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Oneware: A Student’s Award Winning System For One-Handed Cooks

Remember our discussion on one-handed cutting boards awhile back? Well one student has a new solution, and it’s already earned him IKEA’s attention… and a James Dyson Award!

Loren Lim, an Industrial Design student at the National University of Singapore, has isolated several types of kitchen discomfort that people experience when they have limited use of their hands due to amputation, stroke, temporary immobility, or other causes. With all its glass, water, sharp implements, and round objects, the kitchen is a treacherous and slippery place. Lim’s project Oneware creates surfaces with increased friction that require minimal effort to maximize control and autonomy. 

Before developing Oneware, Lim interviewed and observed single-handed family members and other users, studied existing aid products, and came to the conclusion that most solutions require unnatural movement to use. In response, he aimed to maintain traditional use patterns and targeted the two most frustrating areas: food preparation and washing dishes. 

The first tool is a simple method for adhering food to a cutting board. There are textured ridges, there are spikes. You spike your food and then chop it. What makes this interesting is its modular design. The cutting board is a removable part of a set-up used over a sink. This unit includes a pop-in compartment for garbage/compost bags, making disposal of unwanted bits is easy once you’re done chopping or eating. 

Afterwards the cutting board pops out and a silicone net pops in, creating a safe grippy space for washing even large or seriously gunked up dishes. 

Based on the prototypes and photos I’m not positively sure whether the set-up is intended as a flat tool laid across a sink (as pictured above), and if so how it avoids the slipping that a traditional plastic cutting board would have. The removal of the silicone insert also appears to take finger dexterity, but otherwise the parts have easily accessed handles and seem easy to clean. 

As Lim noted in his development process, tools that cater to limited mobility can help all kinds of users, as life regularly creates situations where we work under constraints. Ever tried to cook while on the phone? Or clean up while holding a kid? 

This unit won Lim both a regional Dyson Award, and the 2016 IKEA Singapore Young Designer’s Award. This recognition came with the opportunity to attend a IKEA design clinic and a longer term internship. He’s already knocking out other ideas for accessible kitchen tools, including bumped mats to make retrieving tools off flat surfaces easier.

Congrats Loren! We hope to see more in this tactile-wise trend.