Sd4001 meyer report

Group Report

Group Members

SD4001 Cooperative Project

Chu Yiu Fai 14025353D

Client: Meyer Trading Company Ltd.

Lau Pui Hing 14025369D

Tutor: CHONG Wai Yung

Kai Wai 14025894D Kwok Yat Ying Florence 14042572D Chilli, Wong Chiu Yee 14059326D

GROUP REPORT Chu Yiu Fai 14025353D | Lau Pui Hing 14025369D | Kai Wai 14025894D Kwok Yat Ying Florence 14042572D | Chilli, Wong Chiu Yee 14059326D

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Formed in 1951 in Hong Kong, Meyer, with its technological advancements iazn cookware, distributes cookware in more than 38 countries. The company produces more than 42 million pans per year.

Pleasing yourself to create a happy and healthy meal through a pleasurable cooking experience is the core aim of the project.

Everyone eats, not everyone cooks! Living in a city, having enough time and space to prepare food and cook, is a significantly luxurious experience for many people. This project aims to investigate the lifestyle of new generations and understand the cul-

tural diversity in food. With sophisticated technological support from Meyer, the project allows us to explore a new area in physical and experiential design. Providing us the opportunity to collaborate with different stream of design students and learn from each other.

Project deliverables include a series of kitchen accessory designs with prototypes, promotion materials design, and video. Selected design will be implemented.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

008

010

026

INTRODUCTION

MARKET RESEARCH

OFFICE LUNCH CULTURE

012 SWOT Analysis

028 Current Situation

014 Market Evaluation

036 Users’ Thoughts

022 Identify Trend

038

044

060

RESEARCH ANALYSIS

DESIGN DIRECTION

FINAL SOLUTION

042 Findings & Opportunities

048 Primary Consumer Persona

064 Product Research & Testing

043 Ideal Attributes

056 Secondary Consumer Persona

071 Product Concept 072 Product Material 080 Product Features 086 Steps of Using 096 Product Possibilities 104 Marketing Strategy

124

126

134

CONCLUSION

PROJECT TEAM PROFILE

APPENDIX

128 Reflection

134 Referencing 136 Product Sketches

INTRODU When we talk about bringing lunch box to work, what are your first impressions? Is it Stingy? Embarrassing? Or your food always taste and look bad after reheating? We will find out about this problem with several different approaches and steps.

We want to design a new product for new generation. Millennial attitudes and actions vary across the globe. They are concerned about quality of life and health. Millenial are willing to pay more for products that they think are eco-friendly and even more willing to pay more for products that they perceive as healthier. Their influences are much more bigger than we thought it would be.

8

UCTION 9

MARK

KET

SWOT ANALYSIS reach the new generation Food safety is become a hot topic. People are more concerned about product safety.

In the future, more and more people will start to prepare their own lunch box. It is a big opportunities for us to develop a new product.

Meyer has a good reputation. But new generation think this brand is quite tradition, because meyer is very functional and more focus on cookware, kitchenware.

About the Meyer spokespersons, Meyer usually find 12

some chef and female artist who got married. New generations consumers feel this brand is target for housewife or people who have cooking experience.

So we recommend that Meyer can try do develop some new product to reach new generation and expand target market. Create new lifestyle and improve the quality of live.

S-Strengths Good Reputation International Functional

W - Weakness Traditon (Kitchenware, tableware) Hong Kong TA: Housewife

Reasonable Price

O -Opportunities

SO

WO

“Healthy�

Create new lifestyle

Open up new markets

Consumption

Show quality of life and taste

Attract new generation

The quality of life Social Life

T - Threats Competitors Convenient Concerned about Food Safety

Brand image

Opportunities for Socializing

ST Develop new product to meet market demand

WT Expand Target Market Localize

Ensure food safety

13

I-WANT-TO-DO

and their mobil the kitchen.

“

“

Millennials are

Cooper. J. Cooking Trends Among Millennials: Welcome to the Digital Kitchen

14

bringing their

O ATTITUDES

le devices into MARKET EVALUATION

Why we target the new generation? Because most of them will cook. The Google report point out that, millennials are bringing their I-want-to-do attitudes and their smart phone into the kitchen. They are turning to mobile to get all the information they need. They can more easily to learn and improve their cooking skill from YouTube or Website.

15

OIL STREET COOKING DAY what’s happening In order to design tableware, cookware or other gadgets for Meyer, knowing the pros & cons of cooking is a must. Therefore we had a site visit to the open kitchen run by XCHANGE. We cooked and invite peeple to try the food we made. Besides experiencing cooking, questionnaires and Interviews were also conducted on the same day in order to collect data for our market research.

16

17

ACTIVITIES Record Process Cooking Food Tasting Interview Questionnaire Data Analysis

18

19

interview & questionnaire results Before we design a new product, we have done a questionnaire and interview to understand the cooking habits of new generation.We find out that, the cooking steps and food quality will influence their desire to cook.

The Cooking Group

The Non-cooking Group

20

MOTHER

UNIVERSITY STUDENT

Frequency / Type of food

Eat outside most of the time. Cook a few times per month. Mostly dessert because it’s easy to do and visually appealing, also can show the care for people she loves, like friends and family.

