Stanford University - Ramen Noodles

Recreate The Ramen Noodle Experience - Freshmen

Instant ramen: it’s a meal for some people, for others a hot snack. Some people eat it every week, and some people only ate it in college. It’s study food, emergency food, camping food, and bulk food with a longer shelf life than your shampoo. Some eat it raw, some follow the directions, and for some, it’s the muse for whatever is in the fridge. It’s a million different things to (literally) a million different people in the US and around the world. For these reasons, it’s a great platform to learn and practice the user-centered design process.

The five phases to the design thinking process are:

To learn more about our Design Thinking curriculum please go to our Multimedia Website.

The Design Project:

Umami, a group of food-focused entrepreneurs looking to make waves in the instant ramen industry, has retained a group of hotshot designers (our students!) to improve the instant ramen experience. The epiphany came when two of the members were traveling, and instant ramen was the only “safe” thing they had to eat. The question they asked was, “Why does ramen have to be so crappy? Why can’t there by a healthier, satisfying alternative?” They feel that existing brands (Nissin, Maruchan, Sapporo Ichiban, etc.) offer only a highly undifferentiated array of high sodium and high fat choices. Their goal: gain a competitive advantage by offering a better instant ramen experience (Design Thinking Projects And Challenges).

(More videos below.)

Link to various presentations

Team - The Noodle Ninjas.

Team - The Noodle Squad.

Team - Ra-men.

Momofuku Ando, ORS, was a Taiwanese-Japanese businessman who founded Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. He is known as one of the inventors of instant noodles, instant ramen, and Cup Noodles.