This exploration on the the values of rituals allows students to develop a deeper understanding and meaning in experience creation.
The Diploma in Experience and Product Design trains students to engage in various design research methods, leading to the creation of meaningful and relevant engagements. Equipped with an array of skills and knowledge from materials exploration, haptic experimentation to prototyping, ideation and design communication, students are able to create and design experiences through both tangible and intangible forms of products and services as the medium.
Rituals establish a set of the actions and possibly emotions as we go about doing things. We practice a set of rituals when it comes to food. These rituals, natural or artificial, will and has altered our overall dining experience. Like habits, the value and purpose of rituals may be taken for granted or forgotten over time. We just go about doing them without thought. Yet, they have obvious impact to our dining experience. These rituals do not just enhance the taste; it can be seen as a social tool, serves as a religious, cultural and identity markers. Food producers, chefs, restaurant owners and packaging designers all understand the effects of rituals to affect the eventual eating experience. This project challenges the students to reconsider ‘eating/dining rituals’ we have adopted and imagine how design can be applied to create ‘rituals’ that could enhance the eating/dining experience.
Snacks may seem like a fun and trivial food type, but they actually serve as powerful and effective way for connecting people. The act of sharing snacks is typically done with family members and friends. The common method of consuming snacks would be using fingers to pick up snacks either one by one or several pieces at a time. Snacks typically come in large quantities and are usually bite sized for easier consumption. They are often shared in containers with wide openings that make it easier for people to reach for them. Smaller quantities may also be set out on small plates or snack trays for people to take their pick as they eat. Snacks are synonymous during celebrations. Snacks consumed during festivals usually hold some traditional and auspicious values. For example, during Chinese New Year, pineapple tarts are believed to bring good luck and prosperity to the house. The pineapple tarts, as with other snacks, are neatly arranged in red-capped plastic containers or round candy boxes. Snacks fulfill the ritual of celebration. Snacks often serve as a representation of the celebration and celebrations would feel incomplete without it. Shared snacks can also come in bigger sizes than the ones we are familiar with, yet they still hold the same level of significance in the celebrations that they are involved in. A birthday cake, for example, is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of birthday food. Why do we cut the cake into slices and serve them to guests? The sharing of cake is actually a representation of the sharing of joy and togetherness. Cakes are shared as a form of courtesy; it reflects one’s hospitality and respect for guests. Cakes, pizzas and pies are forms of food/snacks that offers a different way of sharing. They are cut into slices typically for individual portioning. This actually presents an opportunity to enhance the experience of sharing such food.
The concept is to introduce a set of snack cutters that recreates the way we consume food meant for sharing during celebrations, by encouraging people to sit together around the food item and share it by consuming it together. The inspiration comes from cookie cutters as they are used in seasonal occasions, have decorative shapes and assist in producing uniform sizes of snacks.
The snack cutters divide the food item into snack-sized pieces and can be used for various foods, such as cakes, pizzas, pies and tarts. Simply cut, extract and eat. They come in various shapes to make snack cutting a fun activity. The idea of the snack cutter redesigns the way food is consumed and creates a new eating experience for users, making it more memorable moment.
Whenever there’s a celebration, different food unique to the celebration or event will contribute to the feast. People gather around the food and interact with each other during the event. It is also common that most people enjoy preparing food together. For example, Chinese family will gather to wrap dumplings during Chinese New Year and the Korean will mix food ingredients together with their neighborhood during Fermented Soybean Festival. The gathering of people for food preparation is a ritual whenever there is a celebration. People enjoy working together as a team and sharing the gain with everyone afterwards. The sense of achievement and interaction among people is the main purpose of many celebrations and they are able to feel it through the whole process of food preparation for the celebration. It helps people to bond together subconsciously while everyone is putting some effort to prepare the food for the day. Other than that, people also gather to prepare food together whenever they have free time because they enjoy the time spent with family and friends to carry out activity together. My aim is to enhance the experience of food preparation and to bond people through this process. I have looked at the way people gather with food and how people eat or prepare food together. There are some differences between
the Asian and Western family in terms of the way they deal with food. Chinese families typically have their kitchen and stove facing the walls and the spaces they can use are limited to the table surface in front of them. In Singapore, the common HDB kitchen size is approximately 4 meters along the wall. The size and orientation of the kitchen does not allow for effective communal food preparation. In Western countries, the typical kitchen typically includes an island table behind the stove for people to prepare ingredients for cooking. Their kitchen has an open concept and allows people to gather in the kitchen to prepare food together. In many cases, the style of the kitchen is a limiting factor for the gregarious food preparation experience. Could we enhance and increase the opportunity of family gathering to prepare food within the constraints of our tiny kitchen today? Instead of having a stuffy and closed wall-facing kitchen, perhaps an additional working surface that can be fit in other spaces in the house to provide more chances for people to partake in preparing food and increasing the chances of people interacting with each other. People can connect together much more by helping each during the whole process. For example, passing kitchen tools, mixing ingredients, commenting on the taste and enjoy the result together.
