REFRIGERATORS
Overview
Features
User Experience
Considerations
Potential Design
Based off of research, the observed user experience, and interviews with MIT students who use their refrigerators, here is a list of pros and cons:
PROS:
- Makes food last longer, which means fewer trips to the market and less replacement of spoiled goods
- Stores most edible goods in one place, that's easy to access
- Allows for a way to organize items
- Able to adjust temperature and tells users what is "normal", so that they don't need to know the exact degree that it should be at
CONS:
- Doesn't notify users when fridge isn't closed or working correctly (although most newer models do)
- Doesn't provide enough dividers or drawers for fridges used by multiple people who do not share goods
- Use of crisper is not obvious - have to research or learn and observe others
- Crisper labels tend to be ambiguous, such as "Crisper" or "Fresh Drawer"; people don't generally know the term "crisper" and "fresh drawer" wasn't clear to some of the users I talked to
- Humidity sliders for crispers aren't obvious and are often hidden by items in the fridge; most people don't even know they exist
- There is a temperature gradient that isn't conveyed; sometimes people think their fridge isn't working correctly when items on the top are colder or freeze
- Goods in the back tend to be forgotten and go bad
- If the fridge is full, users spend a long time either finding food or reorganizing to put new food in
- Sometimes the temperature dial gets in the way when putting new items on the top shelf