Revolutionising Home Hydration: Smart Dispensing Meets Mobile Convenience.

Overview

Curated House is a SIP Ventures end-to-end project that integrates premium beverage products into daily living through an innovative over-sink system and companion app. This smart solution combines physical and digital experiences to revolutionize household hydration with your favourite beverages.

Vision

Sip Ventures, one of the world's largest suppliers of premium beverage products in Asia and globally, sought to expand strategically into the home economy sector. Recognising the potential for innovation in home hydration, they approached our team with a vision to create a new, transformative beverage experience for households.

Objective

To design and develop an intuitive, user-friendly mobile app that enables users to customize their beverage experience, control preferences, and monitor consumption through seamless integration with a physical over-sink beverage dispenser. Additionally, deliver the MVP (Minimum Lovable Product), patent the brand, and launch for millions of customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

To summarise, it was about 'Delivering impact for Asahi at pace'.

An Accelerated Design Approach To Crafting An Experience.

1. Collectively with design lead and business stakeholders, we outlined product's scope, defining objectives, planning sprints, and breaking down tasks into detailed features. Adhering to an Accelerated Design Approach, we planned our 12 weeks sprint around Research, Design and Testing.

2. We outlined our research objectives and goals prior to working on the features and use cases. Our methods were staged from explorative to summative to meet user and stakeholder expectations.

   
   

3. While working with cross-collaborative frog teams from across the globe, we aligned on our over-sink dispenser design with an Industrial design team and for prototype requirements. By meticulously following our design process, we ensured that our products met and exceeded stakeholder expectations. To achieve this, we engaged in in-depth user research and conducted interviews with users. By understanding their pain points, preferences, and aspirations, we gained valuable insights that inform our design decisions. This approach enabled us to create features that genuinely address real user needs and enhance their overall household experience.

   
   

4. Simultaneously, we defined our use-cases and features framework which further helped us to collate design considerations.

   
   

5. We created experience mapping sessions with clients to identify joyful moments and seamless interactions for end-to-end customer experience. From purchase to pre-install and system setup to Daily use, we identified several key stages that would influence the overall Aquinox experience.

   
   

6. Understanding the user flow, feature requirements, functions and tech feasibility, I drafted the Information Architecture highlighting key pages, sub-pages, alternates and edge case states.

   
   

Introducing Aquinox

The Aquinox system consists of two main components:

• An over-sink smart tap with a digital screen for immediate interaction and dispensing

• A mobile app for parental control, customisation, and monitoring of the system

  
  

For our solution, we

1. Conducted 3 user testing rounds with in-house kitchen settings and prototypes. Through multiple rounds of user testing and feedback, we refined the user interface of both the tap and mobile app. Key improvements included:

   • Simplifying the tap interface for quick, intuitive interactions

   • Enhancing the mobile app's home dashboard with quick-access settings and personalised recommendations

   • Implementing a consistent design language across both interfaces
     
     
     

2. Collaborating with the team, I was able to build product use-cases and design considerations along with the project lead, which led to low fidelity iterations and kick start user testing. As we progressed, end of every week we showcased product development progress, understood challenges and collaboratively built the product with relevant stakeholders. Internally, we allocated our team calls and working time to keep a balance between planning and execution.

   The final Aquinox system offers:

   • Customisable beverage options through the mobile app

   • User-specific preferences and time-based dispensing

   • Temperature and sparkling level controls

   • Parental controls for beverage limits

   • Hydration tracking and statistics

   • Notifications for system activities and low cartridge alerts

3. Created a design system for high-fidelity mobile app designs

   
   

4. Handover to development with features and guidelines.

   
   

Outcome

The Aquinox system was well-received by early testers, with positive feedback on its ease of use and customisation options. The seamless integration between the physical tap and mobile app was particularly praised for enhancing the overall user experience.

Impact

Aquinox has the potential to revolutionise household beverage consumption by promoting better hydration habits, reducing waste from bottled drinks, and offering a personalised beverage experience. The project also set a new standard for smart home appliance design, emphasising the importance of user-centred design in everyday products.

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