This food preparation surface is to bring people to prepare food together in other spaces in their house. Getting out from kitchen, this table surface is design to be portable so that it is convenient to use when needed. Inspired by the function of a Lazy Susan, this product has a flat surface which contains two rings which the outer layer is able to be rotate and lock at every 90 degree turn while the inner layer is fixed and it is for food display. According to the nature of the way of food preparation, the common way is to assemble the food ingredients to create the end product. It is designed in a round shape and able to fit at most to 4 people. Every person who partakes in the food preparation can take up a role such as cutting, mixing, wrapping, peeling and etc. The ingredients can be passed to the next person by just rotating the table. The finished product is then placed on the center of the table. All the action will be able to done on this table surface before the cooking process. This design is to create comfort and encourage to gather and facing each other to prepare food together. Other than that, it is easy to clean and keep at a corner in the house. Not only does this enhance the experience of food preparation, it also increases the opportunity of the communication between family and friends by inviting them to make food together with this product. Preparing food together can increase the appreciation of food because people tend to appreciate more on things made by them. Most importantly, it makes our everyday life a celebration.
It is believed that hot pot originated from Mongolia and family and friends would have a feast around this steaming pot of stew cooked with coal fire. Not only the warm soup nourishes the body, it keeps the body warm as well. This gathering has evolved into a form of ritual performed to mark the end of winter. Hot pot is a significant dish for the Chinese during Chinese New Year as they place a huge amount of emphasis on being reunited with family members especially during this time of the year. I remember my family would gather over at grandma’s place for reunion dinner together with my relatives to usher in the New Year with much happiness. Everyone will help to bring the food onto the big round table before the reunion dinner starts. From the table, to the hot pot, to the bowls and plates, everything around the table is round. The Chinese believes that the circular shape symbolises fulfilment, perfection and unity. It is also believed that having excess food on the table during reunion dinner would bring in excess wealth for the family. Hot pot is the answer to any large dinner gatherings. First of all, instead of preparing a meal with several dishes, there is only one form of cooking done. Every guest will gather round the table with a steaming pot of boiling stock in the center and cook what they like – from a variety of ingredients like paper-thin sliced meats, dumplings, meatballs, vegetables, seafood and even noodles. For hot pot, the cooking soup (soup base) is very important. There are many types of soup bases for hot pot. As this is an asian dish, the soup bases ranges from basic chicken, to curry, to tom yum and not forgetting the spicy and numbing Szechuan ma-la. Although the ritual itself may not play much of a role in the quality of the hot pot, the simple act of engagement could heighten both anticipation and enjoyment of the entire eating experience. The beauty of hot pot is that there is always something in the pot for everyone, and that it is a shared experience. However, families nowadays cannot really find time to have a meal together. We still find time to gather for reunion dinner but during none festive season, we always find ourselves busy with work and studies. Hence the value of having a meal together as a family is diluted. My design intent is to enhance family bonding through food, in this instance, through a hot pot because of it values and significance behind it. The design intent is to simplify the process of preparing for hot pot.
With the understanding of the values and rituals of hot pot, my concept is to allow people to enjoy hot pot meals more frequently, by developing instant hot pot.
Users can start by purchasing fresh ingredients and the instant hot pot soup bundle from the supermarket. Subsequently, they can follow the simple preparation methods that is packaged in the bundle. With the hot pot bundle, users can spend more time enjoying the interaction with one another during a hot pot meal as the meal preparation has become less tedious.
Family meals have always been a routine we practice. It is a routine we are familiar with. Having at least one meal together is a practice most families follow daily. Dinner is normally the meal where everyone comes home to enjoy home-cooked food together. The idea of family dinner is to bring out family love or qualities through a shared experience of eating together. It is an opportunity for family to strengthen their family bonding through interaction we make during dinner. Many Asian cultures, like Chinese start their meals with greeting the elders and asking them to eat first, this is to show respect to the elders in the family. A typical Singaporean Chinese family dinner usually consist of 3 dishes & 1 soup for every dinner. This way, family members can have a variety of food and gain different nutrients from the food they consume. Dishes would be served in separate plates and place in the middle of the dining table for everyone to share. But for rice and soup, each family member will have his or her own serving. After the meal, family would have fruits together as dessert to conclude the dinner. The process of family members eating together, allows family to spent quality time with each other. Having conversations and sharing food makes a family connect with each other. These interactions during dining enhance the familial bonds and bring families closer.
