Potatoes and Design Thinking

So I went into Penn Station yesterday with a buddy (Matt) to have some lunch.  When we sat down, I noticed the numerous metal bins of potatoes stacked up next to the fryers.  If you have ever been to a Penn Station, you know that the fries are fresh cut.  Anyway, I thought it was interesting that while my friend Matt was talking to me, my mind shut him out for about 15 seconds while I stared at those potatoes.  Here is what happened inside my head during those 15 seconds:

“Hmmm…potatoes.  They cut them here to make the fries.  I don’t see any way they could cut them by hand.  They must have a machine.  But I don’t see any machine that could cut them into fries.  Well, there is a machine there on the counter.  No, that is a slicer for sandwich meat.  Ok, then where is the potato french fry cutter?  Well, I don’t know what a potato french fry cutter looks like.  But I am a designer, so what do I think it should look like?  What kinds of design decisions go into making that machine?  Do they use human-centered design methods when making that machine?  Are the designers of that machine more concerned with human factors rather than experience design?  Do they try to design for efficiency, or do they try to make the use of the machine satisfying, like when Bill Buxton talks about the experience of using his juicer?  What materials would they use for that machine?  Would it be something obvious, like steel, or would they use something different?  How would the potatoes come out?  Would it be like a cannon, or would they sort of just squeeze out slowly like those old Play-doh machines that you could make fries or noodles out of?”

Then my mind snapped out of it and I explained to Matt why I had that weird look on my face for the previous few moments.  We both laughed because this happens all the time now that I have been in a design-oriented Master’s program for over a year.  It can be maddening at times, but is still funny to think about.

It is kind of like when you recover from a sinus infection or a cold.  After a week or so of not being able to hear, smell, and taste properly, once it is over the world seems richer and your senses are more acute.  Now that I am thinking like a designer, my brain is now more acute and sensitized to the artifacts in the world around me.  It kind of feels like a superpower.

And by the way, those fries are delicious.  Only slightly less delicious than the fries at Five Guys.