Georgia Tech · Summer 2018
NOMI strives to give busy parents the choice of making their child's food, giving them control over the process and the ingredients that lead to their child's nutrition.
We began by looking at the two options for feeding a child: store-bought baby food and homemade baby food. Our goal was to see the differences in the options and also what thoughts and factors determined a parent's decision between the two methods.
After taking observations, we looked at price comparisons between buying baby food vs. making it at home, interviewed several parents to gain insight on their habits and reasoning when feeding their kids, and developed personas to understand user needs. Using affinity mapping, we narrowed our focus to easing the chaos surrounding the at-home process and making this routine more accessible for parents who are restricted by time.
Without even looking at the task analysis, anyone could correctly guess that the number of actions required to make baby food from scratch is significantly higher than that required to prepare store-bought food. But what the task analysis shows is how tedious the process really is and how much more equipment is used — and this doesn't even include the cleaning afterwards.
Task analysis — homemade(left) vs. store-bought(right)
Our first instinct was to look for an all-in-one appliance that could do this for the parent. There is — in fact, there are several on the market. So why were none of the parents we interviewed using them? We bought a one-step processor and put it to the test.
While the processor had some design flaws and limited output volume, the efficiency undoubtedly eased the process. We wanted to understand the why behind parents' choices — why, if there's a whole industry dedicated to this, are busy parents still choosing between the tedious homemade method and feeling forced to only buy preprepared meals? Affinity mapping and analysis led us to four key insights that drove our design criteria.
Insight: Control
Insight: Emotion
Insight: Community
Insight: E-Commerce
NOMI makes cooking for your baby simple by separating out the steps and guiding you through the process. NOMI achieves this by providing parents with the proper tools, connections, and information.
The trademark Swivel Basket makes transporting food from step to step easy and efficient — transforming from bowl to ball by turning the silicone grips on either side, locking into the blender pitcher, and doubling as a lid. Steam, blend, serve, without transferring containers.
Final NOMI product — Swivel Basket, steamer, and blender system.
E-commerce design.