Currently, due to busier lifestyles, the chance for every family member to come together for dinner has lessened. In local context, 8 out of 10 Singaporeans do not eat together during weekdays due to different work commitments. Family members tend to come home at different times. As such, family members do not wait for everyone home before eating. Those who are home during dinnertime would eat first and mothers would need to keep a portion of food for people coming back home later. This phenomenon has led to the ritual where mothers portion out food for family members returning home late. For convenience, mothers would put small portion of dishes on top of the rice in one bowl and store it in a rice cooker or they would just cover the food. This maintains the impression of freshness. Food that is left behind does not look very appealing because it looks like leftover food with dishes all mixed together. Hence, the experience of eating is a lot different from eating with family. Interactions between family members during dinner become paltry and meagre since sharing food and communicating with the whole family during dinner seems to have disappeared. The value of family dinner has thus weakened. My design direction would be to enhance the communication of family love by making the eating experience better for those family members returning home late.
My concept is to redesign the tableware for mums to portion the food easily, at the same time making the food look appetising. The interaction between family members can be shown by how food is presented. Family members would be able to appreciate the effort put in by their mothers and feel the family love.
When we think of coffee or tea, the first thing that comes to mind would be the all-too-familiar globalised Starbucks Coffee, among others. The carefully curated experience in Starbucks includes picking out your drink from the menu behind the barista and giving your name, as well as the preferred size of your drink, before anticipating the call out of your name to collect your order. It had become a trend for youths nowadays to leave with, not just a drink, but loads of photos waiting to be uploaded onto Instagram. Never mind that slight hole in their wallets, these cafes offer a place to mingle and hang out.
In other cultures though, it is more of a formal ritual. Tea ceremonies in Japan and China are revered for their rareness and highly respected procedures where most of their rituals revolve around the preparation of the tea, from the cleaning of tools and utensils, all until the way guests sip on the drink. There is precision in every movement, and the order of which they are conducted is strictly followed, as a mark of respect to both the guests as well as the host. Yet, in Singapore, there is still another culture that had been greatly neglected in the face of the recent “Café-hopping” trends that been going on. Kopitiams, or ‘coffee-shops’ in Singlish, has been a huge part of our potluck of different cultures and races. People of all walks of life would flock towards these places, whether for the cheap food or the assortment of kopi that are still made with brewing pots and sock filters. In fact, kopitiams could be considered the then popular “cafes” of the past and remains an indispensable part of our local culture. But what makes our Singapore kopi and teh unique was not just about how they tasted. In addition, what made them special was how simple it was to brew a cup. No fancy machines and complicated buttons to figure out. No whirring of blenders – just the sound of liquid pouring from one container to a cup, strained through a sock. A dollop of condensed milk (depending on your order), quick stirring with the teaspoon and hey presto! You got a cup of kopi, done in no more than a minute. Another thing about our local coffee and tea is the lingo that Singaporeans are well-familiar with – the many different ways of ordering varieties of the hot beverages. A normal kopi is coffee with sugar and condensed milk while kopi-o is coffee with sugar only. There is also kopi-c, coffee with sugar and evaporated milk, and kopi-o kosong, coffee with no sugar or milk. These are the basic examples and the same suffixes apply to teh too. It is a stark contrast when compared to how we order drinks in Starbucks. Our local tea/coffee culture is a reflection of a country’s culture. This, in turn, leads to my direction, which is to promote and allow people to enjoy kopitiam kopi and teh at home. By allowing people to make their own cup of kopi, they can also pass down the values as well as the culture down to the next generation, so as to keep the culture alive.
