Thursday
Feb192009
Gems of Unnoticed Problems
Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 1:16PM
Pleasure and Pain alerted me to a talk series not unlike the TED talks called the Gel Conference. One talk to catch my attention was by Oxo's Alex Lee. Alex explained how Oxo, a kitchen utensil company renowned for its comfy designs, is constantly on the lookout for the gems of unnoticed problems; those unquestioned and unnecessarily difficult things people have to do everyday.
Traditional measuring cup
Oxo measuring cup
I like his example of asking people "What is wrong with your current measuring cup?", which got answers like "it's sometimes slippery", or "the handle gets hot with hot liquids in it", but never
People didn't see the problem, until Oxo presented them with the solution. (Oxo actually didn't invent the better measuring cup design, they just improved on it and brought it to the masses).
UPDATE: As was brought up in the comments, a company called Smart Design does the design work for Oxo. In addition, Oxo recieves many unsolicited designs, which on rare occasion turn into real products. This cup is one example.
Alex Lee at Gel 2008 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.
Traditional measuring cup Oxo measuring cupI like his example of asking people "What is wrong with your current measuring cup?", which got answers like "it's sometimes slippery", or "the handle gets hot with hot liquids in it", but never
"it's actually hard to measure accurately without pouring a bit, bending down to look, pouring some more, bending down again…"
People didn't see the problem, until Oxo presented them with the solution. (Oxo actually didn't invent the better measuring cup design, they just improved on it and brought it to the masses).
UPDATE: As was brought up in the comments, a company called Smart Design does the design work for Oxo. In addition, Oxo recieves many unsolicited designs, which on rare occasion turn into real products. This cup is one example.
Alex Lee at Gel 2008 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.
tagged Design, oxo, unintuitive, usability in Video
Design, oxo, unintuitive, usability in Video
Reader Comments (48)
Not inexperienced in the kitchen, I feel the OXO measuring cups are far more convenient for filling, but not necessarily for emptying. If you're trying to pour out a certain amount, leaving some in the cup, it can be difficult to view the top measuring lines with a more opaque liquid, as well as ingredients that dirty the lines. In these cases, you generally revert back to the side-viewable lines. Overall though, the cups are a pleasure to use and an improvement on their predecessors.
Is it really better? Be honest.
This is a classic example of bug listing -- finding something wrong with an existing class of solutions. While useful, at the end of it you get...an improved measuring cup.
Needfinding can be far more useful for coming up with entirely new classes of solutions. It takes ethnography, long-term exposure to other people, and a willingness to analyze the stories people tell to find new questions that need to be answered instead of just finding new answers.
Thanks for the link love, Keith, and glad you enjoyed the video!
OXO actually introduced a problem with their measuring cup by making it out of plastic.
There is no such thing as "microwave safe" plastic, and OXO does not claim that their plastic measuring cups are safe for microwave use.
I often use my measuring cups for heating liquids or melting ingredients for baking in a microwave oven. As such, I generally demand more utility out of a kitchen tool than the OXO cup will currently offer.
Oddly enough, they offer a 2-cup (the most popular size) in stainless steel as well. They do go so far as to not recommend this model be used in a microwave. I guess I'll be sticking with my old Pyrex glass cups for now. Too bad; great idea, awful execution on OXO's part.
Good grief Peter, some things haven't changed in decades, not because no one is looking for new answers, but because some problems are not in need of them. There may well be a completely new class of device which is better for measuring liquids than a cup, but I'm hard pressed to think of one – much like generations of need-seeking engineers have been hard pressed to improve upon the wheel.
Thanks all for commenting.
@oxoagent
I'm not sure if the measuring cup is 'really better', having never tried it. Oxo stuff tends to be pretty good in general though, I've used a reasonable amount of their stuff to believe that. I own their vegetable slicer and find that pretty crap though, although I've not tried another.
@ Pedro That's an interesting point. I've never used the cups myself, and it's very zen to think that emptying a cup is as important as filling it :-)
@ Peter I agree, I don't think Oxo is really 'innovating' as much as slightly tweaking existing designs.
@ Whitney, thank you! Your blog is great :-)
I just want to confirm the cup does not do well after 2 much time in a microw. Also, the black handle comes off too easily after a few uses.