Once per week.Mostly Chinese meal (dinner).

Her son needs to go to school at daytime, so mostly won’t cook at daytime because it’s hard to prepare for ingredients to cook a meal for one person only.

Few times per month.

Mostly pasta.Pasta is easy to make, also less time consuming as there are many pre-cooked sauce available nowadays in the market, making it so much easier.

Why not cook more often

It is already late and tired when she is home, there isn’t any extra time for shopping and cooking.

Eating outside can spare time for entertainment instead.

Need to work, do not have the energy to cook everyday. Hard to prepare for ingredients to cook a meal for one person only.

Don’t feel like cooking at home because the environment is not ideal as her home doesn’t have enought space for cooking.

Preparing ingredients is the most annoying step of cooking(cutting),washing dishes is not really a concern.

Preparing ingredients is the most annoying step of cooking(cutting),washing dishes is not really a concern.

Preparing ingredients is the most annoying step of cooking(cutting),would love to try cooking at a pleasant environment where tools and ingredients are all ready to use.

Most annoying step

OFFICE LADY

21

IDENTIFY TREND LUNCH HEALTHY

22

change your mind about lunch box After we analyze the research, we find out that lunch is a good opportunity for us to develop a new product. Since people are more concerned about health and food safety now adays, many office workers bring their own lunch boxes for lunch. So we want to design a new lunch box to improve the food quality and create a new lunch trend to encourage more people to bring their own lunch box.

Indoor jobs Sad-deskluncher

Prepare lunch box

Save $

Seeking better social connection

target users Our target users are office workers or other indoor jobs workers, sad desk lunchers, and people who want to save money and seeking for better social connection.

23

competitors Compare with other brands, Meyer’s current position on the market is leaning towards traditional and economy. Our goal is to take Meyer to the trendy yet still affordable side.

Tupperware is the name of a home products line that includes preparation, storage, containment, and serving products for the kitchen and home.

Lock & Lock is a Korean plastics company. Its products has been highly successful in competing with global brands like Tupperware, and Rubbermaid.

24

Komax is one of leading companies in the field of houseware business and has accumulated 40 years history.

Market positioning Compare with other brands, Meyer’s current position on the market is leaning towards traditional and economy. Our goal is to take Meyer to the trendy yet still affordable side.

luxury

traditional

trendy

economy 25

OF LU

FFICE UNCH

what’s happening More than 2000 people has participated in a survey in China called The Lunch-bringer Survey. Results showed that most of the interviewees have an open mind towards bringing their own lunch to work, they were willing to give it a try. Here we’ve confirmed that the “white-collar” market is really worth reaching out and expanding since they are not a nitche market for sure, for this reason it matches Meyer’s marketing strategy too. We see this potential and wish to further develop our design direction and to build a product for this group of customers.

current situation

“

Nearly half interviewees s interested in b a lunch-brin The Lunch-bringer Survey by The Youth Public Opinion Survey Centre China

30

of the said they are becoming nger.

“

31

75%

74%

Think bringing lunch to is worth promoting

said they are surrounded by lunch bringers

57%

48%

said many lunch bringers are working in SME

wish to become a lunch-bringer

2000

1500

1688

1664 1281

1000

1070

500

0

surrounded by lunch bringers

want to become a lunch-bringer

SME has the most lunch-bringers

The Lunch-bringer Survey by The Youth Public Opinion Survey Centre China 32

bringing lunch is worth promoting

save time & money

lazy to cook

more healthy (less salt & oil)

fail to preserve food freshness

avoid waiting seats outside

old-fashioned

someone cook for me

social needs

full control of proportion

company has no microwave

Why bring lunch to work

Why not bring lunch to work

48%

of female

25%

of male has the habit of bringing lunch to work

has the habit of bringing lunch to work

Survey on Hong Kong People’s Eating Habiy by The University of Hong Kong 33

types of food We have collected photos to see what usually do the white colloars bring to the office for lunch. The combination usually includes the followings.

34

noodles

rice

vegetables

meat

35

I bring lunch to work 4 days a week, because I want to save money. Reheating is a big problem since it makes the food lost its moisture and become too dry to eat.

As a man, bringing lunch to work is embarrassing. It makes me look awkward holding a little bag in suits when I’m travelling.

36

users’ thoughts The lunch that I bring to work surely doesn’t taste as good as it was freshly cooked. The steam makes the food over-moisturized and soft that my meal looks and taste horrible.

Having lunch outside is very time-consuming since I have to get ticket and wait for tables. It’s also not cheap although we know what we’re consuming is junk food.

37

RESEA ANALY

ARCH YSIS 39

40

summerize Findings Insights Opportunities Factors of decision Ideal attributes

41

findings and opportunities We have summerized our collected data from the researches we made, and turned them into the following findings. Within these findings, we spot some interesting insights (highlighted in yellow) and thought that they could possibly help us decide our design direction and be used as a base of prodct ideas.

42

Bringing lunch boxes to work is common for white-collars.

Female are more likely and willing to bring lunch boxes compare to male.