By designing a starter kit, people are better able to enjoy the kopitiam beverages right at home. Nowadays, people do not usually sell the required utensils in a set. Moreover, the size of the brewing pot deters people from buying, especially when the original version is meant for making many cups at a go, which may not be necessary for the home context. The size of the brewing pot is reduced, enough for a family of four and its shape and material is still retained from the original. The sock filter, rather than being completely horizontal, would be angled to be placed easily on the pot, allowing people to not have
This kit consists of a brewing pot, two sock filters, starter packets of grounded coffee and loose tea leaves. First, the user will pour two heaps of tablespoons of grounded coffee into the brewing pot. Water, kept a boiling temperature, is poured into the pot and put aside for 4 – 5 minutes. Once done, it would then be poured through a sock, so as to filter the fine grains of coffee. This is done twice, to ensure that the grains that managed to slip through are caught. The coffee would then be in a cup, preferably a glass cup. Depending on what the user wants, condensed milk and sugar is added to the cup and stirred quickly to create the ever popular kopi. For tea, two teaspoon of loose tea are put into a sock directly instead before being placed in a cup. Water is poured into the sock until it fills up but it is not left to steep for too long or it might become too bitter. After it drains into the bottom container, it is then emptied into another container and poured back through the sock again so as to catch the finer leaves of tea that seeped through the first time.
Healthy eating entails a certain order that actually involves the whole process of pre, during and post dining. The best way to stay healthy and eat well is to partake 5 meals a day with the required nutrition balanced out. Healthy eating starts by planning the meals ahead. Next, balance out your required daily intake and purchase only what is necessary. Preparation of meal begins by portioning out the food for each meal. It goes by measuring the grain portion, determining fish or meat portion and the amount of vegetables and fruits needed. When you are ready, either boil or steam your meal for a healthier choice. While eating, it is best to eat slowly with smaller bites and slower chews. After eating, record down what you have just consumed. Healthy eating can be developed as a ritual when the user does this constantly, but it requires a lot of effort. Through my research, I interviewed several health conscious individuals that practise healthy eating. Let me bring you through how a person actually stays healthy. Here is Lisa. She is 25, single and currently working as an accountant. Her goal is to be fit and stay healthy. She goes on a regimented diet by proportioning it. On a daily basis, with the previous day planning and refrigerated food storage in stainless steel containers, Lisa will cook the meal to bring to work. Routinely, she plans her meals for the following day using a phone app (Carb counter pro). The app helps her to balance out the daily caloric intake she needs by proportioning appropriately the amount of protein and carbohydrates. With the convenience of the supermarket, she will make her necessary purchases before the day ends.
Despite the strict regimental diet, Lisa can enjoy her meals fully by ‘cheating’. With her preference for certain condiments, spices and additives, she is able to make her food tastier. In addition, she dished out various combo meals to her liking. At the end of the day, she gets down to recording her intake of food and examines any variation. Furthermore, as she is involved in a group chat with people of similar habits, they will exchange their experience of partaking the meal as well as advice and recommendation. Lisa’s ritual encompasses certain factors like portioning of food, sticking to the ‘same menu’ and recording daily intake. The insights I gathered were that it is essential to plan meals, food proportioning is very important, necessary to record down food intake and it requires more effort to prepare the meal and count the calories. Following a ritual like this involves lots of discipline and it can be tedious too. However, the value of eating healthy consists of many strong benefits like taking control & managing one’s diet well, better weight control, improved moods, stronger immunity, energy boosts as well as self-discipline in eating. Moreover, it does entail an element of excitement in the selection of the various combination of food Lisa loves to eat each and every meal, every day. Therefore, my design intent is to create a less tedious way of controlling and managing food intake for healthy eating through a service in the most exciting and interesting way. This availability and convenience will help encourage persistence and dedication to healthy eating.
‘Fresh Portion’ is a re-imagined concept of eating healthy. With this whole new system, users can get to apportion their food in a less complex and tiring manner. The system consists of a mobile app that is integrated with the modular structured store. There will be three separate counters, the fruit section, vegetables section and meat section. Addressing the lengthy process of meal preparation, the counters include freshly cut fruits and vegetables as well as wholesome ones to choose from. The app helps to bring the proportioning of food into place by tabulating the calories for each selection. All the users have to do is simply to plan the meal by selecting the food options through the app beforehand. Afterwards, a trip down to the store to choose the necessary ingredients and let the counter staff know the amount of calories for each food is required for purchase. A label will be printed with the food details on the packaging. To keep track of what has been consumed, users can scan the barcode on the label and the information will be reflected on the ‘diary’ of the app. One unique element of this whole system is that users not only can plan a healthy right portion meal for oneself but also for the whole family.
With ‘Fresh portion’, Lisa can start planning her meals using the app. The app will calculate the amount of calories (1800 Cal) she requires in a day according to her height, weight and age. There are 4 sections in the app – profile, calories, diary and members. For Lisa to start planning, she would choose the calories option where a variety of fruits, vegetables and meat will be shown. Once she is done, the amount of calories she needs for each food will be shown- Fruit; Apple (120 Cal), Orange (220 Cal), Vegetables; Kailan (160 Cal), Spinach (130 Cal), Meat; Shin Beef (220 Cal). With all the information, she can make her way down to the store, choose the various food and inform the counter staff of the amount of calories she needs. It works the same when she orders for her family members. Once she is done, she is able to scan the label with the food details to keep track as well as add in information of any additives.
