Luigi, the Smart Stove Companion
How can designers make sustainability tangible, not theoretical?
ATAG challenged us with a deceptively simple question:
How can we create “smart” without relying on an app?
In modern kitchens, touchscreens dominate, yet they fail the moment cooking becomes real. Wet hands, oily fingers, heat, steam, and multitasking make touchscreen interaction a frustrating, unsafe experience.
Our solution? Don’t make users adapt to technology, make the technology adapt to users.
Introducing Luigi: a smart stove concept that acts as a kitchen companion, guiding you through your personal recipes through voice, expression, and embedded intelligence.
Client: ATAG Benelux (concept project)
Role: Strategic Product Designer
Skills: User research, ideation, interaction design, human–AI interaction, service visioning
Impact Proof Point:
I transformed contextual research and interaction analysis into a hands-free cooking companion concept that uses voice and expressive feedback instead of traditional app-based interfaces.
Overview
Luigi reimagines the relationship between home cooks and their appliances by transforming the stove into an interactive helper. By combining voice control, sensor intelligence, and a subtle layer of emotional expression, the stove supports users when their hands, and attention, are occupied.
The concept removes the need for a phone or secondary device. Instead, it embeds smartness directly into the cooking space, creating a seamless experience rooted in attentiveness, safety, and personality.
Challenge
Cooking is inherently physical. Yet most “smart” solutions rely heavily on screens, apps, or touch interfaces, making them impractical during actual use.
From our research, key pain points emerged:
Hands are often wet, oily, or occupied, making touchscreens difficult.
Smartphones in kitchens create hygiene, safety, and distraction issues.
Generic apps don’t account for personal recipes and cooking habits.
Users need guidance, but not in a way that interrupts their flow.
The challenge became clear:
Design smartness that fits the rhythm of cooking, intuitive, hands-free, and enjoyable.
Evaluating the limitations of app-based cooking revealed how easily screens fail in real kitchen conditions.
Comparing kitchen and laundry interactions helped identify where hands-free support would make the biggest difference.
Approach
Our process began with evaluating the pros and cons of app-based cooking and mapping needs across both laundry and kitchen contexts. The kitchen consistently revealed more opportunities for meaningful support.
We:
compared traditional vs. app-based product interactions
explored gesture, voice, and sensor-driven interaction modes
brainstormed individually → clustered ideas → distilled six coherent design directions
generated scenarios to test feasibility and emotional resonance
selected a direction focused on relationship-building between user and appliance
The emerging insight:
Users don’t need more screens, they need a companion that pays attention.
Clustering early ideas to identify coherent design directions around guidance, intuition, and companionship.
Storyboard exploring how a helpful, hands-free companion could guide users through personal cooking routines.
Concept: Luigi – The Helpful Stove
Luigi is an interactive stove concept that assists users through voice, subtle expressions, and an understanding of personal cooking patterns.
Voice-Guided Cooking
Luigi helps you cook your own recipes, not predefined presets.
The stove learns your techniques, reminds you of steps, and keeps you on track without demanding your hands or eyes.
Expressive Interface
Luigi has animated eyes integrated into the stove body, not for cuteness, but for clarity.
They offer:
reassurance when things go well
warnings when heat or timing needs attention
curiosity when Luigi needs confirmation
encouragement during more complicated steps
It’s a subtle emotional interface that makes interaction more intuitive and human.
Hands-Free Support
Luigi operates primarily through:
voice commands
cooktop sensors
context-aware prompts (timers, temperature adjustments, safety alerts)
No apps. No screens. Just the stove and the cook.
Early mockup of Luigi showing expressive “eyes,” enabling clear, intuitive feedback without screens or apps.
Outcome
Luigi demonstrates how smart kitchen appliances can be helpful without being intrusive.
Key outcomes include:
A refined use scenario showing Luigi guiding a user through preparing a family recipe
A concept for expressive stove “eyes” to signal status, emotion, and attention
A vision for multimodal interaction (voice + gesture + sensors) without traditional UI
Recommendations for phased implementation using existing ATAG technology (e.g., Celsius Cooking™)
The final concept shows how a stove can evolve from appliance to companion.
Impact
Luigi shifts smart appliances toward character, intuition, and emotional intelligence.
Instead of adding screens, the concept adds presence, enabling safer cooking, better guidance, and a more enjoyable experience.
It highlights how design can bring humanity into high-tech kitchen environments, making everyday cooking easier, more personal, and more meaningful.
Collaborative project work during concept development and scenario refinement.