Male think bringing lunch to work is an embarrassing act.

Bringing lunch boxes to work is considered old-fashioned to the new generation.

Most white-collar prefer healthy lunch options.

Microwave is the most convenient tool for reheating lunch boxes.

ideal attributes According to the results of our research, there are 6 crucial factors that affect our target customers’ decision on lunch options. There are pricing, time, health, taste, social involvement and also environment. To be more specific, a ideal perfect lunch for them should be less costly and time consuming, healthy at the same time tasty, and also be able to have social activities within a non-crowded environment.

fair price

less time

healthy

tasty

social activities

non-crowded

43

desig direc

gn ction

46

Persona Having a well-defined persona can help us build a better marketing plan in the long run and help us target our marketing campaigns and offers to the right groups of prospective consumers. At the end of the day, personas put a face to our customer and help us identify their needs and wants.

47

BETH Quality lif e pursuer

“A quality and h what I’m after e costs m

Scenario / Pain Poin

I bring lunch box to work and go basis.. Having the lunch box reh the food look and taste bad. Ve diet but the reheat process h nutrition. But there are no other hour for lunch.

Age Occupation Income Education Location

48

38 Project manager $38,000/month Master degree Hong Kong

Goals (for lunch) - quality food - healthy lifestyle - clean and tidy - time saving - preserve nutrition

healthy meal is even though it more.�

Primary User Persona

Behavior Social Involvement

passive Cooking skills

nts

o out for lunch on a half and half heated in the microwave makes egetable is a must for a healthy has taken away most of the options for me as I only got an

active

novice

expert Personality

introvert

extrovert Life Pace

slow

fast Decision Making

judging

perceiving 49

BETH Quality lif e pursuer

Age Occupation Income Education Location

50

38 Project manager $38,000/month Master degree Hong Kong

Lifestyle Mood Boar

Primary User Persona

rd

51

SAM

“In this busine image is eve

The trend f ollower

Scenario / Pain Poin

As a man in suits, it is so emb (where my lunch box is placed) w a bus! Moreover, bringing lunch poverty, I would not want anyb although I don’t really earn mu money to improve my image and

Age Occupation Income Education Location

52

28 Marketing officer $15,000/month Post-secondary Hong Kong

Goals (for lunch) - convenient to bring - high social class/ trendy image - time & money-saving - visually-appealing is a plus

ess, personal erything!”

Primary User Persona

Behavior Social Involvement

passive Cooking skills

nts

barrassing to hold a little bag when I’m travelling to work on box seems like an act out of body else to think I’m poor, uch. But I’m willing to spend quality of life.

active

novice

expert Personality

introvert

extrovert Life Pace

slow

fast Decision Making

judging

perceiving 53

SAM The trend f ollower

Age Occupation Income Education Location

54

28 Marketing officer $15,000/month Post-secondary Hong Kong

Lifestyle Mood Board

Primary User Persona

d

55

SONA

“The rice becom every time afte

Social Oriented Of f ice Lady

Scenario / Pain Poi

I bring lunch box to work ever steam coming out of the warm work. This makes the food text only 1 hour for lunch, Micr convenient tool to use for rehea very dry after reheating.

Age Occupation Income Education Location

56

25 Admin Clerk $12,000/month Post-secondary Hong Kong

Goals (for lunch) - convenient to bring - improvement in food texture - clean and tidy - time & money-saving - visually-appealing is a plus

me extremely dry er reheating.�

Secondary User Persona

Behavior Social Involvement

passive Cooking skills

ints

ryday. There are always lots of m food during transportation to ture horribly moisturized. I have rowave is probably the most ating. However, the rice become

active

novice

expert Personality

introvert

extrovert Life Pace

slow

fast Decision Making

judging

perceiving 57

SONA Social Oriented Of f ice Lady

Age Occupation Income Education Location

58

25 Admin Clerk $12,000/month Post-secondary Hong Kong

Lifestyle Mood Boar

Secondary User Persona

rd

59

fin solu

nal ution

62

63

01 product research and testing

size reference We found that the general size of an asian take-way lunch box is as follows. We have used this as an indicatior of standard size and capacity for our design.

general size of asian take-away lunch box

H75*W180*L245 (650ml)

66

research & testing Base on the following 2 topics because they are crucial factors that may guide our design at a later stage. We had done some relevant research and carried out tests to gather the information we need.

Preservation

reheating

67

preserv process

the problem We have experimented putting hot cooked rice into a food container and sealed the lid imediately, then we leave it in room temperature for an hour to see what happen. Results showed that large amount of vapour is produced and turned into the form of water droplets when the food is just cooked. The steam from freshly cooked food is actually water vapour collecting in the air.

Once the water vapour has condenced (cooled), maybe by collecting on a cold window or moving into cooler air, it begins to cool until it is under boiling point and slowly drips into water/dampness.

68

s

ation Principle of Preservation of Food 1. Dehydration: Food dehydration can stop the growth of microorganisms and to preserve food for a long time.

Healing is usually placed in the sun or in the food under natural conditions with airdried to make food dehydration.