When we say brunch, the first things they would think of is a late morning meal, cafés and gatherings among friends or family. Brunch is a combination of ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’ which occurs during late morning or early noon, around 11am to 2pm. It is where of family members and friends get together during the weekends. It marks the weekends. Brunch is also a ritual for partygoers. It is a ritual for hangover recoveries. Partygoers partying late night every weekend usually wakes up late with a hangover. Heavy drinking over the weekend leads to bad hangovers. Brunch can become a remedy for hangovers partygoers as consuming fatty and greasy food help them to sober up. But most of the time, people who wake up with hangovers tend to just have a drink of plain water and head back to sleep. Those with hangovers do not normally have the appetite to eat. There is a remedy that can help alleviate the pain and headaches from binge drinking and it is called ‘Hair of the Dog Cocktail’, it is cocktail that helps those with hangovers. Alcohol itself will reduce the pain and hangover, and wine, which contains alochol could boost the consumers’ appetite in the morning. Another remedy for alleviating hangover is to eat fruits. The scent of peppermint is another good remedy for relieving hangovers because the smell can help people to focus and concentrate. Thus, I aim to enhance the experience of brunch for partygoers to have a proper meal at home. Perhaps a dosage of fruit syrup, wine syrup and peppermint could create a better experience for party-goers to have their brunch after having hangover.
The concept is to introduce a fruit and wine syrup, with peppermint oil as a new remedy for hangover, before having brunch. This set of 2 syrup mixture would contain wine, which contains alcohol, to delay the hangover, headaches and boost their appetite and fruits, that would help boost metabolism to get rid of those alcohol toxins. Both fruits and wine would be made into something similar to medical syrup where only a teaspoon of it needs to be consumed at one time. It is made into syrup because people might not be able to consume much water when suffering from the pain of a hangover. Peppermint oil which gives off a strong scent where users could inhale while consuming the syrup. This concept would work best as an instant packaging product that users could get from minimarts so that they can consume it in the morning as quick as possible to help with their hangovers and appetite. Thus leading them to be able to experience and enjoy brunch in a comfortable manner.
Comfort food relieves negative psychological effects or increases positive feelings. We would normally crave for these food on days we feel negative, hoping to feel better afterwards. Everyone has their own comfort food that is capable of perking up our emotions up, be it sweet or savoury, we automatically feel comforted after eating them. For me, my comfort food is congee. I grew up eating congee as a baby and I still eat it now wherever it is readily available. It is a traditional food in many countries and many cultures have their own variations. I love eating congee for its warmth and silky smooth texture and its ability to provide nostalgia of home and childhood to me. These qualities are what make congee so comforting to me. In a fast paced society where everyone leads busy lifestyles, we are prone to skipping meals due to the lack of time to cook from scratch; hence we often result to convenience food such as cup noodles or microwavable food. Some companies have created instant congee as a form of convenience food as well. From first hand experience, only 2 steps were required to prepare instant congee – opening the packaging and pouring in hot water. However, part of the comfort derived from congee is derived from the cooking process. Authentic congee takes 2 hours to cook. The instant version provides a significant reduction in the cooking time. Hence, it is also not surprising that much of the comfort quality from instant congee is missing too.
The design intent is to improve the process of making instant congee and to still provide the intangible sense of comfort. By reconsidering the gestures of making and consuming congee, improving its ingredients/garnishes and the packaging of instant congee, this project hopes to create the experience of comfort food in instant congee. Exploration in terms of material, form, colour and graphics will be conducted to improve the communication of comfort food in the packaging. Familiar and common gestures are considered and added to the 2 minutes process to enhance the making experience.
