Kitchen 2

With my post, people told that there is an optimal kitchen design. Not sure this can be implemented in an apartment, but it is good to work from this “template”. I shall implement this in our new kitchen where it has an island.

If you understand the basic principles of kitchen layout will help take much of the mystery out of the design process. The most basic layout principle is the work triangle. The work triangle is the line drawn from each of the three primary work stations in the kitchen – the food storage, cooktop, and sink. By drawing these lines, you can see the distance you’ll walk to move to and from each area.

The sum of the ideal triangle is supposed to be between 15 and 22 feet, putting each of the three appliances within two or three steps of one another.

Restroom Door

I wonder why all the restroom doors open inside… meaning there is a handle inside the bathroom. (Maybe I am not aware of the ones that open by pushing from inside, so let me know if anybody sees it!) You have to wash your hands and then you have to pull a handle to open the door. I hope everybody washes their hands,  but especially at a public restroom where they don’t look so clean, I hate to touch the handle. I wonder if there is any regulations about which side the door has to open, but I wonder if the sanitation and user experience was considered for designing doors of public restrooms.

Road signage

Boston has too many tolls. It is annoying that I have to pay a toll, but it’s more annoying that there is no good signage to indicate which lane I should be in until the last minute. I always see that too many cars are lined up for one side of the road because the other side is for fast lane. But if you see it carefully, between fast lanes, there is usually a cash lane. Most places, the sign does not become visible to drivers until you are too close to a toll and it’s too late to change the lane without making other drivers annoyed that you are trying to change the lanes. This of course creates traffic. This is true for when two lanes are becoming one lane. If there is a good sign way beforehand to prepare drivers and control their expectations, this will reduce much traffic. If you calculate economic impact, creating good signage must pay off a lot both for drivers and for the city….

Kitchen

We have been complaining about our kitchen space for a while. It’s too small for two people to do any major cooking. But as I thought about it more carefully, the flaw is not only on the layout and design of the appliances, but it is also on how I placed and stocked utensils, pots and pans, cooking materials and seasonings in this kitchen….  

Our kitchen while cooking is happening.

our kitchen

Structurally, it’s not much space. And the stove is placed at a corner which does not allow much space for cutting or keeping ingredients. But let’s think about the placement of all the cooking materials in this kitchen. The left shelf, I use it for a pantry and stock things like pasta or chicken stocks. The next two, I place things like glasses and coffee cups, but I also store seasonings because while I am cooking I have to reach out to them. And on top of the stove, I place things that I don’t use at all (or something I occasionally use), and on the right I place plates. Under the stove, I store all the pots and pans and seasoning like oil, vinegar, and soy sauce (because we buy big bottles, they do not fit on cabinets that are three levels). It seems reasonable placement, but it becomes such a chaos as one is always trying to reach out either the seasoning, pots, or dishes (to try to set a table) while the other is standing right in front of the stove cooking the meal. This provides distractions to the workflow of the chef, but multi-tasking is necessary. This becomes even more chaotic if we have to open a dishwasher while cooking. 

Since we will be moving to a new apartment at the end of the summer, what I am determined to do is try to use the new kitchen and cook some meals first, trying to understand how I would use the kitchen before deciding where to place all my utensils, pots and pans, and seasonings. I have to understand my own workflow and needs to create a me-friendly environment for our own kitchen. 

Hakusan Tea Cup

Tea cups that were given as gifts are modern and useful. It has indentations to place your fingers to hold a cup better.   I found a website that shows similar design.

hakusan tea cup

 

 

However, one thing doesn’t work well. In terms of ergonomics, you can’t pore any hot tea into this. The cup is so thin that it gets too hot to place fingers as designed!!! So although it is beautifully designed and feels very cool, it can’t be used as an everyday tea cup.

Wii

My husband and I went to visit our friends last night. They recently bought a Wii and invited us to play. Although I’m Japanese and many people may think that I must have played it by now, it was actually my first time playing it! I knew we were going to have fun, but I was amazed I had so much more fun than I expected! Starting from making our own “mini-me”s, we couldn’t stop laughing. My husband made himself a really funny looking face with geeky haircut and big sunglasses (and he was really strong at every sport he played!), while I made a big-eyed Japanese anime-like character. We played tennis and bowling and drank cocktails made with freshly juiced pineapple, peach, and orange juice. 

The experience I had with Wii was very different from other video games. Wii targets people who don’t usually play video games. It is inclusive and interactive. I usually don’t play video games, and I have to say I am not really good at playing them. I mean, I don’t think I have particularly good fine motor skills, so video games that need to have good eye and body coordination (like racing cars), I am not good at it. But this one was different. It really feels like you are playing tennis or bowling. And it even has an audience who “wow”s and “oh”s for you, which provides emotional aspects in playing it, not mentioning our own “mini-me”s. In fact, we were calling each other by “mini-me” character names, and not our own. It was also easy to learn how to use the controller. For the games we played, I only needed to use two buttons: button A and B, which were placed at front and back, so I was only using my thumb and index finger. Other things were done by body motions. Wii addresses barriers for non-gamers: it can be played with many different groups of people. It is easy to learn. And it encourage emotional connection, making you want to come back and play again and again. For example, once you create your “mini-me”, you can transport it to other locations. So you always feel like you are the main actor. 

I think we’ll go back to their place again and play more games. And now, I want to get Wii Fit, with which I can do my own exercise.

My very first post

Today I finally set up this new blog site and am very excited about it! I have been thinking of starting a blog, but it took me a while to finally start it. In this blog site, I’d like to write about my thoughts and reflections on design and experience that I encounter every day. 

Just a little about myself… I am originally from a small town in Kyushu, Japan, and have been living in Boston USA for the last 10 years. My background is in graphic design and usability. I am now working in a software group in a management consulting firm, applying my design and usability skills to create effective customer experiences. So this blog represents my personal reflections and analyses on design and the experience of everyday things, or “mono” (in Japanese, mono means “a thing”).