Design flaws in everyday things: Ninja Air Fryer

Anirudh (Ani) Kedia
UX Collective
Published in
3 min readMay 3, 2022

Air fryers have become an essential appliance in most kitchens. One of the most versatile kitchen appliances made, it can cook a steak just as well as it bakes bread. I’ve found one easily fixable design flaw in my air fryer.

Machine: Ninja Air fryer

Ninja Air Fryer
Ninja Air Fryer — the most used appliance in my kitchen

(I suspect what I will be writing about includes most air fryers, but this is the one I use.)

Task Analysis

  • The user takes out the fryer tray.
  • The user places the ‘to-be-cooked’ ingredient inside the tray.
  • The user slides the tray into the air fryer
  • The user selects a temperature manually or by choosing a preset cook mode.
  • The user specifies the duration of cooking.
  • The user hears the alert letting them know that the cooking time has elapsed.
  • The user takes out the tray.
  • The user removes the food into a serving bowl/plate. The user could do the task in the following ways:
  1. The user uses a tong.
  2. The user uses a serving spoon.
  3. The user uses a spatula to pour the contents out by tilting the tray towards the serving bowl/plate.

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Published in UX Collective

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Written by Anirudh (Ani) Kedia

Sr. UX Researcher at BlinkUX | Research | Design | Psychology | Making UX accessible one article at a time

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