Wellness has become something that is hard to achieve due to our busy lifestyles. Today, the ritual of healing and wellness often takes place in spas. There are two aspects of the human body to take care of when it comes to healing and wellness, the physical and the mental. The physical healing and wellness of the human body can be achieved through the different treatments provided at a spa. Spa is the physical healing of the human body. Most spa treatments include bathing and massages depending on the kind of treatment that is chosen. The spa environment typically has dim lighting, scented rooms and soothing sounds to bring about a more relaxing experience to allow customers to feel more comfortable.The Indian spa treatment is known as the Ayurvedic massage. One well-known style is the Abhyanga, an “exercise with oil� massage that is taken prior to bathing. The body is rub-down with ghee or sesame and coconut oils infused with herbs. Through the rhythm and pressure of the massage, it tones the skin, strengthens the lungs and regulates the digestive system, achieving an overall rejuvenating effect on the body and mind. The Chinese spa treatment is designed to facilitate the regular flow of the life force. A treatment known as Gua Sha, which translates to rubbing the skin, is a traditional Chinese healing treatment that uses a round-edged tool with strong pressure massage techniques. It is aimed to stimulate acupressure points, remove stagnated blood and to expel heat or negative energy from the human body. Using a special oil, the therapist concentrates on the neck, shoulder, back, buttocks and limbs, and use a tool made of an Asian coin or buffalo horn, holding it at a 30-degree angle with the smooth edge touching the skin, rubbing it in a downward motion with moderate pressure. It increases the circulation of the blood and the patient will feel a change
instantly. It is a great remedy for those who suffer from chronic fatigue, pain and acute illness, asthma, cold and flu, and also can be paired with other treatments like acupuncture or acupressure. At the end of these treatments, it is common for the customers to consume tea as part of the whole healing and wellness ritual. Tea is used to enhance their whole rejuvenating experience. The cup of tea is supposed to help them rehydrate their bodies as well as get rid of any of the unwanted substances that are still lingering in the body, and prevent any pain or soreness from the massage. Some common teas served are ginger tea, which is good for the digestive system, and lemongrass tea, which promotes sleep and helps in relaxation. Beyond just drinking, tea can provide and enhance mental wellness through appreciation and preparation. The act of tea appreciation is a very refined process in the Chinese culture. From the preparation of tea to the consumption of tea, each has its own special sequence. Through tea appreciation, a person can be focused on the consuming of the tea and not think about any stressful matters. The process of making tea includes the preparation of the different tools and ingredients. The tea leaves are chosen and the leaves infused according to the type of tea being brewed. Preparing your own tea allows you to experience first-hand the different changes that occurs within the teapot such as the scent and the color changes that occur as the tea slowly brews. Through the preparation of tea, one is able to relax and take a break from the daily stresses of life. The senses are stimulated and it brings about a higher level of relaxation.
While the body is being healed in a spa, it is important to also consider the aspect of mental wellness for a holistic wellness experience. As such, my design intent is to enhance the experience of relaxation and wellness in a spa by incorporating the ritual of tea preparation. My concept is a tea kit that allows you to make your own tea and at the same time, relax your mind. The tea kit is inspired by the Chinese and Japanese art of tea making which focuses on the enjoyment of tea through the different senses and actions involved in making the tea. Through this tea kit, the essential tools as well as the herbs provided. Customers will be able to experience the whole aspect of mental healing through the preparation of tea.
The after-spa treatment that allows the user to make their own tea includes the following tools, a teapot, a tea cup, an infuser, a grinder, as well as different herbs chamomile and ginger. The user will first grind the ginger into smaller pieces and place them into the infuser with all the other herbs. They will then fill the teapot with hot water and place the infuser into the opening of the teapot. The user can then observe and appreciate all the color changes going on in the teapot. With the tea kit, the user is able to prepare their own tea and witness the different changes occurring and have their senses stimulated at the same time.
Drinking wine is about a set of rituals that that enhances the wide wine experience. A sommelier is a guide for wine. Just like a ritual, sommeliers go through a consistent series of steps to aid in the drinking experience. Choosing the wine is the first step, what occasion is it for, who is it for, red or white, food that pairs with etc. There are five variations of wine, red, white, rose, champagne, and dessert. The type, the region, the vintage all affects the taste of the wine. Choosing a right bottle for the appropriate occasion or food type could enhance the experience for the event. Upon deciding on a bottle, the way the foil that covers the cork is cut, screwing the cork and letting the customers inspect the bottle are all part of etiquette. The sniff or swirl that customers or users do to show appreciation to the wine and to air the wine to bring out the wine’s flavours. A sommelier does these to enhance the drinking experience. Drinking wine is not just a drink of fancy. It is a process of rituals which need to be abided to reach an enhanced experience of taste and smell.
To help beginners understand wine, Private Sommelier is an app that simulates a sommelier to guide the user through the user’s wine experience journey. Private Sommelier offers users to find wine based on the user’s preferred taste, recommends wine to food pairing and educates the user on wine etiquette and basic knowledge.
