Spark is an industrial design agency based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. We're a team of 30 professionals with a passion for innovation and design. Together with our clients, we develop truly innovative products from first strategy and idea up to production. When we are designing a new product, we go through six phases. What the trend to this product is related to is the fact that elderly people they stay at home much longer these days. Much more care is provided at the home, and you see a lot of innovations around that, providing the possibility for elderly people to stay at home. This product particularly is for the food experience of these people. A lot of elderly people, especially in the Netherlands, they make use of the pre-cooked meal service which have to be heated in a microwave. This is not a nice experience for these people and it also kills nutritional value. Pretty creative concepting phase, we focused on the total experience of eating. Things that are very important for a person when he's eating is that he can decide himself what he want eat, when he want to eat, and how much he would like to eat. We tried to keep the ritual of preparing your food in the kitchen, serving your food at the table, and eating your food from your own dish. In order to achieve this, we've created this concept consisting out of two parts: a top part, which basically is the serving dish, and at the bottom part, the cooking, preparing plate which basically is the meal heater. So in contrast with the base, we created the serving dish to take your food from the kitchen towards the table. And if you look at the serving dish, it has much more the feel of an old, traditional ceramic or porcelain product. So you look at the bowl thickness, it's the finish that we used to really give it a more gastronomic feel to the product. Looking at the target group, it's very important to design a simple user interface. If you see these people, they might have handicaps, and therefore we created the system just with one button and it gives you a visual feedback, audible feedback, and very clear tactile feedback as well. In the prototyping phase, we test and validate all the ideas that have been generated in the industrial design phase. So we built for each and every specific part prototypes so that we can actually feel and fit whether it works and how it feels, how it looks so we can properly evaluate whether the whole design fits the original requirements and the original idea of the product. In mechanical design and engineering phase, we optimize all details of the product. We look at the texturing of the surface. We look at all the details necessary for the air flow. We look at the details necessary for the mechanical strength. And we optimize the details for production. This part is produced inside a mold, it will be injection molded. This means that after having it produced, it needs to be able to get out of the mold. You need to have the wall thickness controlled in order to cool it down evenly after injection. All these aspects are integrated in the mechanical design and engineering phase. After the mechanical design and engineering phase, we go to the realization of manufacturing. So with all the technical documentation that we have, we can now start sourcing for manufacturers. In this case, there are a lot of big plastic parts, which means that you have big injection molds which is a huge investment in the production which has to be done very carefully. So, normally, we negotiate with them the design, they will give some feedback, the molds will be made, sample shots will be created, and together we will make some final adjustments before they can start serial production. As soon as we have the production samples of the different parts, we can assemble the complete product. And this is actually the first time we have a complete product which you can actually test for certification. You need certification to sell your product anywhere in the world. In Europe, we have the CE certification, and this means that you have to prove that your product is safe to use and that the materials that you use are actually environmentally friendly according to the regulations. So now we have a finished product. It is in production, it is on the market, and we have received an award, a special award for respect on a good industrial design award show for this last year. This means an acknowledgment for us and we are very proud of this that we created a product which actually helps elderly people improve their dinner experience.