Well if you saw the post title and thought I was talking about the Big Bud track, too bad! Given our recent class discussion in HCI 470 and the continuing relevance of emotional design, I wanted to talk about my experience with a gift I recently received: a garlic press by Michael Graves!
Now I haven't used this product to press any garlic yet, so my reaction to it is so far completely visceral. When I first picked up the press, I noticed it had a definite heft to it; this sense of weight gave me the feeling that it could really... press some garlic (heh). The handles have a very pleasant texture - a kind of soft, grippy rubber. Aesthetically, I like the object; the actual pressing of the garlic involves spinning one of the handles in an arc, which creates a pleasing symmetry.
So without having actually used this thing, I'm already a bit infatuated with it. But, as Norman says in his book, visceral is only one layer of the emotional experience. When I actually do press some garlic, the behavioral component will become a second contributor to my emotional response. Will the press save me time and effort over peeling and dicing the garlic with a knife? Will it be easy to use and clean?
Together, the interaction and aesthetic characteristics have the potential to make this one of my favorite kitchen tools (although I doubt it will ever eclipse my dear knife). But even if the interaction is sub-par, my visceral response has earned the object some "credit," where I may be more forgiving of a troublesome behavioral layer.
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4 years ago
3 comments:
Oh man do not get me started on michael graves kitchen stuff! In fact I think you heard this one already because it's one of my favorite stories to tell - if so, I apologize, but for those of you who haven't heard... My first coffeemaker in my first apartment was by Michael Graves (via Target, of course). I wasn't a big coffee drinker back then so it took me a while to bust it out. I finally used it (it was turquoise and white and bulbous like all his designs of the time) and was about to pour my first michael graves' cup of coffee, and the coffee just dribbled down the spout and ran along the outside of the pot. A good percentage of coffee ended up on the counter.
How does that big of a design flaw occur? Did they not think - 'oh yay we just designed this new coffee pot, let's try it out!' Maybe they did, and discovered the flaw but it was already being mass produced in China. Oh well, too late. I gave it to my friend Logan and he somehow made it work. After time he learned the ways of the Michael Graves coffee pot and got it to stop dribbling.
So I wish you luck with the garlic press - I've given up on mine because it was hard to clean well - I'm now very happy with my microplane.
Hmm, I actually cooked yesterday, involving garlic, and forgot to use the thing... =\
The microplane grater looks quite useful, although it seems like it might be hard to grate an individual clove of garlic? I think I actually have a smaller grater here that I never use because the only things I make small enough to justify grating are garlic and ginger, and those are usually small, hard-to-hold pieces.
But as I write this, I realize I dice onion pretty frequently too, maybe I'll try using it for that.
(PS - It's my blog, I'm allowed to make non-HCI-related comments...!)
Garlic press update - I used it a few days ago and wasn't too amazed. If I'm doing it right, the garlic kind of mushes out, as opposed to the more appealing dice I can get with a knife.
So in the end, I guess the behavioral layer didn't live up to the visceral. =)
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