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High tech shouldn’t be scary,” says Jennifer Kilian, creative director of Frog Design’s digital media design group, which has offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto. While gadgetry is a familiar presence in the home office—“where technology ‘should be’”—Kilian is working to bring technological advancements into other parts of the home. A recent project was the TurboChef Speedcook Oven (pictured lower left), which incorporates familiar, retro-looking audio and visual cues—it looks like a old-fashioned pizza oven and emits a “ding!” when food is ready—to help users feel at ease with its radically new way of cooking. “We went to great lengths to help people feel comfortable,” says Kilian. “It’s very physical and mechanical.” The TurboChef, she says, is just the first step toward a new generation of home products that will cater to all the senses. “We shouldn’t have to conform to a two-dimensional world of pushing a button or turning a knob,” she says, suggesting instead that objects could be operated with the wave of a hand or a quickly barked command. She’d like to create experiences where users won’t even realize they’re learning a new way of doing things—and won’t end up feeling like idiots who can’t get their stereo to work. See what other high-tech objects Frog Design has made more user-friendly at frogdesign.com.
Turbochef Speedcook Oven. The upper unit uses restaurant technology to cook 15 times faster than a conventional oven.
Taken from the January 2008 issue of our sister publication, California Home + Design. For more than a decade, CH+D has informed, celebrated and inspired the nation's most influential home and design market. Subscribe now.
High tech shouldn’t be scary,” says Jennifer Kilian, creative director of Frog Design’s digital media design group, which has offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto. While gadgetry is a familiar presence in the home office—“where technology ‘should be’”—Kilian is working to bring technological advancements into other parts of the home. A recent project was the TurboChef Speedcook Oven (pictured lower left), which incorporates familiar, retro-looking audio and visual cues—it looks like a old-fashioned pizza oven and emits a “ding!” when food is ready—to help users feel at ease with its radically new way of cooking. “We went to great lengths to help people feel comfortable,” says Kilian. “It’s very physical and mechanical.” The TurboChef, she says, is just the first step toward a new generation of home products that will cater to all the senses. “We shouldn’t have to conform to a two-dimensional world of pushing a button or turning a knob,” she says, suggesting instead that objects could be operated with the wave of a hand or a quickly barked command. She’d like to create experiences where users won’t even realize they’re learning a new way of doing things—and won’t end up feeling like idiots who can’t get their stereo to work. See what other high-tech objects Frog Design has made more user-friendly at frogdesign.com.
Turbochef Speedcook Oven. The upper unit uses restaurant technology to cook 15 times faster than a conventional oven.
Taken from the January 2008 issue of our sister publication, California Home + Design. For more than a decade, CH+D has informed, celebrated and inspired the nation's most influential home and design market. Subscribe now.
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