Experience Categories in Specific Contexts – Creating Positive Experiences in Smart Kitchens

Experience categories are a methodology designed to understand existing and create new positive experiences. They describe aspects of positive experiences within a given context, for example work. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it is intended as a proof-of-concept – we show that experience categories can be applied to new contexts. Second, we describe a design process that focuses on the use of experience categories. Here we explore present positive experiences in kitchens, and how smart kitchens can help us to create and support these. Using Experience Interviews, participants described 94 positive experiences they had around kitchen activities. The analysis yielded 17 experience categories for cooking related activities. Based on these categories, we generated concepts to facilitate new positive experiences in the kitchen before, during, and after cooking. We describe this process as well as five concepts including the generation of rituals, trying new things, and supporting each other.