Prediction:
The primary purpose of the IKEA milk frother is to froth milk — that is, agitate the liquid such that air is incorporated into it and form small bubbles to create a foamy texture. It does this by having the user hold the handle and switch it on, at which point the rod with the whisk end to vibrate quickly, agitating the milk and forming foam.
The frother was likely designed for a middle-class market, because its price ($2.99) makes it affordable. However, a milk frother isn’t a necessary or even common product in most American households, so specifically the frother would appeal to consumers who have a determined preference for frothed beverages, or wanted to add a touch of luxury to their daily routine. The design objectives the product would aim for include: affordability, aesthetic, ease of use, task fulfillment efficiency, and ease of cleaning. However, because it needed to be affordable, that likely restricted the materials and complexity of the product. Other constraints include size (for easy usage) and production complexity.
Observation:
Upon observation, I can see that the milk frother works by spinning the rod with the whisk very quickly. When submerged, the spinning whisk creates a whirlpool-like effect to agitate the liquid and create the foam. It is battery-powered as I had to put in batteries before it worked, and likely powered by some kind of motor inside the handle, which vibrated furiously when on. It’s designed to serve one purpose, and the design has a similar singularity to it: handle, whisk. It’s small, minimalist design keeps it unobtrusive yet efficient.
Overall, it meets most of the design objectives: it’s relatively cheap, easy to use (with only one switch), and is arguably aesthetically pleasing with its simple design. It’s simple to clean (just wipe it off) and It has clear mapping and affordances — you hold the black handle and toggle the switch, causing it to immediately vibrate (feedback). However, putting the batteries into the handle took me a few tries, because although I could see the affordance (slide out the panel, put batteries in empty space), I had no mapping of how they should be oriented. Later, I saw that there were helpful + and – symbols on the panel, but I noticed it too late despite searching for clues when putting them in. In this case, it seems the designers placed aesthetic design over function, keeping the mapping small and out of the way, but as the user I missed its function entirely, proving it ultimately ineffective.
Test:
The IKEA milk frother was fairly simple to use, and the switch was located in an ergonomic position on the handle so that my thumb could easily slide it up or down while holding it. It frothed milk quickly, in about 10 seconds, although it was hard to tell by looking directly at the milk as it was all white — I had to turn off the frother and inspect the milk to see that it had frothed. It generated about two inches of dense, thick foam in the plastic cup, with very small bubbles that deflated quite slowly. In this sense the frother fulfilled its task well — it frothed milk to decent quality and quantity. Although the materials were cheap, I imagine the device is pretty durable and could be used indefinitely provided there was a supply of batteries.
Our device was similar in concept to the IKEA frother, with a handle, rod, and whisk at the end of the rod. Unlike the IKEA frother, ours was hand powered, so it involved the user rapidly rotating the whisk themselves, in order to agitate the milk. After whisking the milk for around 10 seconds, there was about an inch of foam consisting of large bubbles above the milk. However, this foam deflated in about 30 seconds. Compared to the Ikea frother, the foam our frother created did not have the same structure or durability, so it performed more poorly in the same task.
We tried to build similar affordances and mapping as the IKEA frother into our own, such as the handle (made of Lego tires, so it would be easier to grip) and the whisk at the end looking like something that could agitate milk. The pitcher was to hold the milk, hopefully evident through process of elimination (nothing else was remotely vessel-like), and there were no “inner” mechanisms — it was up to the user to realize how to whisk the milk. I think our product’s strengths lay in its relative ease and clarity of use, as well as the Lego tire handle adding grip, the splash protector, and the strength of the metal rod. However, the actual foam produced by the whisk was comprised of much larger bubbles, which popped and deflated more quickly, and the rubber bands and command hooks comprising the whisk would have been very difficult to clean and keep sanitary, so those were weaknesses. If we had to change it, probably having some electric motor doing the work of the rotating whisk would have improved it, as well as changing the whisk mechanism to be thinner and simpler, which could help with the foam density and cleanup. I would also use a wider pitcher with a tilted base so the user wouldn’t have to do it themselves.
Disassembly
To disassemble the IKEA frother, I first took out the batteries, then split the two halves of the plastic casing. Then I separated the whisk rod from the motor. By my count, there were 12 pieces in the product (not including the batteries), although I did not further take apart the motor. It works by having the switch control one of the metal pieces touching the batteries so that when the switch was in the “on” position, the circuit is complete and the motor runs, spinning the attached rod and therefore whisk. The whisk is composed of the rod and a spring that goes around the circular, perpendicular end, and on the other end a plastic joint that connects it to the motor. The handle is made of two plastic half shells, inside of which are two bent metal strips that touch the batteries and the switch. At the butt of the handle is a small plastic sliding piece with another piece of metal to complete the circuit. Primarily the part that moves is the motor, which when connected to rod and whisk, spins them rapidly. I wasn’t really surprised by any of the parts, although it was interesting to see the electric circuit.
Analyze
The strengths of the IKEA milk frother include its efficiency in fulfilling its task of foaming the milk, and ease to clean — just using a napkin to dry off the milk worked fine. Its size and battery-power made it portable and its simple design made it easy to use, and its materials made it very affordable. However, as for ease and comfort of use, the powerful vibration of the handle made it uncomfortable to grip tightly for long periods of time. This isn’t necessarily a big issue, considering it takes less than 30 seconds to foam a cup of milk, but it could prove cumbersome or inaccessible for others in different situations. To improve it, there could be a vibration dampening material in the handle so users could use it for longer periods of time. Through disassembling this device, I learned about how small systems of circuits and motors could fit in a compact handle, and how simple designs can create effective products.
Link to spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vbCTBZJgpHoklbmIybw9r0t3eQMSlaLR0QS4tbpRSRg/edit#gid=0