4. Infiltration save: Food can be used to store salted or candied law, principles which are applied in the osmotic pressure to make food out of moisture penetration.

2. Lyophilization: Food is first cooled rapidly in the process, and then water was removed under low pressure.

5. Pickled method: For food such as vegetables, first salted, and then put it in vinegar filled with glassware storage.

Vinegar is a weak acid that can stop the growth of bacteria.

3. Smoked law: Food such as meat or fish, with a wood or charcoal fire, smoke, so smoke dried food, and to make the outer covered with a substance to stop the growth of bacteria.

6. Canning and bottle storage method: First, food is heated under pressure to high temperatures to kill bacteria and destroy them where toxins, then sterilized food in cans or bottles, seal the containe in

order to prevent further entry of microorganisms. Because the bacteria.

7. Oxygen-free law: kill anaerobic aerobic bacteria can also slow down the growth of anaerobic bacteria.

8. Try Carbon dioxide method: adding carbon dioxide also help to kill some of the bacteria.

9. Acidic substance: lowering the pH, kill bacteria.

10. Mulsification method: the nutrients and water are separated, for water filling food.

reduce the contact of

air

water

bacteria 69

re food treatment in the office

Microwave

Boiling

Cold Storage

Steaming

high usage

low usage

average usage

low usage

supplimentary

Standard Inner Volume of Microwave is: L310 W310 H175 Max. place 2 One-peoplelunchboxes by stacking

70

maximize utility Microwave has the highest usage among other food treatment methods, this confirmed that our product must be microwave safe so we have to choose appropriate material wisely. However, we think that microwave reheating and steaming methods both have got their very own pros & cons. Therefore we aim at designing a product that can combine the advantages of both methods and eliminate the disadvantages as much as we can.

eheating process microwave reheating

steaming

VS

Instant and Faster reheating

Even Distribution of Heat

Less Bacterial Growth

Steam Makes Food Over-soft and Moisturized

Preserved Nutrition Better Uneven Distribution of Heat Dehydrate Food

Slower Reheating Bacterial Growth Lost of Nutrition 71

02 Product concept

When we talk about

Bringing your own lunch...

Stingy Image

Embarrassment

Bad Food Texture

Low Quality Food Low Quality/Embarrassing Exp

74

but in fact, according to our survey and research

It's just the opposite!

Healthy

Good Social

Quality Food Quality Exp

75

energetic era

76

color collection We come up with a full collection with 4 colors available. They are pure black, pure white, fresh orange and shocking green. we see black and white as conventional colors as they’re always safe and selling, customers with minimalistic aesthetics

would love these two colors.

Moreover, since the new generation is one of our target group, we thought it would be a good idea to include some vibrancy in the collection as alternatives for customers who prefer more bold and energetic colors.

77

145mm

220mm

75mm

78

old version

new version

79

03 Product material

a

b

c

d

e

82

a

Lid - to prevent the food contact with the air outside

b

c

Container - to contain food and ensure the even distribution of heat

d

e

Base - contain all parts & provide effect of the surrounding temperature

Filter - to filter the water vapor

Pad - to control the humidity

Lid (LDPE)

inner layers and base (PP)

▶ thermal index 16-18

▶ thermal index 6-8.5

▶ expend when in heat environment

▶ thickness 2mm

▶ can provide different transparence & colors

▶ comparatively stable in heat environment

▶ comparatively elastic

▶ can provide different transparence & colors

▶ lightweight

▶ lightweight

Pad (silica gel) ▶ thermal index 6-8.5 ▶ thickness 2mm ▶ comparatively stable in heat environment ▶ lightweight 83

silica gel Specifications and testing silica gel

without indicating colour, transparent

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recognized silicon dioxide as a safe food additive, as do the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). ▶ Passed Food Grade ▶ Melting Point: 1625 oC ▶ Solubility in H2O: Insoluble ▶ Flammability: 0(0-4) ▶ Reactivity: 0(0-4)

working principle

as a Common Food Desiccant

▶ average pore size of 24 angstroms and has a strong affinity for moisture molecules ▶ 2000m^2 can adsorb 1g moisture molecules ▶ increase specific surface area to absorb water readily - desiccant (drying agent) ▶ removes moisture by adsorption onto the surface of its numerous pores ▶ absorb into the bulk & explose=> desiccant made of another material 84

1

Dry the silica gel preparation

3

Measure the weight of 5 packs silica gel, recorded 62g

5

Water vapor condensed and flow to lower layer of the lunch box, silica gel started adsorbing the moisture.

2

Cobalt(II) Chloride indicator inside Silica gel is dried.

4

Put all silica gel inside the lunch box with cooked rice, close the cover.

6

Weight of the silica gel increased 8g after 5 hours.

