WHY RE-DESIGN THIS LUNCHBOX?

 

For the first design project at my design school, we were supposed to design a simple product. We defined a simple product as one which doesn't have moving parts, nor any active electronic components.

 

If you are from India, it is highly likely that you have seen the traditional tiffin box, the one which has four cylindrical containers vertically stacked over each other held together by a steel frame. Its inexpensiveness and ease of carrying even in huge numbers make it a very popular choice for the food services esp. local homemade food services, and not the restaurants and franchises. Like a majority of people who eat their food from these tiffins, I was not new to the various stress points related to the usability on the design of the tiffin. Hence, it was this list of problems which became the reason for a design intervention (starting from the top-right corner):

 

1) As the warm food inside cools down, some amount of vacuum gets created inside the container which makes it difficult to open the container. Also, sometimes due to this same suction the lower container gets lifted when taking the upper container out which then suddenly slips as the gravity overcomes the suction, and causing the container to fall and spill the food item.   

 

2) The bottom of every container is covered with the food item kept in the container below it. One either has to look for a newspaper sheet or any other piece of fabric/plastic to spread on the table/floor to protect it from getting dirty or let it go dirty and clean it later.

 

3) The steel frame which holds all the container is too big when opened up and occupies a lot of space. Not a very good news if you are sharing a table which is small. Overall, it is very difficult to handle it.

 

4) The perfectly vertical walls of the containers lead to spilling of liquid item while shifting it to another container. E.g. when you want to put the dal in the rice container and you don't have a spoon which is usually not provided by the tiffin services.

 

5) Trying to shift liquid item across containers with the fingers also leads to spilling of food on the table-top.

 

6) The containers are too deep for our fingers which leads to excessive smearing of food on the fingers when trying to reach the solids which are settled down at the bottom, below the gravy.

 

7) When eating rice with hands, the fingers entering the container displace some of the rice and push it outside the container.

 

8) Spilling of a liquid item from the sides when trying to drink it straight from the container.

 

9) Over time, after repeated usage and getting mixed with containers from other boxes after washing, the mismatch creates a gap between containers which would lead to leakage.

 

10) And finally, the lid on the topmost container is very tightly fitted which gives a person a hard time opening it, even more, if he/she has small fingernails.

 

 

ABOUT MEALLO

 

Meallo, the re-designed tiffin box is also a four container type box but of different arrangement (2X2). It has a big lid which opens up to become a tray which can be used to keep the top two containers so that the food sticking at their bottoms doesn't get on to the table-top. All the four containers are made shallow and wide to prevent the excessive spearing of the fingers, and for easy accessibility of the solid items under the gravy. There are food-grade silicone gaskets at the stacking-junction between two containers as well as between the container and the lid. This keeps the containers airtight and foodtight as well as makes them easy to un-stack. The humungous steel frame is completely eliminated in this re-designed version. The retractable handle at the top makes it possible to stack one tiffin-box over another. This comes handy for the tiffin delivery person who has to carry a lot of tiffin boxes. The inner edges of the containers are rounded which makes it easy to clean without any possibility of food remaining stuck back. An additional advantage of this design is that one doesn't necessarily need a table top to rest the tiffin box on. One can easily keep it on their lap while seated on a chair and eat food from it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LEARNINGS FROM THE FIRST DESIGN PROJECT

 

I became aware that I approached design very analytically, like a mathematic equation which led to a lot of blocks during the process. I would do user research, task analysis of existing design, market study etc. This would yield me ’n’ number of constraints and I would have a hard time trying to solve the maximum number of  problems. The major problem lied in trying to look for a solution with a pen and a paper only. Also, the pressure of creating something out of the box without actually being equipped with the know-how of doing so worsened the situation. I was trying to design products without actually having a rich vocabulary for good design. I had various misconceptions about mood-boards and persona building (which became somewhat clearer over subsequent design projects) because of which I saw no point in them.  

 

If I were to re-do this project right now, after graduating from the design school, it will involve lots of functional exploration using realistic materials like steel and plastic and not paper/cardboard, without restricting myself to solving problems on just pen and paper, make good mood-board for every stage (as required) and make my mental library rich. I have come to an awareness that out of the box is not out of the blue. I innovation/creativity is a good balance between familiarity and newness; clashing of contrasting concepts leading to a pleasant surprise. I will use the product myself thoroughly first, and then design that one tiffin box which satisfies my and only my needs through trial and errors, addition, subtraction, experimentations, self-expression. I will keep in mind that form is just one way of making something appealing, and give consideration to the story behind the making, maker, and material.