Designing without knowledge

Snipped from CNET’s Appliance and Kitchen Gadgets blog (emphasis mine):

I’m a big fan of Alton Brown. When it comes to cooking shows, I think his scientific approach is better than pretty much everything else on the Food Network. So, when I heard that he had helped General Electric design an oven, I had to check it out.

Brown consulted with the engineers who designed GE’s line of Trivection ovens. The company asked Brown to teach their engineers to cook, so that they would better understand the way their appliances are used. The ideas GE’s engineers learned in Brown’s classes lead to the combination of thermal, convection, and microwave energies to cook food faster.

So the engineers at GE were designing ovens when they didn’t really know how to cook? Are you kidding me? GE has been making ovens for how many decades, yet they only think now to bring in an amazing Food Scientist to teach the engineers to cook?

Lesson #1 of consumer product design: KNOW YOUR USER

Author Note: Even though I don’t own my own house, I love to cook and desperately want this oven.