OXO vegetable peeler designed for people with arthritis
The OXO vegetable peeler handle backstory is an icon among Human-Centered Design case studies.
It started with Sam Farber's wife struggling to use a metal vegetable peeler due to her arthritis. Sam thought to develop better kitchen tools for his wife which might benefit other people, too.
He designed oversized handles for a vegetable peeler and 14 other products which later became OXO Good Grips products. These large handles make it easier for people with arthritis to grip, as well as, making it easier to grip for people without arthritis. He used thermoplastic rubber (TPR) to make the handles which was a material more commonly found in the auto industry at the time in 1990. It's soft to touch and non-slip even when your hands are wet.
These designs were radically different than competitors sharing the same shelf. To make his strange, new designs more approachable to people, he showcased them at retailers next to a bowl of carrots for people to try peeling before buying. It worked, and now OXO is one of the largest kitchen tool manufacturers in the U.S.
The biggest takeaway from this case study is that designing for people with differing abilities can lead to solutions for everyone.
