Inspiring Design
Curiosity in the Kitchen
Delivering a better food experience—with sprays
The design process for a great product starts with curiosity.
It begins with the hungry pursuit of insight into the product
experience we need to create. What is the experience
about? Why is it needed? In the food industry, we can explore
everything from meal prep to cultural food rituals to the creation
of unique food textures and anything in between. A fresh, curious
analysis of what lies behind these experiences can open up new
possibilities for innovation.
Psychology before technology
As product designers, we can easily jump to solutions before we
fully understand the need. If we start with solutions (the “how”)
instead of curiosity (the “why”), it can take us off-track, pursuing
the demands of the technology instead of serving the demands
of the experience we need to create. Starting with technology can
also be extremely limiting. As Guy Kawasaki, a prolific author on
innovation, explained in his Art of Innovation TEDx Talk, if your
goal is to offer ice to your customer and you focus on your current
method of cutting blocks of ice from the frozen lake, you’ll miss
the opportunity to innovate freezing your own blocks of ice, and
you’ll surely never innovate your customers’ ability to freeze their
own ice at home.
For this reason, I recommend spending much of your project
efforts considering the experience of the user and evaluating
the behaviors involved in performing the task they want to accomplish.
Sometimes it’s about making a difficult task easier.
Sometimes it’s about making an experience more enjoyable, more
luxurious. Do consumers need more control? Speed? Grip? A
farther reach? An extra hand?
As a packaging engineer, I love shaping the experience of a
product through the design of the dispenser. If we consider a
package to be merely a container, we miss out on the chance
to shape the impact a product can have, and few packages offer
more opportunity to create an enhanced experience than a spray
format.
Sparking curiosity
Our own experience is often a great place to find inspiration. As
I think about design and the food market, my attention immediately
zooms in on things that frustrate me in my own kitchen—
messes, waste, cross-contamination and how to encourage healthy
eating with my family. Let’s consider how spray formats can take
something from frustrating to satisfying.
Barbecue spray
A grilling frustration led Zach Thomas, founder of Zach’s Wing
Sauce, to develop sprayable barbecue sauce.
“I was home grilling chicken wings on the porch with my dad,”
Thomas recalled. “We decided there just had to be a better way
to apply the sauce. Too much waste, too many flare ups, singed
fingers…”
That was his a-ha moment; he saw the hassle as opportunity.
The ability to spray on a nice coat of sauce without the fuss, mess
and waste of an extra bowl and a mopping brush ratchets up the
enjoyment factor for the grilling experience. A spray sauce serves
the same purpose in the kitchen when basting a roast or prepping
a steak, and reduces the risk of contaminating a bowl of basting
sauce with bacteria from the raw meat.
The power of fresh herbs
There’s an interesting tension between wanting to serve a madefrom
scratch meal and having the time and energy to do so.
Food is wrapped up in emotion; products that honor the rituals
of prepping a meal while speeding the process along are helpful
additions to a gourmet kitchen. Spray herb oils can create fresh
herb flavor while cutting out the steps of storing, prepping and
mincing fresh herbs.
Dry food enticement
I have picky eaters at home that are canine. I don’t blame them;
they basically eat the same food every day and enjoy a little variety
when they can get it. Pet food companies offer meal add-ins
for this very reason, such as sprays flavored in bacon, cheese,
chicken, beef or peanut butter. I don’t have to keep a partially
used container of something in my fridge, I don’t have to worry
about making the food soggy or adding too many calories—I don’t
24 Spray September 2020
Heidi Graham
Founder, Shine Advisor