85

04 Product features

LDPE elastic Snap-fit Plug Prevents Contacting the Air Outside

88

89

90

prevents water vapour flow back to the food slow the growth of bacteria preserve the texture of food

91

control the humidity preserve texture even heating

92

93

94

Disassembly for cleaning

95

05 steps of using

reduced time

less steps

1-take reheating

reduced steps

finish cooking, put into container

finish cooking, put into container

wait for evaporation

close container

take out from fridge

open lunch box

pull water into container

seal lunch box

reheat in microwave

essential steps 98

reduced steps

The 5 stages of usage

01

preparation

02

preservation

03

reheating

04

serving

05

cleaning

99

Put cooked food inside

close the lid immediately instead of waiting for the evaporation of steam

Packed and bring it to workplace

Put into refrigerator for better preservation

reheat in microwave

100

Put cooked food inside

Remain Heat when Serving

Disassembly and can be cleaned easily

101

advantages 102

safe According to our testing and experiments, Vaporwave can reduced 8g of water produced by the food in 5 hotrs in the container and highly reduced the risk of growth of bacteria.

smart As said before, Vaporwave can also reduce time and steps from preparation stage to preservation stage,less processes are required and it is easy to clean.

quality Vaporwave can preserve 100% of the water absorbed from the food while reheating. Moreover, it can maintain nutrition and tactile, providing our customer quality food.

103

06 product possibilities

changable parts Food that contain liquid such as soup and sause are always inconvenient to bring as they might leak. Since Vaporwave’s compartments can be easily seperated, it is possible to further develop different sets of additional parts to fit for different needs or cuisine like salad, sandwiches.

106

107

108

bring my lunch group Encourage colleagues to enjoy lunch time together. By promoting the idea of happy group lunch, we can even further expand the market of bring-myown-lunch people.

109

07 marketing strategy

pricing s Product Name

Crystalwave Con

Brand

Meyer

Price

HKD$119 / USD$15.99

HKD$93 / US

Material

Container - PP Lid - LDPE Partition - PP & silica gel

Container - Polyca Lid - PP

Size(mm) Capacity (ml) Sealing Microwave-safe 112

Vaporwave Lunch Box

145W x 220L x 75H

Tupperware(U

153W x 153L x

700

600

Lid-sealed

Lid-sealed

Yes

Yes (50-70% po

strategy

ntainer

USA)

SD$12

arbonate

x 51H

d

ower)

Heat Resistant Container

Ice Glass Food Container

Lock & Lock(USA)

Komax(Korea)

HKD$93 / USD$11.99

HKD$88 / USD$11

Container - Glass Lid - PP

Container - Glass Lid - Tritan Seal - Silicon

130W x 175L x 64H

142W x 190L x 68H

638

820

Lock-sealed

Lock-sealed

Yes (remove lid, under 260’C)

Yes 113

“

93% of peop a mobile dev research an make a purc Perreau, F. The 5 stages of Consumer Buying Decision Process.

114

ple use vice for nd go on to chase

“

115

digital advertis I-WANT-TO BUY MOMENTS reveal popularity on media research These are important moments for consumers, and they’re critical for brands.

Especially on mobile, 93% of people use a mobile device for research and go on to make a purchase .Digital advertising is the most effective way to reach new generation consumers and promote our product. Nowadays, many people use mobile device for research information. When the consumer identified their needs, they will seek information about possible solu116

tions to the problem, especially on the internet.

For the new generation, they are searching for product reviews and comments on websites and forums. There they can communicate with other users, discuss the new product or share experience. For example, people will write a post to ask about meyer.

“Meyer is a good brand?”, “If you guys have any better suggestions, please let me know!”.

sing Need Recognition

Information Search

get-to-by We want to get 20 to 40 years old people to buy our product, to telling them this new lunch box design can change your mind.

Evaluation

Purchase

Postpurchase Evaluation

The 5 stages of CONSUMER BUYING PROCESS According to the consumer buying process and behavior, once the need is identified, it’s time for the consumer to seek information about possible solutions to the problem.Then the consumer will seek to make his opinion to guide his choice and his decision-making process with internal information and external information. External information means the

information on a product or brand received from and obtained by friends or family, by reviews from other consumers or from the press.

And also the official business sources such as an advertising or a seller’s speech.It will influence consumers decision-making process and consumer buying decision process.

117

digital advertis

118

sing

opportunities This is a good opportunities for us to promote our brand. We can put our advertisement on the website and forum to reach new generation.

If people search the information about lunch box or kitchenware, they can see our advertisement. Click it and link to Meyer facebook page to get more information about meyer and our product. It can help Meyer fan page to get more facebook likes.

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leaflet design

120

121

leaflet design design concept

cover

back cover

inside pages (half-opened)

inside pages (half-opened) 122

The ultimate goal of this leaflet is to bring out the key advantages and features of Vaporwave, which are stylish, moisture control, ensuring food quality and safe to use. These ideas are then tranformed to text paragraphs with easy-to-understand titles.

In fact, the usage of a lunch box is pretty simple that it doesn’t really require a formal user instructions menu, the compartments’ details part of the leaflet can function as one. What the customers need to know to just which part does what, so an introduction of all compartments already served the purpose.

When speak of visual flow, this leaflet is specially designed to guide the sequence of reading for our audiences. when the leaflet is halfopened, a picture of an half-opened lunch box is displayed, suggesting them to open up the leaflet fully to find out more about the lunchbox.

The color tone of this leaflet is set to be cool (blueish, cool white) on purpose as this treatment help expressing the “Smart & Intelligent” image of our target readers.

