OVERVIEW
Overview
Product
A water purification device with an accompanying app and website for Italian residents who suffer from flooding and water contamination incidents.
This aims to help residents purify water in portable water bottles on-the-go.
Duration
6 weeks
Responsibilities
Contextual Research
Competitor Analyses
Defining User Groups
Interviews/Surveys
Affinity Mapping
Archetypes
Prototyping
CAD Modeling + Rendering
Brand Development
Competitor Analyses
Defining User Groups
Interviews/Surveys
Affinity Mapping
Archetypes
Prototyping
CAD Modeling + Rendering
Brand Development
My Role(s)
Industrial Designer
Product Designer
Team
Aleka Hickman
The Challenge:
Create a solution in the form of a physical artifact and a UI/UX implementation to facilitate life for a population displaced during a natural or humanitarian disaster.
The floods of Venice in 2019 caused displacement due to how the city and its tourism culture largely rely on water for transportation. Italians are also considered one of the largest consumers of bottled water in the world, so how could we develop a product that also catered to sustainable efforts?
Additionally, not all products are designed for disabilities, specifically relating to vision, so how could we factor in accessibility features with our UI implementation, since Venice's population is predominantly comprised of elders who may be more inclined to having visual impairments?
The Research:
Discovery + Definition
What current products address water contamination? Where is there room for improvement?
Who are the target users for a product that aims to purify contaminated water?
The Strategy:
Development + Testing
Roadblock⚠️
The functionality of the filtering mechanism must be taken into more consideration because form is overtaking the ideation process.
Originally, we wanted to create a bottle lid that could screw and attach onto a faucet, but other parts of the bottle, such as the mouth opening and filtering piece, would make this difficult.
We decided to create a two-layer lid, with the top layer having a funnel shape that suits a faucet and can also contain a filter, while the bottom layer allows the user to drink the filtered water.
The Solution:
Our solution is a water filtration system within a lid that can work independently or screw onto a water bottle. The user simply has to hold it up to a water source. Since Venice and many other Italian cities utilize aquifers and free public water fountains (pictured), our lid and optional bottle attachment can be useful whether at home or on-the-go. In the event of a flood or compromised water quality, our lid provides clean drinking water in both a portable and stationary fashion.
The App:
Wireframing + Prototyping
Takeaways:
It can be easy to get carried away with imagination during ideation phases, but it is important to remember that form enhances function.
Our main priority for this project based on research was to create a product that can make contaminated water drinkable on-the-go, so our focus was to ensure our solution fulfilled this.
If I had more time:
Explore how to avoid potential leaks from cap design.
Add adaptability to lid, broaden the types of bottles it can be compatible with.
Conduct usability tests with focus on accessibility for both bottle/app.
