Instant Pot Redesign

Instant Pot is a multicooker consolidating a multitude of functions including pressure cooking, slow cooking, sauteing, steaming and warming of food into a single device.

Heuristic Evaluation

What works well in the Instant Pot interface?

• Recipes and the different modes of cooking have separate buttons making it easier for user navigation. 

• Clicking a button gives an auditory feedback.

• Features like “Delay Start”, “Keep Warm”, “Pressure Cook”, “Slow Cook” and “Saute” are made discoverable to the user.

Why does it work well?

• ​​The interface responds to the user interaction with feedback. Feedback cycles are important in designing an interface, as it helps reduce the gulf of execution and gulf of evaluation.

What does not work well?

• There are no explicit “ON” and “OFF” buttons. What should a novice user do to start cooking? Nothing on the current interface directs on where to start. 

• When in saute mode, transition from “ON” to “HOT” does not give an auditory feedback to the user. This results in the user having to babysit before beginning to saute.

• In setting the time needed to cook, the interface does not give the user control of the pace. A few seconds of inactivity picks up the default time and the cooking begins.

Why doesn’t it work well?

• By not giving control of the pace to the user, the interface is forcing the user to enter into a state which cannot be undone. Good design should let users learn and play with the interface without taking them to a state which cannot be reversed.

Interface Redesign

A low-fidelity wireframe of the Instant Pot in “OFF” mode.

Structure: While redesigning the interface of the Instant Pot, I have added structure such that the cooking modes are aligned to the left, and the recipes to the right. 

Signifiers: Every button signifies its functionality. Time setting is controlled by the plus and minus buttons with a clock icon, while the pressure setting is controlled by three buttons - low, normal and high.

Discoverability: A cognitive walkthrough of the process to pressure cook rice includes the following steps:

• Start the Instant Pot by pressing the “ON” button. 

• Add rice and water into the container and close the lid. 

• Select the “PRESSURE COOK” option.

• Use the plus and minus buttons to set the time and press “OK”.

With the buttons and signifiers, the features are made discoverable to the users. The goal of any good interface design is to provide learnability to the users through the interface, and not through a manual.

Distributed Cognition: By placing the buttons (affordances) and labels (signifiers) on the interface to select among the different recipes (rice, soup, porridge, egg), the interface is offloading the task of remembering the items that can be cooked. The interface extends the user's cognition.

Direct Manipulation: I conducted a short survey with 25 people where I presented the two interfaces - the existing one and the redesigned one. The existing one has the time setter buttons laid horizontally, while the redesigned interface has the time setter buttons laid vertically. Around 70% of the people felt that placing the increase button on top, and decrease button at the bottom was more user friendly than placing them horizontally next to each other, as this accounts for direct manipulation.

Auditory Feedback: On clicking the “SAUTE” mode, the container takes time to get heated up, and once ready, displays “HOT”. This transition from “ON”  to “HOT” gives an auditory feedback (in the redesigned interface) to notify the user that the container is hot and is ready to saute.

With the above proposed changes, the Instant pot lessens the learning curve for novice users making it user friendly.

PS: This review is based on the Instant Pot Lux mini during the 2017 timeframe.