is not bolted to the wall, it ends up in some chef’s house"
 

-AESTHETICS-
"High-end establishments have open kitchens; we NEED some good looking stuff"

SOLUTION

ChefAID is quick access, single serve-focused first aid kit, designed to give you what you need, when you need it, without everything else getting in the way.

Features:

• Beautiful, simple form factor with mirrored, push-to-open doors allow you to store it directly over the hand-washing sink: out of the way AND accessible.

• Fast, single-serve, one-handed access to the items chefs need most.

• Easy-to read first aid instructions for more serious injuries.

• Theft-discouraging design features: users only take what they need, when they need it.

USER RESEARCH AND HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN

The Challenge:  In 4 days research, design, prototype, and present a solution to the emergency shelter needs for the homeless.  The solution needed to be affordable, livable, and impermanent.

The Process: Interview Pittsburgh and San Francisco officials who help the homeless and manage the shelter system to understand the needs of the government, the shelters, the homeless, and the community.

The Solution: A three-part solution was one-part Physical, one part System, one part Neighborhood.  

The Physical solution involved use of used shipping containers to create individual cabins for those who were unable to participate in emergency shelter offered by the local shelters and churches, whether it be because of psychological issues, drug/alcohol usage, pets, personal belongings, etc. These container cabins would be trucked in when needed and could be put down in parking lots or street-side.

The System solution involved utilizing the existing parking kiosk infrastructure to tap into the not-yet-released HIMS (Homeless Information Management System) to allow people to reserve their shelter from a parking kiosk, rather than the current solution of the person having to call each shelter individually (if they had a phone), and/or going to each shelter individually looking for an available spot. 

Finally, the Neighborhood component addressed the fact that not all homeless are technologically savvy and may not feel comfortable using a kiosk.  For these people, and for areas that don't have kiosks, libraries and police stations would be trained in the use of HMIS and be able to help the homeless make reservations.

"Glance" : An AMBIENT AWARENESS Device allowing the user to keep up to date on what's important while staying off of their phones and email.

Need an email break but also want an immediate indicator if your boss has e-mailed you?  Want to get that suddenly cheap flight while it's available or know when Nordstrom's is offering a 1-hr flash sale? How about if an item you posted on Poshmark or Ebay is sold and needs to be mailed, or when your grocery store has your favorite foods on special?

No need to log into your e-mail multiple times an hour or wade through all of the offers you've received when you can know the important information at just a GLANCE.

GLANCE is an ambient device that acts as both a desk light as well as a glance-able notification device. Based on your needs, you can tell your GLANCE to notify you on a multitude of different price changes:

• Amazon WishList Price Drops
• Flight Tracker Price Changes *Price Drops at Best Buy
• Ebay max price hit or winning bid notifications
• And more!... 

Recipes created on IFTTT send information between applications and Gmail and Spark (an IOT prototyping computer).

Spark code writes a function to the cloud.

When Spark sees an unread email, it flashes the appropriate light, then stays on .

A second Spark function turns the lights off if the email is no longer marked "unread."

CLICK HERE for a full project description

IOT Home "Many-to-Many" NETWORK :
A Mood-sensitive home

For the Internet of Things to fully encompass our lives, these things must not all rely on central 'hubs' to tell them what to do but must become more autonomous and work in tandem with each other.  This works when they can hand-off information to each other and make decisions based on their own programming and learning.

This research project, created with the idea of a de-centralized smart lighting system with no central hub, relies on proximity of the user to each unit and then a master/slave programming relationship to allow a "hand-off" of control.

ETSY STORE: Laser-cut Designs

Furniture Design: Hidden Storage Chair for small Apartments

CHALKBOARD DRAWING

Child's Clock Design