The food and user experience combination
“FOOD takes a provocative and unconventional look at areas that could have a profound effect on the way we eat and source our food 15-20 years from now” says the FOOD-project of this consumer electronics company. Wih three new projects Diagnostic Kitchen, Food Creation and Home Farming Philips figures out what the design probes are.
Watching a new episode of Top Chefs (called ‘Restaurant Wars‘), Peter Merholz (President of Adaptive Path) identifies at least three similarities between starting a restaurant and Experience Design/Management: Communication, Experience Matters, and Finish Strong.
“The atmosphere, the people involved, the stories behind the ingredients, the taste and texture, sound, smell and colour of food and the way it is prepared and served. She explores the intimacy of design that actually goes inside your body and follows the journey of food from seed all the way to poop. Thinking about all this and working and experimenting in her studio and restaurant and by creating eating experiences for her clients she has developed her own unique way of looking at eating from a psychological, cultural and design point of view.” says Dutch eating-designer Marije Vogelzang in her newly published book ‘Eat Love‘.
Marije considers cooking something for professionals.
It’s always interesting to hear people’s stories of their most memorable dining experience(s). Which experiences shaped them for the rest of their lives? This Meal in Venice from 1978 by Rick and Teel Sale made them really, really happy. They’ll never forget. “Papa! Papa you did it! You made it!“
It’s (still) a far cry from having this kind of UX. [via Jason Kottke]
Untill now, reception of FoodUX has been good in most tweets. More to come…
At the site of the famous restaurant The Fat Duck, cuisinier Heston Blumenthal takes the opportunity to outline some of his philosophies and chef statements regarding food, cooking and eating. The parallels with user experience (design) are remarkable.
“We believe that cooking can affect people in profound ways, and that a spirit of collaboration and sharing is essential to true progress in developing this potential. The act of eating engages all the senses as well as the mind. Preparing and serving food could therefore be the most complex and comprehensive of the performing arts. To explore the full expressive potential of food and cooking, we collaborate with scientists, from food chemists to psychologists, with artisans and artists (from all walks of the performing arts), architects, designers, industrial engineers. We also believe in the importance of collaboration and generosity among cooks: a readiness to share ideas and information, together with full acknowledgment of those who invent new techniques and dishes.”
(c.f. Heston Blumenthal, Harold McGee, Thomas Keller and Ferran Adria)
Lucia Terrenghi reflects in this position paper “Sticky, Smelly, Smoky Context: Experience Design in the Kitchen” 
on the challenges to design, setup and evaluate a user experience in hybrid contexts, i.e. physical and digital ones, of everyday life.
It is an exploration of the introduction of digital display technology into the kitchen environment. The paper looks at the complexity of the cooking context and considers how the introduction of technology in the kitchen can affect the cooking experience.
How something looks has great influence on how it feels. “Look-and-feel” would many say simplistically. This applies to objects in our environment, like products, dishes, and others.
The study of Sun and Wang from Taiwan called “Analysis of Interrelations between Bottle Shape and Food Taste” shows how specific atom arrangements of a bottle shapes ones taste.
An interesting relationship between tangible and intangible phenomenons. Just like an application and the user experience emerging from its use.