Private Sommelier can be used in two different scenarios. Scenario 1: User would use the Private Sommelier when looking to find a wine to drink on its own. By tapping on “ Find your taste “, the app will provide users a series of selections of type and taste of wine, educating the user the differences between the varieties. The user can choose to take the recommendation and make the required purchase. Scenario 2: User can also use the Private Sommelier when looking to pair wine with food. The app has embedded knowledge to provide recommendation on which type of wine would make great pairing with the variety of food the user has selected.
The lunchbox, is it merely a container for our meals from home or do they hold a larger significance to us? Every culture has their own unique version of a packed meal. One familiar example of a packed meal would be Japanese bento. Japanese mothers and wives lovingly prepare these home cooked lunches for their children or husbands practically everyday. They may decorate these lunches in elaborate arrangements, going so far as to embellish the food to look like cartoon sceneries or popular cartoon characters. This food decoration also serves as a means of communicating affection to the receiver. In India, the practice of having eating home cooked lunches is highly prevalent. Indian housewives cook their husbands’ lunches every morning and pack the food into a tiered metal tiffin container called a dabba. Individual dishes are packed into separate tiers and the entire container goes into an insulated bag which is collected by a deliveryman called a dabbawallah. Numerous lunches packed in this manner are collected from homes all over Mumbai and delivered to their recipients in offices. Most office workers prefer to eat meals from home rather than eating outside, this is due to hygiene, taste and the numerous dietary restrictions of India’s diverse population. Packing a meal is a ritual that is done regularly. It can create bonding through involvement and as a meal; it plays a part in fulfilling one’s day. Packing a meal is a ritual that starts at the same time everyday. Whether the packer cooks the meal the night before or prepares
the ingredients to be cooked in the morning is a matter of personal preference. The packer has to finish preparing the meal in the morning and pack it into containers or plastic bags to prevent the foods from spilling or mixing while being carried around. Part of the packing ritual also involves packing the meal to fit in the bag or container it will be carried in. On the receiver’s end, a packed meal is a ritual for them in a different way. Everyday, they will receive the meal and carry it with them to work or school. At lunchtime, they will settle down somewhere, perhaps take out their utensils and open up their meal from home and eat. After eating, the receiver either throws away the container (if it is disposable) or packs up the used utensils and container to bring home to wash. Packed meals have the benefit of being healthier and cheaper to consume. It also allows for more variety of food and may also be a better and safer option for people with dietary restrictions that are not easily met outside the home. Mothers or parents normally prepare packed meals, but since more parents are working, children may have less chance to consume a packed meal. As such, one must not discount the benefits of packing a meal for a loved one. A packed meal is a home cooked meal that is consumed out of the home. This meal can give a sense of comfort since the food is familiar. However, the familiarity of the food is the extent of the homeliness of the meal, the experience itself is quite different. As such, the homeliness of the meal could be further enhanced.
The aim of this concept is to make a packed meal feel like a piece of home away from it. This concept also considers the primary functionalities such as keeping the food fresh and maintaining at an ideal or optimum serving temperature.
When one is going to consume their packed meal, they will find a place to settle down to eat. The user will then unpack the meal and set out all the components of their meal. Each dish and component would be in a separate receptacle, just like how dishes are all in separate plates or bowls when being served at home. When eating, the user will take small amounts of food from each food container, like taking dishes to eat with rice during a meal at home.
Chocolates are the most cliché gift you could give to your special someone, yet this action and thought is sweet and that is what makes people do it. We all know that chocolates are often related to love as it is typically given as a gift of love, passion and care. Chocolate can also trigger feelings like relaxation, comfort and joy. Gifting chocolate shows your beloved that you care and made the effort to let your partner feel appreciated and special. There are people who only practice this ritual on special occasions like Valentines’ Day, anniversaries or even ‘monthsaries’. While there are people who actually gift chocolates to their partner from time to time, whether it is to cheer their partner up on a bad day, or a surprise gift to enhance the experience of the date. The meaning behind this ritual is to tell the receiver that they hold a special place in the sender’s heart and mind. In Japan, only the women give presents to men on Valentines’ day and chocolates are the most popular gift for the occasion. Japanese women are usually too shy to express their love; therefore Valentines’ day is a great opportunity to let women express their feelings by giving “honmei-choko”, which means “true love” chocolate. There is also “giri-choco”, which means obligation chocolate. These are given to men such as bosses, colleagues and male friends that they have no romantic interest in and just for the gratitude or friendship. Men are supposed to return gifts to women on a day called ‘White Day’ (March 14th). The color of the chocolate given is generally white because of the name of the day.
