Designed: Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker
When my wife and I saw a commercial for the Stay or Go slow cooker (i.e. Crock Pot), we initially scoffed at it, chiefly because the spot itself feels very much like one of those cheesy infomercials (aside: has “infomercial” become so accepted that it no longer needs hyphenation or quotation marks?). The hero in the spot arrives at a potluck with her trusty, new Hamilton Beach Stay or Go slow cooker, while her nemesis (of course it’s all women) shows up with some other brand. A hilarious wordless exchange ensues as the hero unsnaps the integrated serving spoon from out of the lid, hangs the lid on the edge of the pot, and slides her pre-printed food label into the convenient label holder; while the hapless clod with last year’s model struggles to lean the lid at the side of the pot, and her pitiful Post-It note label fails to stick to the side. The only thing missing was the wah-waaah of a trumpet as she struggled.
But this post is not about a bad commercial; it is about a well-designed product. After thinking about the Hamilton Beach Stay or Go slow cooker, I realized that this is a really well-designed appliance (assuming it cooks worth a damn). The designers spent time thinking about how their customers actually use their product and developed convenient solutions to meet their needs. Granted, the label holder is pretty minor, but I like the integrated lid rest, and I love how the serving spoon just snaps into the lid. And the snap-on lid and carrying handles round out the experience.