The project is participated by Filip Traung, Petronella Johansson, Victor Bergh Alvergren, Xinyu Zheng, for the course Visual and Brand Identity in Chalmers University of Technology, under the supervison of professor Ulrike Rach.
Electrolux 4C
Background
Reducing food waste is a part of Electrolux's goal of achieving green branding. In collaboration with Electrolux, the project aims to develop a product that helps people to reduce food waste in the households.
Question: where is food waste produced from?
A big part of the food waste can be avoided from being produced. Food can be thrown away when people buy too much food or cook too much food. Sometimes, food is simply neglected in the fridge and it eventually turns bad. The leftovers and the food pasts the best before date are the fractions of the food waste we want to reduce. By building a customer journey map, we highlighted two main areas that are problematic to the users, which are believed to have a big impact on the food waste production.
Problematic areas
The concept
Electrolux 4C is a food storage system designed for containing different kinds of food that require different storage conditions. The top layer covered with glass contains the refrigerated food. The middle layer contains the frozen food. The bottom layer contains the food that is needed to be stored in room temperature with moderate ventilation. This benefits the users by bring all the food close to the users, making the food more accessible while the users are preparing to cook. The accessibility of these three categories of food are arranged according to their maintenance quality. The food that lasts the shortest (the food in the fridge) is located on the most reachable height.
The layout of the food storage allows the refrigerated food to be easily seen from the top. The refrigerated food such as vegetables, refrigerated meat, and milk usually need adequate attention to when being kept. A higher visibility can help the users to see all the refrigerated food clearly, which can eventually leads to a better planning of consuming the food. The glass counter is also a tool to make notes with a removable marker pen. The user can write down notes to mark out the status of the food or communicate with other family members.
The food with large volume such as milk in the box or leftovers in the pot can be stored on the right side.
The drawers at all heights can be opened ergonomically. The fridge and the freezer can be opened by pulling the handles. As the pantry is at the bottom, the user can push in the drawers by feet to eject the them. To keep the panty cool and dry, ventilation holes are added on the drawers.
The user can also keep the cutting board in Electrolux 4C, making it more convenient for the user to prepare the food on the glass counter.
