Watch the full presentation

Widgetable

Ambient table which passively displays information useful to the kitchen environment through the use of unique graphical patterns

MA thesis at Domus Academy/IDI, Milan in conjuction with Veneta Cucine

Project Leaders

Claudio Moderini

Fabio Sergio, Jan Christoph Zoels (external advisors)

Brief

The Kitchen is a key setting of daily life.
The kitchen has been hosting many different activities accommodating, in time, diverse functions. It thus stands out as one of the pivotal environments, within the household, both for the production/consumption of goods and for the generation/communication of meanings.

Project Description

“Widgetable” is a table that enrich the kitchen environment giving visual information to the users and allowing them to control its content.
It works on two different level of communications: general information and details.
General information can be visualized on the top surface of the table trough a graphical pattern language while details can be view on the table borders trough a textual language.
The table has a preset list of information coming from a web-based feeds service.
In the middle of the top surface the table has a controller with a contextual menu that allow users to control, manage and select different communication channels.
Portable devices ,once plugged on the surface, can interact with the table becoming part of information displayed.
Other household appliances can interact with the table behaviors, becoming a sort of interferences and giving to the users important information related to the kitchen environment.

Value and Potential

This system is a platform for providing information using simple technology within the kitchen environment. Considering that the information flow coming from the web is growing up very fast, it is possible to think at several future development.The technology used in the kitchen has reached very high levels and we need system able to manage it in a symple way. An importan future development could be the full integration and the management of the kitchen appliances, using the widgetable as a starting platform.

Design Process

      This project has been developed in 2 months following next steps;

- Defining the Context

- User Research

- Concept Generation

- Scenarios

- Low tech prototype and Test

- Video Prototype

- Exhibition