Project Context
This project focuses on the users emotive and sensory experience when drinking coffee, the project aims to develop a product that focuses on these experiences.
Provided Brief
"You should Investigate and develop a product or product family that embraces the idea of “coffee culture”. This should be a product aimed at the home environment but may draw inspiration from cultural references around café/retail consumption environments."
Project Scenario
"In recent years the brand have struggled with market penetration and as such are relatively niche, selling a commodity product. Following a recent round of investment the company is looking to expand its market share, at home and abroad, by developing a lifestyle brand."
Research
Emotive Design
Design must resonate emotionally, creating positive and familiar experiences to foster lasting connections with users. Key methods include:
Identifying qualities that resonate with users and align with coffee consumption experiences.
Employing design metaphors to enhance familiarity.
Incorporating playful colors and visual cues.
Crafting a narrative to support user engagement with the product.
Sensory Experience
The design intentionally integrates sensory elements:
Touch: Warmth radiating from the cup enhances tactile pleasure.
Smell: Allowing the aroma of coffee beans to permeate the environment.
Sound: Auditory cues like grinding beans or steaming milk indicating stages of preparation.
Taste: Facilitating flavor through thoughtful beverage preparation.
Sight: Providing visual access to coffee, including the rich color of the coffee and frothy milk.
Takeaways
Emotion is central to coffee culture. Engaging emotionally ensures both product longevity and meaningful user experiences. The design actively encourages the ritualistic, early-morning behaviors associated with coffee, emphasizing visceral enjoyment and emotional connection.
Development
Design Focuses:
Tactile The tactile experience was prioritized, considering texture, temperature, and ergonomics to enrich every aspect of coffee drinking.
Familiarity It was essential that the design felt novel but not unfamiliar. Users needed to comfortably recognize and engage with the design without feeling alienated.
Modern The design needed to embody a modern aesthetic—timeless rather than trendy—to ensure longevity and avoid becoming just another novelty.
Enhancement Rather than altering the traditional coffee-drinking experience, the design aimed to enhance the visceral sensations associated with it.
Sketching Process
A range of sketches was developed, and participants were asked to provide feedback on their impressions of the concepts. Following these discussions, the designs were refined further and reviewed again with participants. The finalized concepts were then modeled in CAD software for prototyping and testing.
Final Features
Transparent Glass Front: Allows visibility of coffee levels, enhancing visual satisfaction.
Glass Rim: Smooth and transparent, providing tactile contrast against the mug’s textured body.
Wooden Base: Separates visually and physically from the mug, doubling as a built-in coaster.
Two-Finger Handle: Compact, ergonomically designed from opaque sanded glass, harmonizing seamlessly with the mug’s body.
Opaque Textured Body: Sanded and inked finish creating tactile differentiation from the smooth rim and handle.
Vacuum-Sealed Glass Insulation: Maintains coffee temperature, emitting subtle warmth for a comfortable tactile experience.
Final Design
What
The final product is a set of mugs designed to enhance the visual and tactile experience of consuming coffee. The set includes espresso, cappuccino, and traditional mugs, unified by a shared design that balances the traditional appearance of coffee cups with a modern aesthetic.
Why
In the current market, the emphasis on designing products with a modern aesthetic often leans towards an industrial or utilitarian approach. While this produces functional products, it frequently neglects the emotional aspects of the user's experience, causing products to be quickly discarded for newer alternatives. To create a long-lasting and meaningful product, it must be functional and also positively impact the user's visceral experience.
By enhancing both the aesthetic and visceral experience of drinking coffee at home, consumers are more likely to purchase and enjoy ground coffee regularly.
How
This product emphasizes the visceral dimension of user experience through varied tactile features, the subtle radiant heat emitted by the coffee through the mug, and a visual portal incorporated into the mug's side to view the coffee itself.
The mugs enrich the coffee-drinking experience by offering gentle heat radiation, varied surface textures, and a visually appealing design that modernizes traditional coffee cup aesthetics, ultimately encouraging increased at-home coffee consumption.
