Domain: My Kitchen

Overview (1 pt)

I have selected my domain to be my kitchen and will be addressing the resources, mainly food, kitchenware, and utensils that are kept and used in my kitchen. I live in an apartment with two other roommates and the resources are most often utilized by a total of 3 users. In terms of scope, the organizing system holds a fair variety of resources, ranging from perishables to non-perishables, delicate glassware to non-delicates, utensils and kitchenware.

The overall scale of my organizing system is limited by the size of the kitchen and the amount of resources needed by the users. This is because the physical environment of the collection is the biggest constraint on the growth and scale of the organizing system. In regards to the number of resources selected depends on the requirements needed by the user, which are fairly low because most users are not frequent cooks. Overall, the system will support interactions designed to create value to the organizing system, but the priorities of the different interactions are more often determined by decisions about intended users.

What resources are being used? (2 pts)

The kitchen will hold resources shared by my roommates and I, but also have resources used exclusively by me or my roommates. The collections of resources will include perishable and nonperishable food, kitchenware, utensils that belong to at least one of the three users. Since my roommates and I did not conduct any group purchases, there will be no resources owned by more than 1 user.

Since the resources must be owned by one user, the same user must have selected the resource for the system. Some of the roommates might have resources that are personal to them and that they do not want to share the resources with others. Therefore, the resources that are selected are owned by a maximum of 3 users, but not all the resources added into the organizing system are allowed to be used by every user. For example, my roommates might have bought food for themselves and are not planning to share the food. In this case, the resources are only specific to them.

When a user adds resources to the system, other users learn about the new resources too when they interact with the system. Since this addition and removal of resources is rather explicit, all the roommates must be explicit in terms of their resource permissions if he/she does not want to share select resources. As an alternative, users can abide by the rules of the organizing system, such as putting non-sharable resources in specific locations to make sure that others know that the resources cannot be used.

The lifetime of the entire resource organizing system is dependent on the physical and technological constraints because these constraints are difficult to change for the resources that are being organized. The kitchen, for example, contains multiple cabinets, drawers and shelves. The upper shelves have certain affordances making it inappropriate to hold heavy objects. In addition, the cabinets and drawers are only of certain size, and will constrain the size and dimensions of the items to be added.

Why are the resources organized? (2 pts)

The resources are organized by select principles. Some of this organization is required due to the resource’s properties. For example, perishable food products need to be organized into the fridge because of it’s properties require them to be stored in an environment under a certain temperature.

Resources that are shared among all the users will need to be organized in certain drawers and cabinets to ensure there are no conflicts in organizing. During the first week when I was moving into the apartment, there was a discussion among all the roommates concerning he placement of utensils, frequently used resources (cups, utensils, pots), delicate and less frequently used items (sauces, garbage bags, wine glasses,) and the non-sharable items (pressure cookers, spice selection.) This discussion, most generally a highlight of the existing principles, set an agreed standard on the existing system and that any changes should allow some sort of interoperability.

Resources are also organized to support easy access, retrieval and user-interactions to provide value. Some of these kitchen resources are needed on a daily basis, such as cups, forks and spoons. The retrieval and maintaining processes have to ensure that these resources continue to be utilized and then curated in the system or else the resources will be lost or misplaced.

How much are the resources organized? (2 pts)

The resources are mostly organized by its general perceivable properties, the affordances of the actual resource and frequency of use by the user. Resources, such as food items, are organized in an ownership or resource property. For food that share the same ownership or properties, such as my own tub of ice-cream and a bag of frozen peas, the organizing of the resources is not that complex. The organizing principle might simply be collation, since the grouping of the two resources can be considered ‘together’ and makes sense in terms of resource retrieval.

While most of the items are organized by the specific properties of the resources, collections of personal resources where users are not keen on sharing, are organized or kept aside for highly individualized interactions. For this reason, specialized categories are created by the user that it is intended to serve. The adherences to organizing principles that support individualized interactions is only possible due to the size of the apartment. Larger collections need more people to design and organize, therefore it might create communication and coordination problems.

When are the resources organized? (1 pt)

The resources are mostly organized at the creation stage, where the organizing system was first established. For example, when the first roommate moved into the apartment, items were arranged or grouped under perceived properties from this first user. Since I was a late-comer to this apartment, the organizing principles in the kitchen were already defined. As a new user into the system, I had to learn the organizing principles, select my resources that can be arranged in the current organizing system and find out how to organize resources that do not fit.

Who does the organizing? (1 pt)

The organizing system mainly serves 3 users who are the residents of the apartment. While these 3 users are the main users, they will strongly shape the contents and the interactions that it must support. After identifying the main user categories, the organizing system can be designed with a user type that has been classified and define interactions with more precision. However, each user brings different biases, goals into what should be the supported interactions. This is not to exclude visitors, family and friends who might be visiting the apartment and will interact with the system at some point.

The characteristics of the small user group helps explain the selection and the interactions designed for the organizing system. Overall user base of the organizing system is rather homogenous, as the main user categories are master students at UC Berkeley and do not do a lot of cooking.

Other considerations (1 pt)

After the organizing system has been designed and implemented, the operation and maintenance of the system are crucial stages to ensure the system can continue to support its intended purposes. However, the change in the user’s schedule or habits will change the organizing system’s maintenance processes. The user might cook dinner, removes a pot and some bowls and plates from the system, but he/she delays the processes of maintenance and delaying the curation process.