DRIP
Product design | UX design | Package design
Drip is an app connected, faucet attachment system that helps households manage water usage by providing insights into where and when water is being used within the house. By making water consumption more transparent for all members of the household, it encourages a culture of conservation within.
Project Statement:
The first step to water conservation is awareness. Homeowners are looking for a way to keep the rest of the household members informed when it comes to everyone’s water usage in an easy, time efficient way.
OVERVEIEW
Drip is an app connected, faucet attachment system that helps households manage water usage by providing insights into where and when water is being used within the house.
By making water consumption more transparent for all members of the household, it encourages a culture of conservation within.
How it works
By using magnetic sensors to calculate the flow rate of the water and the time it is in the pipes, we are able to offer a plumbing free, quick to install attachment that provides real time water usage data. With this new design, installation has never been easier. As long as the sensor is flush to the pipe, it will track the water flowing through and send that data back to your phone through its wifi connected chip.
To install simply adjust to fit your pipe or faucet, attach with the magnetic closure, and sync to the app with the press of a button.
Research
Drip offers a simple, app connected water tracking system to family owners to help keep household informed of their individual usage.
Homeowners have a problem when it comes to keeping the other members of their household informed of water bills and usage, as well as how they each contribute and the effects their habits have. Drip solves this problem by giving them an easy way to track usage by room to see how it all adds up while simultaneously displaying the data across multiple devices. By doing this, members of the household are made more aware of not only their bills but also who is using the most water and where so they can work on cutting usage in those specific areas down.
Competitive analysis
The Competition wasn't targeting anyone other than who pays the bills…
Although there are many other products out there allowing people to stay up to date with their water usage and leak detection through an app, none of them target specific rooms or break down the data anymore than your average water bill.
User interviews
Over half of our interviewees admitted to not being able to understand their water bills.
After conducting two rounds of interviews (one about overall water bills, conservation, and usage, and another later about our product idea) it was clear that most people don't have a strong understanding of their water bill or usage in general. From our first round of interviews we were able to detect some major pain points when it came to water usage in general. From there we were able to come up with our product that solved these. Then, we went out to get some feedback on our initial concept to ensure we were meeting our intended goals.
Liked
Easy app integration
Sleek design of actual device
"My dad would love this! He would always tell me to take shorter showers but maybe if I could see how much of an impact they had I would have listened."
Goals + requirements
Disliked
Not very clear on how to attach and set up
The need to purchase multiple attachments
"What if I have more than one attachment in a room?"
Keep it simple, easy to understand, and informative.
After wrapping up interviews, we were able to start the creating process of our product. After looking at our target market, interviews, and problem statement, we made a list of goals and requirements our final product had to reach.
Goal: To stay informed of water usage and where/when it is happening.
Requirement: Make sure the app is synced and is constantly updated with real time water usage per room.
Goal: Raising Awareness of water habits around the house.
Requirement: Highlighting rooms/times where usage is high as well as recommendations on how to stay below set usage goals.
Goal: Make the product easy and time friendly.
Requirement: Provide clear instructions as well as a simple app interface that is accessible and easy to read for all ages and levels of water knowledge.
Primary persona
David
San Diego - Married father of 2
David is a middle-aged father from a busy suburban neighborhood, is passionate about sustainability and water conservation in his drought-prone region. Juggling work and family life, he strives to set a positive example for his children by being environmentally responsible and devoting his free time to his passion, gardening.
Pain
Dealing with limited knowledge of urban water conservation. Worrying about his family's environmental impact and struggling to teach his young children the importance of water conservation. Owning a big garden in a very dry area, making it expensive and difficult to keep it watered.
Gain
Feeling peace of mind knowing his family is reducing their environmental impact. Successfully teaching his young children the importance of water conservation while having a way to track it.
Packaging
Then I moved on to the next step which was packaging. I started with steps similar to the beginning stages and started with some research. Since this is a “cute” project, I wanted to add a twist to the packaging which ended up being some sort of surprise element.
Mood board - Package
I started by creating another mood board for inspiration for the packaging. I decided to draw inspiration from the clouds and sky for the surprise element as well as the sunset for the colors.
This is where I also decided what kind of packaging I wanted to use. Since my product is so large, I was limited to a few viable options. I knew I wanted to do some sort of box but I also didn’t want to have any picture of the actual product on it, so I decided on a match box design with a slide out section with a window to the lamp where there would be a sunset scene complete with cotton clouds.
SKETCHES
Sketches - Package
After creating a template, I started sketching out ideas in Figma to help me decide on a design and placement. I mentioned before I wanted to go with something simple on the outside to make the slide out box on the inside more surprising. So I kept a muted pink (like the app home screen) for the outside with a blue to pink gradient for the inside box.
This was a very rough sketch and as you will see I ended up adding a bit more depth as I went along further into the ideation stages.
Final design
Overall I think the colors ended up working really well together and that the app contains all the actions a person could need to get the perfect nights sleep. Since I wanted to keep this design delightful, I highlighted some key features that meet those requirements and helped me reach my initial goals.
Cuteness
The playful look of both the lamp and app interface gives it a very cute feel with its pastel colors and round edges. I also decided to keep all text in the app lowercase to give it a quieter feel since users will primarily be using the app before bedtime.
Engagement
By having notifications throughout the day with cute sayings or reminders to create tonight's routine, it keeps the users engaged and using the product even if they forget about it.
Reassurance
Before saving and or starting your routine, there will always be a page that gives users a chance to review their routine and make any changes. By doing this, it saves the stress of making sure everything is right the first time and gives some flexibility.
My final design consisted of the same idea, just taken a step further. After my initial idea, we had a critique where I was able to get some feedback. My main areas for improvement were color and design. So, I went back and made some changes such as font color, simplification of shell design, as well as some more details on the slide out window area. I also decided to add some starts to make it more “dreamy”.
Above is a 3d rendering of what the new design would look like. However, what is missing is that in the window area, there would be the lamp sitting on a layer of cloud like cotton balls as well as the same gradient from the outside. The idea was that the element of surprise would be the night time scene that buyers would pull out of the simple, more generic box. I hope to one day come back to this and create a real model of this design with the cotton balls and all to really bring my idea to life.
Product summary
Luna is an app designed to help users get better sleep. By combining the benefits of a daily bedtime routine and circadian lighting, Luna will leave all users ready for bed. The app allows you to set bedtimes, created schedules, and set alarms either right before bed or in advance.
How it works
Set your bedtime and create your routine.
Start your routine when the app tells you (times will vary depending on sleep goals and amount of tasks).
Complete your tasks one by one and as you move through the different stages, your lamp will slowly do the same going from a bright, soft white all the way to a dark, dim red.
Finish your routine and sleep well!
Project reflection
After spending a couple weeks on this project, I found that I really enjoyed blending the digital aspects with the physical. I found it really interesting researching and finding ways to get them to work hand in hand while also achieving my goals. The part I found most fun was building the actual lamp. It has been a while since I have had some non-computer focused work and it was a nice break. I did however have some trouble with shaping the base and wiring the lamp base, but after some trial and error, I am proud to say I made it work.
I am very happy with the way this product turned out and the amount of time and effort I put into this piece. Because of this, I plan on coming back and taking it a step further and working on adding some animations and some more fun design elements to the app. But like most designers, I have a million other things to focus on right now, but the next time I have extra time, this will be the first thing on my list.