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conclu Many brands are increasingly focusing their efforts on millennial (Generation Y) market. Millennial attitudes and actions vary across the globe, their needs and buying behavior are not the same as the previous generation. We have analyzed the research to identify the trend and find out design opportunities. Millennial are willing to pay more for products that they perceive as healthier. “Health” and “food safety” are the hot topic in society. Lunch box is a good opportunities for us to develop a new product.

We designed a new lunch box to provide a good eating experience for consumers.

Office usually provides microwave for employees to reheat their food. Microwave is most popular way for reheating, but steaming is also effectively to reheating food. Combined the microware and steaming can resolve their short124

comings. The feature of the lunch box is safe preservation, qualitative reheating and easy cleaning. It provides smart experience and qualitative food and time to the user. Using silica gel is a new concept for lunch box design. Silica gel is use as a desiccant to control local humidity to avoid spoilage or degradation of some goods.

Silica gel can have added chemical indicators and adsorbs moisture is very well. For our lunch box design, silica gel can adsorb the water that the food inside the lunchbox created. After the water released, water can adsorbed on the silica gel map. Compared with other lunch box, this new lunch box provided 1-take heating process to reduce waiting time.

We hope that our design proposal can help or inspire Meyer to develop new product. However, our concept is difficult to test the feasibility.

usion Silica gel map is a new design concept. We need to change the form of silica gel, but it did not appear on the market. Our group tried to contact Meyer staff and other teachers to inquire about the possibility of silica gel map, but we cannot get any affirmative answer. Due to the copyright problem, we cannot contact manufacturer to ask about the material problems, because it will disclose our new design concept. Therefore, we recommended that the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to provide a technical support or provide an opportunity for student to contact engineering department.

125

proje team prof

ect m file

reflecti C hilli This is my first time to work with other design students.

We were able to work together and have a good division of work. Each of us has different strengths, so we can effectively contribute our group work. After the first cooperative project lecture, we had a first meeting to understand each other and explain each program. I was assigned to research, market analysis, brand analysis, audio record, photo shoot, photo retouch, advertising design and presentation.

Before the cooperative project, I do not really know how to design a new product and do not know the product materials. Fortunately, product design students very friendly to explained and answered my question. It makes me learn more about product design and material features.

Our team members come from three different programs, including product de128

sign, communication design and advertising design. Our timetable is different so it is hard to hold a group meeting. We are punctual for the group meeting, because it is difficult to meet with each other’s. However, our team still has a good communication channels to discuss our design project. Use Facebook group to communicate and share information and opinion. We are actively participated in the discussion.

Advertising design program is including marketing subject, I can be applied my marketing knowledge to the project. Such as use SWOT analysis to analyze Meyer current situation, and help our team develop new design direction for Meyer. I have a lot of photo shoot and photo retouch experience, so that I can help our team to take the product shot and edit pictures. We have a lot of research and information in the PowerPoint, so I cooperate with Florence to make

our presenting information more clearly and effectively. Florence has a good organizational capacity, I can learn from her to improve my organizational skills. Furthermore, I can be confident during presentation in Cantonese, but I feel nervous when I speak English. I need to have a good preparation to let myself feel confidence, prepare an English speech before every tutorial and presentation. This project provided opportunities for me to learn how to present to client, the wording and tone of the presentation should be carefully. It is very useful for my future career, because advertising is about getting on with people, work in a team and convince clients.

C hu Y iu F ai The team is constructed from 3 disciplines, which are Visual Communication, Advertising and Product Design. My role is to spot any possibili-

ion ty that fits the young generation and enhance their cooking or dining experience, including ideation, direction decision, sketching, CAD drawing, prototyping, and ideas refinement. Idea generation is a key part of my role.

At first we thought that helping with the ease of cooking for the young generation can really promote the cooking motivation. So as to boost their motivation on cooking, we started to explore the existing products in the market. I am one of the members in Product team, so i took part into this process. And at the same time we think we should have some small ideas visualized by thumbnail sketches in order to create a brief direction to go on.

After several discussions, teammates from VC and AD analyzed the brand position that enables us to clarify the main concept of our ideas. At the beginning of this process, we spent loads of time in discussion as we had to ensure

every part was making-sense and everyone was clear about what we were doing.

Then, we came up to the main part of the designing process.

We had to visualize our design feature in very detail; we judged every single feature in whether it is necessary to exist in the product, or will it operate in the way that we thought but not bringing other obstacles to the user? We finally provided 1 main design from each of us, and think further to choose one or they could combine into 1 design.

But the final result is using one design and 2 other can be under that chosen design.

Then we had to do the CAD model to show our client.

Each of us built several parts of the file. And as well as the rendering, we discussed several styles of colors which suit for different target customers. And finally we came up a color tone that is more mature and looked like highend product.

After the interim presentation, we received some valuable advices that were about how the industrial adjust the detail. And we had to build another CAD model to make the design more user-friendly. And send the file to the 3D printing company to get a more finished prototype to make our design realized.

pui hing My Role This product-based Cooperative Workshop provided a situation for working in a multidisciplinary team with a real client. There are 3 different streams of students in our group, visual communication, advertising, and product. I am mainly responsible in product development. I also took part in market opportunity analysis in this project.

