Grind Clean
Creating a simple product to solve three problems
PROBLEM:
Insinkerator presented three factors that needed a solution to make garbage disposals more appealing to users. These three factors were fear factor, convenience factor, and yuck factor. These factors were the focus for research and concept development.
CONVENIENCE FACTOR:
The ability to quickly and efficiently dispose of waste, while minimizing time and physical contact with food waste.
FEAR FACTOR:
The combination of the power of a disposer and the general lack of knowledge of how they work.
YUCK FACTOR:
Having to deal with all the leftover food from creating and consuming meals. As well as all of the negative sensory inputs associated with food waste.
BRAND RESEARCH:
Since we didn’t know much about their brand and products, we researched their history, past products, current products, and even products used for commercial and industrial use.
DISPOSAL RESEARCH:
This kind of research was used to discover other ways to dispose of food waste, from different kinds of composting to dehydration. This inspired us to come up with creative and innovative ideas for our concepts.
MARKET RESEARCH:
We had to understand any pros and cons with Insinkerator and their competitors. Amazon was used to collect price points; key words used for advertisement, and read reviews to gain information of what people thought of each brand and their products.
IN-HOUSE STUDIES:
It was critical to use Insinkerator’s products ourselves. We built an in-house set-up to test two of their models, the Badger and XL.
INITIAL CONCEPTS:
Sketches were created to communicate and visualize different solutions for the 3 factors, fear, yuck, and convenience. Concepts ranged from turning waste into energy and watching septic use.
This concept moved forward to refinement.
GRIND CLEAN Refinement:
This concept was inspired from our in-house studies research from testing and using both disposers. From observing different students use the disposer, people reacted and interacted with the disposer differently; yuck factor, fear factor, and convenience factor were evident.
Final Design:
The Grind-Clean is a solution for all three factors, as shown in this sequence. Making the user avoid using their hands solves the fear factor. The solution for the convenience factor is making it so that the user doesn’t have to touch the food waste, it is dishwasher safe, and can be stored with their other utensils. The yuck factor is solved by making users avoid touching any food waste, being shielded from splashes, and being able to clean the disposer making it odor free.
