2022

AJUSTE

AJUSTE is a Spout Vacuum bottle designed to improve the user experience and tackle common problems in the market. A spout vacuum bottle has a removable cap that has roughly the diameter as a PET bottle. It allows the user to drink
directly from the bottle or pour the drink in a cup. It can keep drinks cold as well as hot for an extended period of time. People use the products during outdoor activities and sport activities, but also for their daily commute.

Background.

A need emerged to design a new Vacuum bottle targeted towards the US market, that can compete with leading international brands and focuses on offering new value preposition to the customer.

Project Type: Design Sprint

Client: Personal Project

Duration: 3 weeks

Role: Project Lead, UXR, Senior Industrial Designer

Challenges:
Conduct thorough user-centric research to pinpoint critical pain points, and meticulously analyze competitive products in the market. Highlight potential opportunities and design an optimal solution that not only improves the overall user experience and functionality but also considers manufacturing feasibility and end-cost implications.

Research Process.

I conducted 45 online interview with candidates via Zoom from US metropolitan states such as California, Florida and NewYork. My target audience ranged from 21 to 39 years of age with diverse life style (i.e. students, employees, company owners, staying at home individuals, sports lovers etc.). I wrote the interview guide which centered around 3 main stages in the day of a personal bottle owner: the preparing (before), the going out (during), and the return (after). The questions prompted participants to speak about their experiences, particularly their pain points and the hacks they developed to solve some of the problems they’ve encountered while using their bottles everyday, while giving them the space in the end to dream and design their own personal bottle.

  1. Research goal:

    • Understand common challenges people face in their everyday life when using their personal bottles

    • What needs and goals drive people to choose to own a personal bottle

    • Understand the lifestyle of my target group

  2. Target group:

    • Age 18-42

    • living in metropolitan states like California and New York

Market Research.

I did some desk research to identify leading bottle brands in the US market and understand their value preposition and identify common features they share and how they tackle user experience and usability with different techniques and solutions. another thing was to understand how do they represent themselves, what does their brand signifies and notice the value vs. cost equation. I also made the effort to dig deeper and identify pain points from previous customer reviews on their website, e-commerce website and youtube reviews.

Research goal:

  • Identify leading brands in the US market

  • Document features and technologies

  • Understand brand persona

  • Point out value preposition

  • Value vs. Cost

  • Customer reviews and feedback

  • Track trending CMF

  • Learn from points of weakness

  • Understand material and manufacturing limitations

Analysis and Synthesis.

After carefully recording all responds and collecting all data from previous research as well, I set out to organize outcome data to be more beneficial in later stages defining pain points and possible opportunities. I created 2 main user segments, “Working Individuals” and “ Sports Enthusiasts”.

I started my research assuming everyone would have same experience either positive or negative with their bottles, and went out of it learning that individual’s lifestyles and needs to owning a personal bottle have different impacts and experiences.

Owners vs Non-owners

Type of Bottle

Owned Brands

Material

Often Used

Factors affecting buying decisions

Understanding the user.

Creating personas and showcase their user journeys helps build more connection with the analyzed data from the previous research and provides an idea of how to meet users’ needs or challenges. They also help understand and identify pain points and highlight opportunities as well.

Competitors audit .

I down-selected some of the most frequently purchased models by diff. brands based on E-commerce statistics and audited them based on some attributes and factors to gain an overview of my competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Analyzing the brands and products of competitors offered me a well-rounded foundation of knowledge about the market I’m entering.

Identifying the problem.

I had to round down all the pain points stated in the research and findings from the market analysis as well to have a sharper view and be able to inform my Ideation Phase and identify a solid problem statement and set a clear goal that would direct the rest of the project.

Setting goal.

Not all dreams and requests are possible in a single design without compromising other primary factors, such as feasibility, cost, manufacturing, selling price, durability, maintenance…etc but above all the necessity/impact to the user. Thus presenting all the pain points next to the business goals helps inform the endless imagination and select the most important/relevant points to tackle and innovate around them to create a new value preposition for the user,

Pain points .

  • Bottle slipping

  • Mobility

  • 2-hand operation

  • Nose contact

  • Lid hitting nose/eye when drinking

  • Stability on surface

  • Surface scratch

  • Metal friction sound with surface

  • Cleaning

  • Various assembly parts

  • Leaking

  • Tongue burn

  • Beverage residue near spout

  • Outdoor refill

  • Fitting in cup holder in car

  • Metal taste

  • Stains from dark beverages

  • Empty weight

  • Easily lost

  • Forgetting to drink

  • Rippling sound

  • Reaching last amount

Vs.

Business goals .

  • 304 Stainless steel body

  • Plastic lid

  • Double vacuum layered bottle

  • Chinese manufacturing

  • Selling price 45-55$

  • Initial batch 25000pcs

  • Sustainable packaging

  • Launch end 2023

  • 4-6 color variations

  • Customization upon request

Brainstorming .

By creating an affinity map it became easier to understand how to distill the insights gained from the interviews into key opportunities that would relate to the customer needs and goals. By grouping ideas under categories it helped establish a hierarchy to prioritize needs.

I then classified ideas to two main factors, Primary-Form shapers (factors that affect the form drastically) and Secondary-Details (add-ons that can be adapted to any given form)

Ideation and testing.

I started rapid sketching ideas that crossed my mind while carefully taking into consideration the rich insights I gathered so far since the beginning of my project. I then previewed all the ideas and started evaluating them and down selecting the ideas with greater potential.

I then built them rapidly on CAD to be able to 3D print them and conduct a swift usability test internally to validate the prototypes and gain further insights for improvements and developments.

Development and refinement.

Upon insights gathered from testing initial idea and mock-ups, one design has proven very promising. I focused on the winning design and went on further developing and refining it to finalize my project.

I decided to name my bottle AJUSTE reflecting it’s unique selling point, which is free adjustment to the spout opening to regulate temperature and lower the chances of tongue burns.