The problem
Recipes demand precision, but cooktops don't deliver it. Nobody really knows what "medium heat" means, timing is tracked with alarms from other devices, there's no way to know what temperature food is cooking at, and reheating food in the microwave is imprecise. This project explores how an induction cooktop could solve that.
The process
Before designing, I wanted to understand how people cook today and how current cooktops address these problems.
INSIGHTS
Low, medium, and high heat are a guessing game
Neither with nor without a numeric scale is it clear what "medium heat" means. The interviewees estimate low, medium, and high heat by intuition. Benchmarking induction cooktops on the market shows the problem doesn't go away with a numeric scale: levels 0 to 9 don't indicate which range counts as low, medium, or high, so users are still left guessing.
Fast but blind
When it comes to reheating food, users prefer the microwave over the induction cooktop because it's faster, even though it's harder to control the result: sometimes it doesn't come out at the temperature they wanted, or it gets too hot.
The timer lives outside the cooktop
None of the three interviewees has a timer on their induction cooktop, so they use their phone or the oven, sometimes both at once. The benchmarking found that some cooktops did have a timer, but it could only be set for one burner.
The user is the sensor
Boiling water and heating oil are controlled by feel. With no alert, users have to keep checking: holding a hand near the oil or watching for the water to start bubbling.
Recipes that ask for what doesn't exist
There's no way to set a cooking temperature. Some recipes call for it, and no cooktop offers it.
USER PERSONA
01: Juan - Administrative assistant
THE SOLUTION
The priority wasn't adding new functions, but providing reference points where there used to be only guesswork: what medium heat is, whether the water is boiling, what temperature something is cooking at. The prototype starts from there, and every feature responds to one of Juan's frustrations.
Low / Medium / High scale over levels 0-9
Instead of leaving the user to guess, the cooktop groups the levels into three named ranges that match how recipes talk about heat.
Quick functions with alerts for boiling water and heating oil
A timer can be set for each burner in use, with no need for another device.
Configurable cooking temperature, with alert
The user sets the exact temperature they want to cook something at, and can combine it with the timer so the countdown only starts once that temperature is reached.
Step-by-step guided interface
The system only lights up the actions available at each moment (turn on → choose burner → choose power or function), so the user doesn't have to remember how the cooktop works.
Control lock
Prevents accidental touches, except for the on/off button, which always stays available for safety.
Sound and visual feedback
Every action is confirmed with a sound and the matching icon lighting up.
Automatic shutoff
The burner turns off if it doesn't detect a pan or pot on top.
The system continuously guides the user through the actions they can take at each step.
Different simultaneous functions.
Induction Cooktop locked with boost function.
Selecting heating temperature. This action is only allowed using the "+" and "-" buttons because there are minimum and maximum temperature limits to be set.
Selecting the time for the timer. This action is performed using the numeric keypad because it is faster to set the timer duration.