Great idea otherwise :)
@ Pedro
emptying is as important as filling, but it does not answer the question:
Is it half empty or half full?
;-)
@KillBill
Nothing is ever half full or half empty - it's always full, it will contain whatever you put in, including air.
"Oxo, a kitchen utensil company reknown for it’s comfy designs"
'reknowned' surely. Good article slightly spoiled by small error. And, yes, I know that this is pedantic, but when you're talking about the minutiae of good design, surely the same accuracy in language is even more important.
i think there's a huge bunch of work needing to be done in designing for recycling/reuse. Basically all of these products are currently designed for a 'use until one feature fails and then throw away.' Which is a non-sustainable approach.
Big problem. Especially in the computer industry, where the elements are combined in hard-to-separate ways. And many of the chemicals are highly toxic.
@ Jake
My apologies. Spelling mistake now fixed.
I've used for some time the older Pyrex glass measuring cups from the 60's. They are hard to find, but have all the features I prefer
• The glass handle is farther away from the body
• The increments are in raised glass so they are super easy to use and see
• Microwave, dishwasher, oven and stovetop safe
• Easy to clean, don't stain when you leave an extra serving of marinara sauce in them
• One piece construction so there is nothing to come off or loose.
Really the key is the raised glass markings, east to see from any angle, and with any type of liquid (or solid).
So, now I need to watch a 20 min talk about Oxo to actually find out how they solved the darn measuring cup problem? Thanks a lot.
I like a lot of Oxo products, but not their measuring cups.
The best measuring cups are Pyrex, amusingly featured in the example photograph.
Jake, despite your pretention, your correction is wrong (it's "renowned", not "reknowned") and you managed to miss the other error in "it's comfy designs" (should be "its").
@Pedro, great point.
That got me thinking, it should be possible today to build a "pouring cup", that pours out exactly the right amount without any measuring -- at least on the cook's part.
I'm envisioning something like a pitcher or kettle, with a dial. You fill it, and dial in how much you want to pour out (if the dial wasn't already set to the right portion). Then pour through the spout, and when that much has come out, the spout is immediately shut off. Perfect pours, every time.
Of course all the required sensors and moving parts probably wouldn't be too microwave/stove friendly.
But perhaps they could be built into a detachable lid that fit over a simple pyrex cup. So you could cook in the cup, and when you wanted to measure, just snap on the lid and pour out exactly what you needed.
@ telos. You're right. Arg. Now fixed!
How about this? For better or for worse, Americans still use the English measuring system, and not metric. Around 80% of all people are right-handed. Yet for some weird reason, all measuring cups are designed so that, when held with your dominant right hand, you're forced to view the metric measuring system instead of the one you actually know. Frustrating!
I have one of these measuring cups, and it's great for liquids unless as some mentioned, you need to pour off *some* of the liquid - you still then have to put the cup down to check it.
One thing it's really bad for is baking. Try filling one of these with 1 1/2 cups of flour. The flour always covers the numbers, and because the plastic is staticy, flour tends to stick to it.
For liquids that you don't have to heat in the microwave, it's great, but this Oxo measuring cup is not a replacement for a good glass Pyrex cup.
@Kris. Do you really need your dominant hand to pour from a measuring cup? There are situations I can think of immediately where I want to use my off-hand, like pouring slowly into a mixture I'm whisking with my dominant hand.
@Vincent
Take a look in your toilet's flush tank ;)
I don't need to, but I find it to be the most natural hand to hold it with. Come to think of it, I think I *always* use my right hand with cups and glasses.
We had an Oxo measuring cup for a while and I didn't care for it. I always found myself looking at the side markers to measure things, because the numbers inside the cup got covered up when measuring a liquid like milk, and I didn't feel that the accuracy was as reliable as looking directly at the line on the side. I guess it's probably not a big deal if you're not obsessed with exact measurements like I am. Interesting how the person in the photo of the Pyrex cup is using it to measure the exact thing that the Oxo cup isn't good at: an opaque substance.
Also, after a few years the cup started to get hairline cracks and eventually large cracks, rendering it unusable. Now we're happily using a Pyrex measuring cup.