What is an UD Product
Audit?
The product audit is verification & validation that the product meets the requirements of the design record. It is the examination of a particular product to evaluate whether it conforms to specifications, performance standards and customer requirements.
The Universal design product audit is the one where the product is examined with the consideration of Seven Principles of Universal design. This will help to think about their own needs and those of other potential users when selecting products. Further it will help in the development of products with respect to fair, impartial, flexible, simplicity in usage and low physical effort.
Understanding the Pressure cooker
What?
Pressure Cooker is an airtight metal pot that uses steam under pressure at high temperature to cook food quickly. It was invented by Denis Papin, a French physicist, in 1679. Pressure Cooker generally made from Aluminum or Stainless Steel.
How?
The food to be cooked is placed in the pressure cooker, with a small amount of water. The lid is closed, the weight is placed on the steam vent and the pressure cooker is placed on a heat source. As the internal temperature rises, the pressure also rises. The increased pressure inside the pot delays the water and or other liquids inside the pot from boiling under it reach a much higher temperature. Result, the cooking process is sped up considerably.
Pressure cookers in Indian Context.
A unique component of Indian cookware is the “whistling” pressure cooker. Some Indian dishes are best cooked in this handy utensil. It speeds up the cooking process and is perfect for cooking foods in the “dum style”(pressure cooking foods in their juices). It’s primarily used to cook rice, lentils (Daals), etc. Nowadays Electric Rice Cookers are replacing these traditional pressure cookers for boiling rice. It is a faster method to cook a variety of items like vegetables, meat, etc in a pressure cooker.
Cooks in India use the whistle noise of the cooker as their timer and signal when the pressure reaches set frequency.
User actions
Observation and Understanding the problem
We used Prestige and Futua Inner lid pressure cooker for auditing. After taking a set of observations, we analyzed the product with these three processes. Closing, Opening, and) Cleaning.
Insights
Following are the analysis of user actions based on the seven priniciples of universal design
Pain and Gain points
Design scope
Usage of temperature sensitive paints
Light weight body
Intuitive opening and closing of the lid
Proper instructions for the first time users
Simplified cleaning and rinsing process
This audit is a part of Universal design thinking module at National Institute of Design, Bangalore
Stricitly done for education purpose
Guided by,
Prof. V SRavishankar, Nijoo Dubey, Ashok Mondal