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The RYOMEN lighting retrofit reveals while sanitizing, allowing food to last longer while providing increased clarity in haphazardly packed commercial refrigerators.
Client
Hoshizaki of America
Role
UX research, industrial design
Collaborators
Begum Atasoy, AG Church, Rene Hahn, Daniel Lam
Timeline
Sept-Dec 2024
multiple lights in fridge
open.close
Design brief: reduce food waste. While the fast-paced restaurant environment emphasizes consistency in operation, proper handling of food is an additional source of stress given the high volume and frequency of tasks, causing a breakdown in codified processes. Food waste is downstream of the resulting cascading chain of errors.
Fridge as fulcrum
Everyone in a commercial kitchen uses the reach-in refrigerator; bags and trays are constantly added and removed.
After Hoshizaki clients reviewed our initial concepts, we decided on three areas of exploration for a commercial refrigerator retrofit.
My focus moving forward was updating the interior lighting.
Task lighting, when placed along the depth of the fridge instead of its front face, steadies and accelerates interactions.
lighting placement: task analysis, irradiation mapping, light placement
collage
sketches r2 + models
The Hoshizaki (USA) ethos
While the Japanese versions (primarily sushi display models) allowed for slight ornamentation,
A set-and-forget ethos means initial customization is followed by rigid resilience in the face of kitchen chaos.
angle adjust
Charging rail
pilaster attachment details
sliding
Customizability
Everyone in a commercial kitchen uses the reach-in refrigerator; bags and trays are constantly added and removed.
As Hoshizaki sells a range of refrigeration products, this can be used for under-the-counter worktop refrigerators, sandwich prep models, and even medical storage.
wipe down
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