Discovering the nuances of the world market

The challenge of designing a household product that would be as at home under the sink, on the counter, in a Hong Kong apartment, or in a Texas ranch house began with getting to know more than just a few specific demographics. We first had to understand the subtle differences between our two major target markets in Southeast Asia, and North America and the way these cultures view and use home appliances.

Among other things, it was discovered that the most opposing difference between these Southeast Asian market and the North American market was that in Asia, an appliance that filtered your water was seen an object to showcase and be proud of, whereas in the Americas this was something that was more likely to be hidden away due to its utilitarian nature. With this discovery it was determined that the device would have to be designed to be operated both on a counter as well as under a sink or in a basement.

Opportunity in the overlap

While looking at the wide range of personas throughout both demographics a few opportunities began to stand out and help guide development of the product. The device had to be optimized for basic operational functions like periodic battery and filter changing regardless, however these features had to be balanced with the aesthetics of a device that lives in plain sight. Through constant refinement between look and feel concepts and human factors mock-ups, the ergonomics and device configuration began to take shape. Testing around the main user flows dealing with the device and the digital experiences around it also continued as the product was visually and mechanically refined as to ensure that updates did not negatively impact the user experience.

The outcome

With countless prototypes and the invention of a self-sealing valve by our engineering team, we developed a single lane workflow for interacting with the device that guided users along a semantic path and order of operations for interacting with the device. The device is designed in such a way that it is only possible to access a single affordance at a time making it virtually impossible for the user to miss a step or improperly assemble or disassemble the device. A sort of physical wizard that provides the user with assurance when interacting with pressurized plumbing appliance.