Rapid Deployment Kitchen
The Marine Corps developed a kitchen to allows cooks to prepare perishable and shelf-stable ration meals in the field with many of the conveniences found in a regular kitchen. This container is a hard-shell, container-based facility measuring 8 feet by 8 feet by 20 feet, expandable on both sides. We had to understand the rigor and demands of preparing food in the field in order to design a kitchen whose funionality and layout would take one hour to set up, and another 90 minutes to serve troops a meal.
Objective: evaluate the usability of a working protoype and make design recommendations to the Industrial Design team.
Methods: literature research of established human factors & behavioral psychology guidelines and physical anthropometics, rapid testing of in-house mock ups, and observation and interviews during the use of a working prototype in the field.
Deliverables: Presentation and written report outlining recommedation based on our finding to improve the usability of the interior design of the RDK
Slideshow
Developed by the Dept. of Defense Food and Nutritional Research Program at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center (Natick, MA)