Whats in my head

At this point from working with children, interviewing parents and creating a survey it is more than obvious that most parents would, in an ideal world, love to more frequently involve their children when cooking and they understand the benefits that it would bring to their child. However, time and mess are the main factors that put parents off. The effort of supervising a child and creating a safe and clean environment can seem too much stress to be worth it.

Hot pots, water and steam in addition to sharp knifes are the biggest concerns of parents. This in mind I would like to reduce child contact with blades and hot surfaces to improve their experience and minimise risk. It was at this point I thought about existing products that have these kind of features.

Slow cookers and electric skillets heat up on the inside however the outer shell remains cool to touch, this is something I wish to examine further to see if any of these products could be inspiring in creating a child friendly pot. An existing technology which interests me is induction cookers. The surface of these hobs remain cool it is only the pan that becomes hot. This could be an interesting method to control what heats up and what remains cold.

In terms of the knife aspect of my design, I have been looking to the extremes. Products such as circular electric saws have a protective cover over the blade until the second you begin to cut through wood. This idea of the blade being covered until absolutely necessary appeals to my design. If this is something I could create it would eliminate the risk of accidents when children may be walking around with knifes and only expose risk for a very small amount of time.