Le Creuset Thermometer
Prompt: Design a digital cooking thermometer branded for Le Creuset.
7 week project, 2025
A dump of thoughts to consider surrounding thermometers, and specifically cooking thermometers.
Mind-Mapping
Alpha Grillers Digital Meat Thermometer
Baseline Product
This project began by defining a primary reference product to create a constraint of technology and use case. This popular product serves as an affordable, simple digital thermometer. This allowed us to collect first and second-hand data.
Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $15
An interview was conducted with an Alpha Grillers user to seek feedback. Main interview takeaways are summarized below.
Research
User is apprehensive about the thermometer’s integrity if he were to drop it in a pot of soup.
Not convinced it’s waterproof
The probe joint could feel stronger, and user wants a detent where the probe closes.
Feels fragile
Though unbothered, user mentions there are lots of graphics and buttons he doesn’t use.
Lots of unnecessary elements
Made with organic watercolor forms, play-doh, and Midjourney.
Ideation Explorations
Form Development
Screen Selection
Model Evolution
-
Le Creuset’s most popular color, cerise (red) is associated with love, passion, and energy, which are also themes of cooking. It goes with Christmas and Valentine colors; Holidays where people often cook together.
-
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is durable, heat-resistant, and easily injection moldable and paintable.
-
Le Creuset products have a glossy finish. The color and gloss finish would both be spray painted on.
Probe pivot and the main body have hidden detent bumps that provide a physical “click” when turned at 90 and 180 degrees.
-
ABS is among the most common injection molded plastics.
-
This is the most affordable, consistent, and controlled way to apply a smooth color gradient.
-
A few coats of a UV-resistant polyeurethane clear coat would be applied last.
Manufacturing methods include…