Market Position

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reflecti Our client, MEYER, a global kitchenware brand that targeting the high-end big market in worldwide, such as Europe and Japan. Basic on the market position of the brand, we needed to carefully look at rather our design direction fit the brand or not. New generation is the biggest consumer group in the coming days. However, most of the customer that MEYER targeting are the senior generation.

Therefore, we investigated the opportunities in the new generation market, introduce MEYER to the future consumer, and to expand the customer group of MEYER. The students from other stream are good at market analysis, they have different methods of opportunities analysis and persona setting, that we seldom learned in product lesson. The cooperation let me to learn more about marketing.

Design Direction Seeing the expansion of 130

bringing-lunch group in global and among young generation, we targeted the relationship between young generation and bringing-lunch. My team members from visual communication and advertising thinks sharing is a good direction for product. However, I think before sharing, the inconvenience in bringing lunch box for new generation should be solved first. The concept is to let users feel good with preparing their own lunch box to office, so the users can enjoy a better moment and share happy time with their colleagues. I took part in developing the product feature by looking at the process of bring own lunch to office, through mapping and procedure listing. And tried to brainstorm some ideas in different process. As I discovered the opportunity can be in the preservation and the reheating process of food, my group mates in product stream agreed and work on the direction together.

As to find the most suitable preservation and reheating method for users to bring lunch to office, I did quite a lot of researches on it and we are finally making progress in product.

Design Development When group mates from other steams are working at the supporting research on marketing, my group mates from product stream and I are working on the product concept development.

I am good at brainstorming features, I love to share and discussion with my group mates every time I come up with an idea. But maybe my drawings are not attractive and organized enough, both tutor and group mates seldom comment on the ideas that I have. My group mate also in product stream, who is good at sketching, active speaker when with the tutor and group mates from other stream, but seldom share his thought during the

ion group discussion with another group from product and I. I feel tired to make him join the discussion and I tried to work more for making the design move forward. Later on, my group mate that good at product sketches combined the features I mentioned before by his sketches, and present to the tutor again in the later tutorial, tutor just thought the ideas are interesting. The ideas from mine are owned by another by a few sketches he made, he got the appreciation from tutor and group mates from other stream, he did not mention anything about me, I felt depressed and out of energy that time, I am absence in the team. After that tutorial, I know I am less active, but I still helped to modify the structure and the form of the design. I tried to shift my focus on proving the structure and concept by researches, collecting material and planning experiment. I mainly do the researches and material collection. For experiments,

I just did the planning, other two product students took part in doing the experiments. For CAD, I only did the accessory parts. I do more for rendering, the color selection spent 1-2 days to finish.

Meeting the Client During the first meeting with clients, they like our direction with is new to the market and the consumer group is huge. MEYER also helped us to print out the prototype and they gave constructive comment that allow us to know more considerations when designing a kitchenware. Then we edit the CAD model again and 3D printed the prototype again. Apart from modifying the features, we also reorganized the presentation and edit the content, mainly the two students from other stream and me, to make the selling point more outstanding and reasonable.

In the finally presentation, the clients still think the direction is really fit for their

company, and the clients think the idea is fitting what the people need, and similar products in the market that did overlooked. They also question about the effectiveness of the original way and the new way, lucky we prepared testing for proving the design, and the client feel we are reliable to them.

Improvement By working with unfamiliar people and clients, I noticed that I need to be more strong in mental, stay confident to present myself as to let people notice what I am doing and the value of these.

I also need to be more professional in concept presentation, such as sketching and talking, to ensure the things I think of is well transfer to the audiences.

Working with People of Different Background People of different background and culture might 131

reflecti have misunderstanding easily. The best way to prove the thinking is to use fact and statistics. So they can have the same point of view with me and make it easier for them to understand the values.

kai w ai It is a good chance for me to do the cooperative project with other department student. My group is composed by one Advertising Design student (AD), one Visual Communication student (VC) and three Product Design students (PD). This is the first experience for me to finish a project with other design department student. Finally, our group finished a great project. Meyer is our client.

Doing a project with a big company is also a good experience for us. I learn so much in this project.

In this project, AD and VC is responsible for the market132

ing research and the promoting parts. We are responsible for the materials research and the product design parts.

In this project, I am mainly responsible for the materials research, then doing some testing. In the next process, I try to think different designs and draw some product sketch. Finally, we come up the final design. Then I try to improve the detail for the design. Moreover, I also join in the 3D CAD model building and the color rending. Finally, we also print out prototypes and keep to improve it.

After the final presentation, we are also very satisfied with the project. It is a rare opportunity for me to do the project with the big company and different department students. Also it is good for my portfolio.

Also it is good for my portfolio. Compare with other product design project, it is not easy project for me.

It is because we just have 8

weeks to finish all works. In normal case, we need to do the research, different study, come the ideas, CAD drawing, improved the idea and model making between 13 weeks. However, we are not only just had 8 weeks to finish all the works, but also we need to as soon as possible to come up the final design.

