Cuisipro Dual Grater Refresh
One of the first phases of the design process employed for the Cuisipro Grater Lineup involved hands on exploration of existing graters. We used samples provided by Cuisipro, and researched and tested many other brands including Microplane, Chef’n, KitchenAid, and many more. While trying out the smaller graters in the selection, which were often pictured on their packaging or in web marketing assets to be used on top of a bowl, we were surprised at how poorly they performed in this use case. The hard plastic and exposed metal parts slide around on the top edge of most bowls and make it very difficult to use the grater effectively. I started brainstorming ways to solve this problem, and landed on the use of bowl retention feet that would stop the product from sliding in the direction of force being applied to the grater. Initially explored as an accessory to be used with Cuisipro’s existing dual grater, we decided it made much more sense to launch a new and improved version of the grater to re-invigorate sales of this model.
To improve the Dual Grater’s use over bowls (for collecting your grated food items), we proposed implementing a co-injected plastic frame while using the same time tested blade design from the current model. The plastic frame would allow the product to have more rigidity as well since the current model felt flexible and was not confidence inspiring while sliding your fingers so close to the array of razor sharp blades. A TPR over-mold was added to enhance grip across the top edge of any bowl, and protruded “feet” from the bottom of the grater to help it stay locked up against the inner edge of the bowl so it cannot slide off when horizontal pressure applied during grating.
Unfortunately, since the established price for the current Dual Grater model was $19.99, Cuisipro was concerned their customers would not want to pay $24.99 for the upgraded full plastic frame design due to its more complex tooling. The decision was made to simplify the design and have the bowl retention feet built into the co-injected blade end caps and maintain a fully exposed blade design, allowing the same price with added feature/benefit.
The finalized design launched along side the fine and coarse folding graters in Summer 2024.