In Singapore, men are usually the ones that take initiative and get chocolates for their partner as a festive gift. There is no better way to show your love through a gift you select for your lover. For this reason, this gift should be well thought out and handpicked to match the person it is for. The ritual of gifting chocolates for couples is all about showing love to someone. This act of affection starts from trying to find out what chocolate type the intended recipient likes, deciding where to buy from, whether there should be fillings, what size or shape the chocolates should be, if it looks appropriate as a gift, to finally buying the chocolate, maybe wrapping it and then lastly presenting it as a gift. Through interviews with couples, it was found that a common behavior during the ritual of gifting chocolates is that chocolates will be shared with their partner if eaten on the spot. It would typically be shared in the way of “a bite for you, a bite for me”. Sharing chocolates suggests intimacy, it brings couples closer together, or can even propel the relationship to another level. According to research, ‘contaminated’ food sharing has some similarity to mouth-to-mouth kissing in that both reflect a willingness to accept biological ‘contamination’ from the other person. It throws signals of a higher willingness for “involvement” than those that showed uncontaminated feeding or non-feeding behaviours.
My design direction is to enhance couples’ relationship through the ritual of gifting chocolates and the way couples would normally consume it. Hence, my design intent will be to redesign chocolates and add a small surprise in it to enhance both the sharing experience and interaction, that can bring the couple closer together emotionally. The concept is to redesign chocolate form and add a little surprise in the chocolate. By adjusting the stress points of the chocolate and the form, it will lead the user to break/bite the chocolate a subconscious way. After sharing the chocolate, a key that is made of chocolate will be revealed and the sender can express their love and affection by saying a cheesy line like “you’re the key to my heart”, flattering the receiver in a most ridiculous way. This mini surprise for the recipient is a way of showing affection from the sender and adds more interaction and fun, thus enhancing the whole sharing experience.
Before buying chocolates for one’s partner, the user would normally try to find out what type of chocolate their partner prefers. After that, the user will go to a chocolate shop and look for the surprise chocolate. They would look through the available selection and pick and buy the chocolate. Before giving the chocolate, the user would read the instruction sheet that explains how the surprise chocolate works. The user will then gift the chocolate to the recipient and get them to share the chocolate on the spot. After sharing, the surprise will be revealed.
Human’s natural behaviors tend to avoid a wider range of selection, stated in ‘the paradox of choice’ by Barry Schwartz. On the contrary, the essence of buying or ordering an ice cream lies in the variety of flavours one has to choose, leading to one of the most prevailing ritual in food consumption; selection. Whenever we make an order in a fancy restaurant, a liquor bar, even traditional food courts, variety will always be present, which means it’s necessary to make a choice. Today, the ritual of buying ice cream begins with the sampling of flavours, followed by the number of scoops, ice cream flavors, and whether to have it in a cup or cone. Before making an order, we will lay our eyes upon the vast choices of ice cream flavours. With this diverse amount of colours and vibrancy displayed in front of us, there would be no doubt that many of us would find it pleasurable as it stimulates our brain with its aesthetic quality. During the selection ritual, the ice cream vendor serves by scooping the ice cream for us. In some stores like Cold Stone Creamery, they put up a ‘cooking’ performance by tossing and mixing it around in front of us, allowing us to witness the process of our order. All of these acts blend into the process of purchasing, which improves the experience of consumption. Many shops now seek to innovate more flavours to add into their collection. However, as the collection grows, others would also wish to sample the taste of all the variety offers. This poses a problem for customers due to the limitation of choices they can make. Hence, this becomes a let down for the overall experience as they cannot savour as many flavours as they wish. On top of that, the multiple flavours of ice cream would also be cluttered together in a cup or a bowl, ruining the beauty of ice cream and losing the stimulation we had while viewing the display.
With an aim to create a refreshing experience and culinary perception, this redesigned ice cream sampler palette will allow multiple choices of flavours (and toppings) in smaller quantity. It will be made out of marble to retain the frozen properties of ice cream from its cold surface after being frozen. Each scoop will be displayed individually in their own ‘compartments’ for customers to savour each flavour wholeheartedly and to prevent overlapping or cluttering of the scoops. It also aims to maximize aesthetical value by translating the visual element of many different ice cream flavors from the shop display into palette itself. As the portion of ice cream for this sampler palette design is smaller, an appropriate scoop will be designed along with this to allow the vendors to serve faster and more efficient into the sampler palette. This new design for the scoop will also allow the server to scoop with lesser effort without straining his/her wrists.
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