It is because the VC and AD need some time to plan the promotion and the presentation. So there is not enough time. Luckily, we finished a nice project. We designed a useful and smart lunch box to Meyer.

I learned many things in the project. For example, AD and VC student is good at research and collecting information. They know how to show the data clean and easy to present. Moreover, I find that, a good presentation is very important for a new product. If we have not a clearly and organized presentation. Maybe the client will not interest on the idea.

ion florence The collaborative moments which all of us shared in this project has become the most rewarding and valuable experience for me in PolyU so far. At first I did not have high expectation regarding this subject, but then surprisingly, everything turned out so great and satisfying at the end.

In this project, I am mainly responsible for data organization, structuring presentation flow and designing visual materials including presentation slides, promotional items and doing report layouts.

In general, I think we worked really well together as a team. There were no “free riders� in this team at all. The students from other streams had all been very friendly and willing to help. At the research stage of the project, all of us has made our own part of contribution to help

building up the backbone of our final design concept. Later on, Chilli and I worked a bit more on organizing and visualizing raw data into presentable and clarifying information, while the product design students worked on brainstorming of ideas, product sketches and material testing. After the interim presentation, product students continued to consolidate and refine product details and started to build subordinate accessories around the main product. As the product has already taken shape at this stage, Chilli and I started to think about the promotional strategy. After a few discussions, we agreed that we should do both digital and print advertisements. By the nature of our studies, we decided that Chilli should do the digital ones and I should do the printed ones. To get the jobs done, we had a photo shoot to get the images needed for our ads. Chilli was the photographer that day, Pui Hing, Chu Fai, one

very helpful non-team-member product student, Hannah and I, we all play a role in the photo shoot. I also helped a bit on directing poses to get the best framing. At the end Chilli has designed a facebook page cover photo, a gif advertisement to be displayed at forums, and I have designed an 8-panel promotional leaflet.

There was a minor issue of time limitation when designing the visual materials.

It was already week 7, almost week 8 when I started doing the leaflet, and I remembered it was a Friday, and I had to present a 80% test print to tutor the coming Monday which means I had only 2 days and a half to do that, but I understand how tight our schedule was at that time, so I agreed it was the right thing to do. The biggest challenge to me in this project came in at the time when the product was taking shape. I felt redundant as I barely know anything about 133

reflecti product design, and the visualization part relies on the actual product always. When the product students were working so hard building the product piece by piece, I felt like “What am I doing here?”

It didn’t get any better until the final product details came out. I didn’t tackle difficulties well in this case.

I think the reason is that I have this fear of stepping out of my comfort zone, I know what my strengths are and I’m too conservative to go any further than that. But being a part of the creative industry, isn’t it important for us to take risks and try doing things differently? I’ve learned my lesson now and I will definitely step up and ask “Is there anything I can help?”. Not only helping others, but most importantly I help myself by helping others. If you never try, you’ll never know, right?

To conclude, I really enjoyed this project and have learned 134

from it. However I sincerely think 9 weeks is not quite enough for a 6 credit cooperation project like this. We designed the key product but hadn’t been able to further build accessories around it.

I really saw the potential of our product and thinking it might just be nice to make the whole designing solution a bit more complete. But then at the end of the day, I’m still excited and proud of what we have achieved in 9 weeks. The only sad thing to say is, honestly, now I like working with students with other streams a lot more than with my own stream.

ion

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Appen referencing Glass Packaging Institute . 2014. The Millennials - A Generation Invested in Health and the Environment. Retrieved from http://www.gpi.org/sites/default/files/GPI-TheMillennials-11 6 14-FINAL.pdf Cooper. J. 2014. Cooking Trends Among Millennials: Welcome to the Digital Kitchen. Retrieved from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/cooking-trends-among-millennials.html Copley. W 2013. Lunch Box Comparison Chart: How 6 Popular Boxes Stack Up. Retrieved from http://wendolonia.com/blog/2013/08/01/lunch-box-comparison-chart-how-6-popular-boxesstack-up/ Alibaba. 2015. Arniss purple supper big volume 2L food container bring food box outdoor picnic plastic bodybuilding lunch box. Retrieved from http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/SW0420-Arniss-purple-supper-big_1853172421.html

食物保存大解密. Retrieved from http://www.intertek-twn.com/FrontEnd/Zupload/RightBlock2_5/SM/%E9%A3%9F%E7%89%A9%E4%BF%9D%E5%AD%98%E5%A4%A7%E8%A7%A 3%E5%AF%86.pdf Silica gel. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silica_gel Oremus.W. 2013. What Happens If I Eat Silica Gel? Absolutely nothing. Retrieved from http:// www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/07/what_happens_if_i_eat_silica_gel.html

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ndix Public Opinion Programme, The University of Hong Kong. 2012. Survey on Hong Kong People’s Eating. Retrieved from https://www.hkupop.hku.hk/english/report/eatingHabit/index.html 中青在线－中国青年报. 2011. 民调：超七成人表示身边存在“带饭族. Retrieved from http:// zqb.cyol.com/content/2011-01/04/content_3474346.htm

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