Timberline
Research / Industrial Design / Engineering / Production
We were challenged with helping Traeger’s vision to develop a new flagship grill with improved craftsmanship, reimagined aesthetics, an advanced, wifi enabled user interface, improved cooking performance, and a cooking capacity for a family to cook a complete meal.
We conducted secondary research on BBQ and pellet grills collecting competitive information and spending time in the field. The highlight of our field research came from interviews with leading industry influencers such as Danielle Bennett (Diva Q) and Cameron Treu (Bam Bam). We even participated with Bam Bam at the Nevada State BBQ Championship (Best Dam BBQ Challenge). These discussions and insights from observing what it takes to make great BBQ, led us to hypotheses on the science of smoke and smoke utilization as well as the BBQ culture and a griller’s expected experience.
The team established methods to investigate and measure their hypothesis around smoke utilizations and proof of function prototypes were fabricated and data was collected and analyzed to help guide the team toward appropriate solutions.
To ensure the aesthetic was hitting the mark, multiple iterations of mock-ups were presented to research participants to gather end-user feedback and ensure we were delivering on Traeger’s brand value and the executive team’s goals.
The WiFire system allows the grill to be an IoT device, with the cloud server and app-based remote control. Our design team led the GUI development, managing the workflow, language, and graphics for what might be the most advanced grill control in the industry.
Timberline received a Good Design® Award from Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design as well as the Gold award from AmazingRibs.com, the most influential BBQ website in the world.
