Concept Prototyping: "Bernice's Kitchen"

A few ideas and concepts emerged last week when trying to nail down a concept to protoype. I knew some concepts were a bit easier to prototype than others, but I wanted to make use of 1. my weekend at home and 2. the prototype that, although a bit more difficult, also would have a greater effect. I really wanted to get my sister into the kitchen and thought "hmm the meal service concept, with a few tweaks, might actually work." 

I knew that I wouldn't have time to find a meal service and order one that my sister may actually enjoy, so I modified the concept a bit and created my own meal service. I present to you: Bernice's Kitchen!

I wanted to create something fun and familiar for my sister. Who is Bernice, you may ask? Well she's my sister's horrible, mean cat. She hates me, or the sound of my voice I suppose. For no reason, because if anyone knows me, I'm such an animal person. I don't know what her problem is, but she's a cat so I suppose I never will. There she is on the right, exhibit A, her hissing at me. Which led to this amazing picture. But not the point.

So, I decided to go with Bernice's Kitchen because well, I knew my sister would enjoy it, it would add an element of sillness and fun to this whole process and we both needed a dose of fun and silly at this point. Especially as I geared her up to get her into the kitchen.

Inside of the "Bernice's Kitchen - Meal Delivery Service" bag, there were detailed instructions on what steps to take next, what was included in the bag, and the recipe. 

What were we making? Buffalo Cauliflower. I chose this recipe because I knew my sister was curious to try these, it was more of a snack and less of a commitment, and it was super easy to make, with very little prep needed and not too many ingredients involved.

So we were off. And in about 40 minutes, they were done and ready to be enjoyed (or not so much enjoyed).

So, she didn't love it. Actually, I don't think she liked how they tasted at all. I think she was hoping the buffalo sauce would cover up the taste of cauliflower. It's a little frustrating when working with taste, because that's not something that you can just shift overnight or with a prototype such as this.

What was interesting was that she seemed to somewhat really enjoy the process, everything was basically cut, measured, and separated out for her. It was a super easy, simple process of emptying out pre-measured cups of different ingredients into a bowl, mixing, and putting in the oven (a few more steps than this, but you get the idea, it was EASY). And that's what was the most successful part of this.

Moving forward I recognize the need to ease for my sister. If it's easier for her to do she may be more inclined to do it and who knows, maybe it'll lead to more diverse eating options.

Another step moving forward is that I want to create a comparison chart of the various meal delivery service options that exist for my sister - complete with some sample meals they may send her. Her biggest hesitation was essentially "yeah it's great it's easy, but what if they just end up sending me a bunch of meals I end up hating." Which I get, with a limited taste pallet, I wouldn't want to spend time and money on a service that just sends me things I don't enjoy eating. We'll see how this goes, but it may be out of the scope of this project as technically, it's ending and over today.

Moral of the story: Eat your veggies kids. Try new things. Don't judge a book (or vegetable) by its cover.