Designer: Aaren Esplin
Tools & Media: Siftables, Siftdev & MonoDevelop
I had just moved into a new apartment after a summer of sublets and couch surfing, and as I turned my stove on I realized the controls were different from the last stove I had used, so I decided to redesign the stovetop and address the inconsistent realworld mapping of stoves, and lack of safety features.
Siftables were an interesting tool because they pushed me to design interactions that broke with traditional controls of the stove; I had to think in tilts and shakes not turns or pushes. I designed the controls so the user is able to clearly see the heat leave from across the kitchen, so they feel in control of the stove at all times. I also designed the burners to have sensors that control the burners’ power. This project helped me realize that I often stick to latent design concepts because people already know how to interact with them, and that does not always lead to the best solutions.
