wise: improving the robo-vacuum in today's japan
DESCRIPTION
Design Research, Product Design, Industrial Design
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Masahiro Kuzama (Project Management)
Design firm
GK Design Group
Vacuum market in Japan is one of the biggest in the world, still, the robo vacuum has not become the number one choice for the average citizen.
finding our user
Single men age 21- 35 years old, living in big cities and working 10.2 hours a day. Their house situation is: apartment sharing with roommates or one bedroom apartment. Spare time dedicated to hobbies.
There are 1000 single men moving to main cities for every 800 women, finishing collage and/or starting to work in offices.
field research highlights
Known for their small living spaces, Japanese apartments go as small as 25 square meters, in center of cities. With furniture, they have small corners that are difficult to reach and clean.
Traditionally, people take their shoes off when entering a house, to avoid bringing dirt from the outside, making houses easier to clean. Cleaning services are non existent.
The hand house vacuum, although not as convenient for time saving, is still use because how much easier is to control small spaces and corners cleaning.
Robo vacuum Roomba's biggest flaw comes from the circular shape, which is designed to reduce damage if hitting furniture and walls, the same shape doesn't allow it to clean corners, and the irregular cleaning deck and size ratio, cannot make it fit between small spaces.
THE GOAL
Having a clean house while on work or doing other things. Not having to worry about if it is really clean. Robo vacuums with the same pattern, are not giving a full cleaning experience to a niche where "clean" is a big part of the culture.
THE STRATEGY
Working on a concept where "smart" is in their everyday life, the design will be simple and practical enough for our user to handle, as the mainstream robo vacuum. This product has to achieve a better performance than it currently does.
concept
DAILY
SMART
kepping their house clean with the least amount of effort
design proposal
PRACTICAL DESIGN
by using the same components, and adapting a new setting, making it slimmer but still smart.
EASY TO USE
by keeping a similar interface, and turning the oscillatory movement into straight and clockwise moves as it is required.
BETTER PERFORMANCE
this setting helps to reach corners and small spaces. The clockwise movement covers double the space while staying in the same spot.
SKETCHING
clockwise cleaning
WISE
